Shirley Brocklehurst Psychotherapy

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Shirley Brocklehurst Psychotherapy

Gentle, accepting therapy for adults ready to find their voice, set boundaries, and release old patterns.

The connection between mind and body is fundamental to my work, which recognises that what happens in one affects the other, acknowledging that movement embraces the psychological and transpersonal (spiritual) dimensions as well as the physical. I seek to create therapeutic change in the lives of individuals by addressing emotional, physical, mental and social aspects through dance, movement and body awareness. I am a registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist with the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy (ADMP UK), which is a member of the Humanistic Integrative Psychotherapy College of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

02/03/2026

Embodied Well-Being: Moving with Mental Health in Mind

Mental health is not just a matter of the mind - our bodies hold emotions, memories, and tension. As a Movement Psychotherapist, I’ve seen how connecting with the body through movement and somatic practices can reduce stress, increase emotional regulation, and foster resilience. You don’t need a dance studio to benefit- simple daily practices can help you feel more grounded, present, and embodied.

1. Begin Your Day with Embodied Intention

Start your morning by connecting with your body. Stretch gently, notice your posture, or take a few grounding breaths. Even small movements—rolling your shoulders, swaying, or stretching arms overhead—help you step into the day with clarity and embodied awareness.

2. Check in with Your Body

Throughout the day, pause to notice tension, movement, and sensations. Where do you hold stress? Try shifting your weight, stretching, or moving slowly to release held tension. Observing your body in this way fosters emotional regulation and self-compassion.

3. Move to Connect with Others

Movement can enhance social connection. Gestures, posture, and shared movement can strengthen relational bonds, even in small ways—a smile, a handshake, or rhythmic walking with a friend. Somatic attunement helps us feel more connected and emotionally present with others.

4. Set Embodied Boundaries

Boundaries are not just verbal—they are felt in the body. Notice where your body says “yes” or “no” to interactions, and honor those signals. Embodied awareness helps you maintain healthy limits while staying present and connected.

5. Celebrate Through Movement

Celebrate your growth by moving in ways that feel joyful—dancing to a favorite song, stretching, or simply shaking out tension. Movement reinforces progress, anchors positive emotions in the body, and nurtures self-worth.

Integrating somatic practices and movement into your daily life enhances mental health, fosters emotional resilience, and deepens your connection with yourself. Embodied awareness is a practice - you don’t need perfection, just curiosity and gentle movement.

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16/02/2026

🖊️ Give your voice a private place

If speaking feels hard, try writing one honest sentence just for you. No fixing, no sharing - just letting the words exist.

13/02/2026

If using your voice once felt unsafe, it’s understandable that it still feels hard. That doesn’t mean you’re broken — it means you adapted.

09/02/2026

🌿 Name the invisible load

Try noticing one thing you’re carrying that no one else sees - emotionally, mentally, or relationally. Simply naming it (even silently) can ease its weight.

06/02/2026

Many adults carry a quiet heaviness — not because life is dramatic, but because they’ve spent years holding themselves in. If this resonates, it makes sense.

02/02/2026

This time of year can feel strangely heavy. The energy of “fresh starts” has faded, yet the promise of spring hasn’t fully arrived. For many adults who grew up silencing themselves, this in-between season mirrors something deeper - a long-standing habit of waiting, holding back, and not taking up space.

If you learned early on to stay quiet, not rock the boat, or put others first, you may still find yourself pausing your own needs. Not because you don’t know what you want - but because it never felt safe to want out loud.

Change, for people with childhood trauma, rarely arrives as a bold declaration. More often, it begins quietly.

30/01/2026

🌿Let Yourself Receive Kindness🌿

If love once felt conditional, accepting care can feel uncomfortable. Start small: allow someone to help you with something simple, or give yourself permission to rest without “earning” it.

Receiving is part of healing.

26/01/2026

🌿 The Moment You Realise You Don’t Have to Earn Love 🌿

For many who experienced childhood trauma, love felt conditional - based on behaving well, staying quiet, achieving, or putting others first.

As adults, this can lead to feeling responsible for everyone’s emotions and believing that your needs are “too much.”
One of the most powerful healing moments is realising:
• You don’t have to earn gentleness.
• You don’t have to earn rest.
• You don’t have to earn love.
Therapy can help you feel this truth in your body, not just understand it in your mind. Slowly, you begin to recognise that worth is something you are, not something you perform.

🌿 Where in your life do you still feel you have to “deserve” care instead of simply receiving it?🌿

23/01/2026

🌿Notice the Voice You Use with Yourself🌿

That inner critic often echoes old voices you had to survive. When you catch yourself speaking harshly, try softening the tone - even just 10%.

Small shifts change the emotional climate inside you.

19/01/2026

🌿Relearning How to Speak to Yourself🌿

The voice in your head often echoes the voices you grew up with.
If those voices were harsh, demanding, or dismissive, it makes sense that your inner voice feels the same.

You may tell yourself you should be coping better, doing more, or “getting over it” - even when you’re already carrying so much.

But here’s the truth:
Self-worth grows from the tone you use with yourself.
Replacing criticism with compassion - even for a moment - is part of learning to feel enough.

This isn’t about positive thinking. It’s about slowly changing the emotional climate inside you.

🌿 What would you say to yourself today if you spoke with the tenderness you needed as a child?🌿

16/01/2026

🌿Ground Yourself in the Present Moment🌿

Overthinking is often an old survival strategy. To ease it, gently anchor to the present: notice a colour in the room, feel your feet on the floor, or take one steady breath.

Grounding reminds your mind you’re here, not back there.

12/01/2026

🌿Adult Overthinking Often Begins in Childhood🌿

If you grew up feeling unsafe, unheard, or unsure how adults would react, your nervous system may have learned to stay on alert.

That vigilance can turn into overthinking in adulthood - replaying conversations, worrying about upsetting others, or preparing for the “worst case scenario,” even when you’re safe now.

You’re not “too sensitive.” You’re not “overreacting.” Your mind is doing what it learned to do to keep you safe.

Feeling “enough” begins when you realise that those old strategies were clever… and that now, you can gently teach your mind new ways to feel secure.

🌿 When you catch yourself overthinking, what fear from the past might your mind be trying to protect you from?🌿

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+447760428554

Website

https://www.shirleybrocklehurst.uk/

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Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP)

DMP recognises body movement as an implicit and expressive instrument of communication and expression. The intrinsic connection between mind and body is key to my work, which combines science and clinical knowledge with art and creative process. Each session looks unique depending on the client(s), and setting.

During a session, I will usually incorporate a variety of techniques and expressive modalities, as well as verbal psychotherapy methods, to engage clients in a relational creative process, guiding and intervening in ways that best meet their needs and using body movement and dance to address key areas of function: emotional, cognitive, physical, social and spiritual (transpersonal).

The act of simply moving together in each other’s presence connects us. DMP provides the therapeutic space to increase the client’s awareness of the mind-body connection and the power for them to make decisions about the direction of the experience. This embodied approach to therapy serves many purposes, one of which is to increase the clients’ experience of embodiment which I hope they will take with them into their everyday lives and help to increase their self-confidence and their ability to express or manage overwhelming feelings or thoughts.