Somatic Therapy

I am trained as a Yoga Therapist and fully qualified. I am registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). This registration requires a commitment to ongoing professional development. As a therapy client you can be secure in the knowledge that I am committed not just to further training but to ongoing personal development and growth to ensure that I continue to fully embody what I use to help my clients.

In terms of the work I do, we now know through research into the science of the brain and body that our experiences through life are stored in our bodies. Trauma in particular marks our bodies from the inside. Childhood trauma might include emotional abuse or neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse. We may feel as adults that we have left these experiences behind, that they are 'in the past.' While this may be true, unless we have worked with the trauma which is stored in our bodies, we can feel stuck in our lives and old patterns of responses and behaviours can re-emerge when we are under stress. Things happen in life which can trigger those memories or responses meaning that we are not fully able to leave our pasts behind. When we are 'triggered,' it is as though we are flown in a time machine back to the time when we experienced this trauma and we are back there again, responding as though we were still there with child-like parts of ourselves.

Somatic therapy provides an opportunity to work with trauma in a different way to talking therapy. The experiences of trauma are stored in a different part of our brains from the part which stores our thoughts- therefore we cannot effectively access or work with 'stuck' trauma through talking about it. Talking therapy will give us a cognitive understanding of what has happened to us and allow us to access emotional support but it is not possible to heal and integrate our trauma fully in this way. Only when we go into the body and visit the trauma can it be expressed, released and integrated so that we can move on with our lives, more fully alive.

There will be talking in a Somatic Therapy session but this talking arises out of the 'felt' experiences in the body. These 'felt' experiences will lead the session and you will be guided on an internal journey working with whatever emerges in the course of the session.

It may be scary to think about revisiting painful past experiences through your body. It is true that this work may bring up many strong emotions for you. However, you will be safely guided in this process at your own pace using well researched and established techniques which are grounded in neuroscience and the physiology of trauma.

It is possible to heal from trauma. With commitment and courage you can be free and more able to interact with the reality of life as it actually is in each moment rather than through the filter of stuck trauma.

I have worked with people all through my life. From my initial degree in Psychology through Masters in Social Work training my first career was in working with families and particularly traumatised children. I left social work to raise my own children and went on to train in Yoga Therapy with subsequent further training and professional mentoring in working with trauma. For me, this work is a lifelong commitment to learning and development and is rooted in my own daily practice and personal and professional growth. You can be assured that you are in safe and experienced hands.

Somatic Therapy Fee Policy

Therapy sessions are 75 minutes. There are three rates.

£90 high household income rate

£80 medium household income rate

£60 financial hardship rate

It is my intention that this healing work should be available to everyone.

I trust you to select the appropriate fee and pay what you can afford. Please bear in mind that this work is how I earn my living and raise my family and it needs to be financially viable in order to take place. The giving and receiving of therapy is balanced if it is rooted in an appropriate and fair exchange of energy between therapist and client. If you can realistically pay a higher rate, please do so. This enables me to work with those who need this work but are in financial need.