About me

I am a qualified Somatic Movement Educator & Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with a deep passion and endless fascination for this field of work. My approach is intimately informed by my dedication to meditation and embodied presence. I facilitate retreats, workshops and events to create safe spaces for people to enquire into their embodied knowing, healing, liberation and creative expression. I also offer one to one trauma therapy for supporting nervous system regulation.. 

I am passionate about awakening the natural intelligence of the body and allowing this to guide us, to reveal to us our deepest essence. The focus of my therapeutic work is on reconnection to Self, Other and the earth, the embodied imagination and the healing of relational wounding and trauma.

My background is in mental health, having worked as Deputy Manager at Lothlorien Therapeutic Community, a residential project in Scotland for people in recovery from psychosis. I taught on the faculty of Still Flowing Yoga Teacher Training (Somatic Yoga & Mindfulness accredited program) for 10 years. I currently assist on the Somatic Experiencing trainings in London (with SOSI). I have my home studio in Yorkshire where I live with my partner, his boys and our cat. I also spend my time in Glastonbury where we are creating a community arts/ retreat space for the exploration of dance, music, movement and meditation.

Training 

MA Dance and Somatic Well-being (UCLAN)

Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (RSME/T with ISMETA)

Somatic Experiencing Practitioner® (SEA UK)

Somatic Regulation & Resilience ~ year long professional training with Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrel for treating developmental/ early trauma

Integrative Somatic Psychology Modules 1, 2 and 3 with Raja Selvam

Shiatsu bodywork Diploma (3 year training)

Yoga & Mindfulness teacher - training yoga teachers with Yoga Alliance Accredited 200 hour Still Flowing Yoga Teacher Training (2013-2022)

Assistant in Training with SOSI Somatic Experiencing (London) 2023 training

 

I have a committed practice of Authentic Movement with my teacher Fran Lavendel and Continuum with Elaine Colandrea. I am being mentored towards teaching Continuum, a biological awareness practice that facilitates fluid expression for healing and creativity.

 

 

 

As a Registered Professional Member of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association, I meet the high Standards of Practice and uphold the Code of Ethics.  For more information visit www.ISMETA.org

 

 

About the work

Somatic Alchemy brings together the various strands of body-oriented therapeutic and creative/ expressive work I offer in the metaphor of the body as an alchemical vessel, a portal through which deep transformation and gentle healing can be experienced. I believe each person has the inherent wisdom and creative intelligence to meet life's challenges, but these can often be hidden. My work is about supporting you to recover your resources for engaging in the transformative process that is life's journey. 

 

Into the unknown

Being supported in slowing down and opening to the unknown within we learn to listen to the language of the body, the pre-conceptual or sensory-imaginal realm of direct experience. Here we allow the internal impulses to guide us as we track their pathways in and through the body. We listen to our bodies and learn to engage in the movement of our life force, sensing where it flows and where it stagnates in symptom. We cultivate a new and kinder relationship to our bodies and old tension patterns begin to soften and fall away as new possibilities awaken in us. Using creative arts processes we give form and expression to this energy through voice work, dialogue, mark-making; right-brain activities that assist us in integrating the new insights that emerge from the movement and meditation.

Somatic Alchemy is the term I use for the process of embodying and integrating the polarised aspects of our being through intuitve explorations into our bodily unconscious. Here we can learn to dance on the edgezone beween the known and the unknown, embracing our intuition and the mystery. Here we may become more of who we are, more whole. Our body can become our guide for discovering balance, peacefulness and coherence in our lives. In the depths of the body there is gold awaiting our discovery.