What is Relational & Embodied Therapy

"Your body is the piece of the universe you've been given. As long as you have a pulse it presents you with an ongoing shower of immediate sensate experiences.....There is no way back to the body, the body is the way"
Geneen Roth

Being able to bring our clear attention - kindly and curiously - to what is happening in our experience of body-mind-feeling is hugely helpful in the process of bringing about positive transformation in our lives but it can be a challenging thing to do alone.

My approach is, in part, about offering the safety and  support to enable you to stay present  with ever more of your experience in more well-resourced and effective ways, thus becoming increasingly able to find the wisdom in whatever information your body/feelings are bringing to your attention.

In my experience it is the aspects of ourselves, what we hold in our body and what we've been through which we find most difficult that often hold the keys to gateways into recovery, healing and the ability to live more authentic, enjoyable lives.

​We are always 'in relationship' - to people, things, the world around us and, most importantly to ourselves. It is through our bodies - our nervous system and senses - that we feel our experience of the world and relationship.
Our bodies store these experiences for better or worse from our time in-utero onwards, but when listened to, understood, and skilfully worked with old difficulty/trauma that continues to inform how we behave and relate can become less frightening to turn towards and be with, allowing greater relaxation, vitality and freedom to be felt and enjoyed.

My approach honours the fact that we as humans are relational and embodied beings wired for connection. There may be many good reasons why we find relationship difficult and the therapy relationship  provides opportunity to gain new understanding and experience in the realm of our relational/attachment patterns. It is the foundation for all other work to take place, and can offer a holding in which it becomes possible to experience oneself and 'the other' in new, and healing, ways.

"What human beings cannot contain of their experience - what has been traumatically overwhelming, unbearable, unthinkable - falls out of social discourse, but very often on and into the next generation as an affective sensitivity or a chaotic urgency" (Erich Fromm)

I am always holding in awareness the above and the often unconscious impact of trauma experienced by previous generations of our family members.  

As we bring ourselves increasingly fully to the therapeutic space and relationship where there is no rush, pressure or expectation, the ways in which we relate, perceive and experience the wider world and ourselves can become ever clearer and ultimately transform. 

​As our patterns show themselves within therapy,  we may become able to experiment with different ways of relating, behaving and receiving within the safety of the therapeutic relationship and the fruits of our discoveries may then be taken out in to our wider life.

It is a trauma-informed way of working offering the opportunity to give yourself space, time and attention and an experience of consistent, secure relationship in which you may get more deeply in touch with patterns of attachment and relating that stem from your early life and conditioning. 
Some examples of issues clients come with are as follows, and you are welcome whatever is bringing you to seek therapy:
  • Abuse
  • Addiction/Compulsive Behaviour
  • Anger
  • Anxiety
  • Birth trauma
  • Crisis
  • Death & Dying
  • Depression
  • Disordered eating/struggles with food & body
  • Early attachment wounding
  • Feeling out of control
  • Feeling stuck
  • Health concerns/illness
  • High Sensitivity
  • Issues relating to creativity
  • Loss of meaning/purpose
  • Low confidence/self-worth
  • Menopause/Perimenopause
  • ​Neurodivergence
  • Parenting issues​
  • Relationship issues
  • Stress
  • Transition in general
  • Transition to parenthood
  • ​Transgenerational Trauma
  • Trauma
  • Spirituality
  • Suicidal feelings
  • Surviving incest/sexual abuse
  • Work- or study-related issues
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​"We have to believe that we are more than the sum of our symptoms. When we settle for anything less, we limit our recovery, because we allow ourselves to be defined by what happened to us: the oversensitisation of our neurobiology and the fragmentation of our sense of self. Recovery means that we connect all the different parts of ourselves: the different experiences, emotions, outlooks; the desires, and hopes and fears; and we become the person that we truly are, the whole that is greater than the sum of all its parts" Carolyn Spring






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