Freedom Within; Bodywork & Somatic Inquiry for Chronic Pain

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Freedom Within; Bodywork & Somatic Inquiry for Chronic Pain

Integrative Somatic Therapy for chronic pain, stress and trauma related symptoms.

12/04/2026

It’s been a while 🤍

I’ve been a little quiet on social media. Not because the work stopped … but because something in it was deepening.

There are times when it feels important to pause.
To listen more closely.
To let things land in the body before they are spoken.

And that’s what I’ve been doing.
Keeping it simple. Listening more. Refining.
Letting things land in my own body before sharing them with yours.

If you haven’t been here long … welcome, I’m glad you’re here 🫶🏻

And if you’ve been here a while, thank you for staying, even in the quiet 🌸

I’m slowly returning with something that feels deeply aligned. More on that soon. For now, just a gentle hello 💫

10/10/2025

🌟 “Don’t dim your light because others are uncomfortable with your shine.”
For so many people living with chronic neuroplastic pain or other somatic symptoms, this isn’t just a nice quote - it’s a crucial part of healing.
Chronic pain often shows up in those of us who’ve spent years trying to be the people-pleaser, the perfectionist, the one who keeps the peace even at our own expense. We dim our true selves to avoid conflict or to keep others happy… but that constant self-suppression can keep our nervous system stuck in “danger mode.”
✨ Real recovery means learning to live as your authentic, unapologetic self — to speak your truth, set boundaries, and allow yourself to shine, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.

It’s okay to let go of the need to please everyone else.
It’s okay to make your own wellbeing the priority.
It’s okay to be you.

[Image credit: Positive Energy]

23/09/2025

I’ve only gone and done it!!

I’ve committed to a very special training course next year - NeuroAffective Touch.

I’ve wanted to do this course for years but it’s never felt like the right time … but I now feel ready (I know right lol) - its time to bring together all of my experience in bodywork and somatic psychology - I’m so excited!!

What is this magic I hear you ask?!

NeuroAffective Touch interweaves psychotherapy with therapeutic relational touch.

Our early experiences of touch lay the groundwork for our relationships all through our life. An attuned, caring touch is of huge importance to our brain’s emotional and cognitive development.

The dual (body-mind) focus of this relational somatic approach is at the forefront of advances in healing attachment wounds and developmental trauma.

Clients learn to allow their bodies to safely share the story of their struggles to love and be loved, and enable their minds to grow new neural pathways that open new possibilities for them as a whole person.

Watch this space ❤️💫

21/08/2025

🌊✨ Glimmers: The Small Things That Light Us Up ✨🌊

In trauma therapy, there can be a lot of talk about triggers - those cues that activate our stress response. But there’s a quieter, gentler concept that’s just as powerful: glimmers.

Glimmers are the subtle cues that signal safety to our nervous system. They’re tiny moments of connection, calm, or beauty that help us return to regulation … to ourselves.

For me, one of my favorite glimmers is the sound of seagulls. I always hear them during savasana at the end of my yoga practice. That moment, lying down, grounded on my mat, my teacher’s soothing voice guiding me, combined with the distant cry of seagulls overhead … it’s become an anchor, a sensory cue that tells my body:

You’re safe. You can soften. You’re here.

Glimmers can be anything: the smell of coffee, a warm or a cool breeze, the way the light hits the leaves on a tree.

They’re small moments, but they matter, and it matters to notice them, especially on the easier days, because the more we practice the easier it gets, to notice these things on the harder days.

✨ What are your glimmers? What sounds, sights, or sensations remind you that you’re okay?

16/08/2025

What a day 💗

Vibroacoustic massage with beautiful 💫
my garden 🌿
my hammock ☀️
in and out of snoozeville 😴

Now restored and recharged 💫
Grateful for such magic ✨

❤️

01/08/2025

Anyone else ready for a holiday?

The past few weeks I’ve been feeling a kind of tiredness that isn’t fixed by an early night or an extra coffee. It’s a deeper fatigue, one that lives in the muscles, in the breath, in the nervous system. The kind of tired that tells me: it’s time to take a break.

Sometimes the body speaks before the mind catches up. As someone who works with awareness of the body (somatics), I try to listen when these signals arrive - the weight in the shoulders, the shorter fuse, the foggy mind - they’re all telling me something: rest is not a luxury. It’s a need.

So I’m heading off to Newquay next week. Not just to “recharge” and return more productive (though hopefully that may happen), but also to honour the cycle of work and rest that every nervous system needs. To create space to slow down, to be and move as I wish, instead of as my to do list requires … to recalibrate.

If you’re reading this and noticing your own signs of fatigue - if your body is asking for something gentler - you have full permission. You’re not lazy. You’re not falling behind. You’re still good enough. Because you’re in a human body, and it’s okay - no, it’s necessary - to pause.

Here’s to more nervous systems that feel safe, more work that honours our rhythm, and more holidays that are truly restorative.

22/07/2025

“I have felt more inner peace in the last month than I have felt in the past 10 years” were Jake’s* words as we caught up this week.

The possibility of feeling inner peace is very moving, and is what many people hope for. It’s a big and bold ask but Jake’s experience is evidence it is a possibility.

In Jake’s words, “It’s beautiful, to know it is all in there, within me”.

Jake is not his real name but his words are real and shared with his permission 🫶🏻

14/07/2025

He went clubbing for the first time last night.

And just like that, I was transported back to when he was 12 years old, calling me from the edge of the heath to tell me he’d fallen into a gorse bush.

He’d hurt himself, he said. But he’d picked himself up and was cycling home.

Last night was no different, not really.
He’s older now, yes. He didn’t fall over. But that feeling in my body? That tug in my chest, that ache of love and quiet fear… it was the same.

The same instinct to rush in.
To wrap him in cotton wool.
To make the world soft and safe for him.

But healing has taught me the art of allowing.
The nervous system work I’ve done helps me notice the urge, and not be ruled by it.

Instead of reacting, I breathe. I soothe my own system. I step back.

Because I know - as he did at 12 and as he will again -

He will fall.
He will get up.
He will keep going.

My job isn’t to prevent the falls.
It’s to witness with love.
To tend to my own nervous system with compassion.
To trust in his resilience while honouring my own.

This is motherhood.
This is the art of allowing.
This is love - brave, soft, expansive.

My silent prayer is the same, always:
May he fall and rise - and always come home safe.

29/06/2025

✨ If you look for imperfection, you’ll find it … but the same is true the other way around✨

I made this piece for someone special to me. When I finished it, I felt proud, it was made with so much care, perseverance and loving intention. But then I started scanning for mistakes… and of course, I found them.

I had to stop myself. Step back. Take it in as a whole, not in fragments. Because when I did, I saw beauty. Love. Care. A piece of my heart woven into every thread.

Imperfection lives in everything we make with our hands and that’s what makes it human, meaningful, real.

It made me think: this is true for all of us. If we only focus on flaws, in ourselves, or in others, that’s all we’ll see. But if we zoom out, if we choose to look with kindness, we can see the beauty of the whole. The effort. The story. The soul.

We’re all works in progress. Look for the beauty and you’ll find it, messy parts and all 💛

If this resonates but you don’t know where to start, that’s what I’m here for 💫

17/06/2025

This piece now lives in my therapy room 💫

I made it slowly, thread by thread, often in quiet moments between the hustle and bustle of family and work life.

It wasn’t always easy. There were times I got tangled (literally and emotionally). I had to undo knots. Start again. Breathe through the frustration.

It took patience and resilience.

But that, too, is part of the practice.

Creativity, for me, isn’t about perfection or productivity. It’s about the ride, the experience. It’s a way of coming into presence. One of the many ways I meet myself.

✨When your nervous system is regulated, when your body feels safe, creativity flows more easily. Not always smoothly, but with more capacity to stay with the process✨

🌀 In fight or flight, I feel rushed and irritable.
🌀 In freeze, I can’t even begin.
💫But in a state of grounded connection, I find my rhythm, time and time again.

This beautiful wall hanging is now part of the space where I sit with clients, a quiet reminder that healing is a creative process, too.
Messy. Beautiful. One thread at a time.

11/06/2025

The picture shows my dog, Kylo, and I. He feels safe on the paddleboard because he feels his feet on the ‘ground’, he’s learned if he stays steady he won’t fall and he trusts that I’m there with him 💙

Feeling safe, sounds simple, but not for everyone. That’s why safety is so important in the context of Emotional Healing.

If you’ve ever tried to work through big emotions, maybe in therapy, coaching, or even on your own, and found yourself overwhelmed, numb, or shutting down... you’re not alone.

That response isn’t a sign that you’re doing it wrong. It’s a sign that your nervous system doesn’t feel safe enough yet.

In emotional processing work, feeling safe isn’t just a nice bonus. It’s essential.

Without safety, the body can’t relax enough to let go. It stays in survival mode: tense, guarded, alert. And from that place, it’s almost impossible to truly feel, release, or heal.

But, when you feel genuinely safe - not just mentally, but in your body - whether through a regulated practitioner, a grounded environment, or a compassionate inner witness - something shifts. You breathe more easily. You soften. Emotions that felt too big to touch suddenly feel more ok to feel. Your system starts to trust that it’s okay to let go.

This is why we go gently. In the same way we taught Kylo to stand in the paddle board, we don’t force breakthroughs. We build safety first, through the body, through connection, through choice.

Because healing doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from feeling safe enough to finally stop bracing, resisting, avoiding.

If this resonates, know that your nervous system has just been trying to protect you. And with the right support, it can learn a new way.

17/05/2025

An inspirational day today at the !

Congratulations Georgie Oldfield and the wonderful team you have around you for bringing us all together for this fantastic day.

Speakers brought heartwarming insight and hope for the future of healthcare for chronic pain and other chronic conditions beyond pain. It is an absolute delight and honour to be a part of this trailblazing organisation.

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Broadstone
BH189DD

Website

http://www.freedomwithin.me/

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