Somatic Skills & Awareness
Learn to recognise your nervous system states — and what helps you come back to Rooms 1 and 2.
The body can only communicate in real time — it's the thinking mind that travels into the past or future. So listening to your body and being present turn out to be the same skill.
I teach foundational somatic skills and guide you to recognise your nervous system states: to notice what's actually happening in your system in real time, and learn to meet what's there without overriding it. My work supports you to develop the kind of self-trust that lets your body lead.
Body and mind are both doing something, always, at the same time. Almost nobody gets taught this. When you can see both at once — and know how to relate to both — everything changes.
What you will learn with me
What I teach becomes yours — tools to navigate your own journey, long after our sessions end:
The 4 Rooms — knowing where you are
Understanding your body - learning a felt-sense language
Understanding your mind - using your mind as an ally
Staying present — discovering what happens when you do.
The 4 Rooms — knowing where you are
Which room are you in, and what resources build your bridge back? The 4 Rooms is a simple framework for recognising your nervous system states — and finding your way toward Room 2 (safe, contained intensity) and Room 1 (expansion and flow).
The goal isn't to calm down or fix yourself, it's about growing your capacity and ease of movement between rooms.
Understanding your body - learning a felt-sense language
Your body is communicating all the time — through sensation, impulse, holding, and ease.
I'll help you learn what it is communicating, so you come into relationship with that wisdom and stop overriding your body.
Without support, patterns like startle responses, outdated ways of using sympathetic charge (particularly in relation to boundary setting and anger), or overwhelm stay because there is a lack of awareness and skill in how to meet these.
Understanding your mind - using your mind as an ally
Your mind is a master of making sense of the world. That's its job, and it's been shaped by the conditioning you grew up in.
When you can understand its role, you start to see how to use it wisely. Your inner critic, for instance, isn't an adversary — it's a pattern doing a job, trying to manage your states.
I will teach you how to use your mind as an ally: appreciating your body's messages. This isn't psychological work, I’m training you how to use your awareness.
Staying present — discovering what happens when you do
The key to growth and transformation is being with what's here and deepening into it.
Being supported to connect to yourself like this is a skill that develops over time.
You can discover that your system moves in cycles — sadness, then tears, then relaxation — and when you stay with the process, something on the other side reorganises. Acceptance, trust, and unfoldment aren't spiritual achievements. They're natural for a body in Room 1 and 2.
How this sits with the rest of my work
Somatic awareness isn't a separate technique bolted onto therapy — it's the thread running through everything I offer.
In touch-based sessions (Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and NeuroAffective Touch®), awareness helps your mind partner with what your body is processing as it happens.
Many clients begin with somatic skills, or learn in tandem with touch-based sessions. What I teach isn't a stepping stone to something "better" — it's the foundation for everything that follows.
The goal isn't to fix yourself. It's to come home to a body you can trust. A body that organically wants to be in more coherence, flow, and ease. Minds love a body in that state.
Transformation is a deep letting go What this draws on
My approach integrates:
Open-ended inquiry — anchored in ten years of study of the Diamond Approach, a psycho-spiritual path of realisation. Inquiry explores what is alive in the present moment: concepts, body sensations, emotions, and a palpable aliveness.
The Realisation Process — Judith Blackstone's method of psychological and relational healing through inhabiting the internal space of the body. I'm a fully qualified Realisation Process Teacher.
Compassionate Inquiry — Gabor Maté's psychotherapeutic approach revealing what lies beneath the appearance we present to the world. I completed the year-long CI programme.
Body-led practice — the body has a different intelligence and works at a slower pace. When the mind learns to let the body lead, remarkable things happen.
Where to begin
The best way to ‘get’ this work is in a session where you can experience the process in your body.