Charlotte Preston

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Charlotte Preston

Charlotte Preston is a Certified Somatic Experiencing® therapist based in Dorset, UK, working with adults, teenagers and groups.

She specialises in somatic approaches: Somatic Experiencing trauma therapy, bodywork & movement practices. I offer embodied movement group classes & one-to-one somatic therapy, online and in-person in Poole, Dorset, UK. I work with yoga, qigong, somatic movement, reiki, massage therapy and I'm currently training in Somatic Experiencing.

11/04/2026

The last few days 💚
I've been with a cold, and felt an increasing sense of a slow, dizzy, almost dream-like state. It feels like everything has drawn in, low and slow, while in this recovery mode. How I'm feeling is an interesting contrast to these brighter, more expansive days. There have been fever dreams, sweats memories, images and deep emotions stirring. It reminds me of just how much happens in these lower energy phases of illness and recovery. A lot is stirring, and being processed, on the physical level but also through the whole of our psyche. We need to dream. And we need space to go into the deeper realms of our subconscious every now and then. These times when we experience illness invite us to slow down and go inward in that way. Do you ever notice this kind of thing when you're unwell, too?
Hope you've had a good start to April X

09/04/2026

Sometimes, in trying to be calm, we skip over the anger that still needs to be felt and expressed. But when we gently begin to acknowledge and express what was once squashed down, something in us can finally settle.

For me, learning to let anger back in was life-changing. Beneath the shame of feeling “too much” was the truth that I was never bad : just a kid whose body needed to fight back.

And when I let that be true and explored expressing, gradually in a way that felt safe over time - I found calm.

Real, grounded calm. And realised that calm all the time isn't the goal, it's meant to exist alongside all of these other energies, including anger. Anger, just like a cat would swipe their claws when another invades their space is simple : simple and serves a purpose.

It's realistic to say that expressing anger is a big and life changing event if it wasn't safe to express earlier in our life, and it wasn't safe for generations before us. However, there are ways to explore this in a gradual way.

There is mounting research to suggest that suppression of anger contributes to illness.

And as we gradually build capacity, learn to express it in a way that isn't overwhelming, we free up a lot of energy. It takes a lot of energy to hold in and suppress.

One of the interesting things about anger is that the more we can feel it and express it, the less explosive it tends to be. Sometimes, it just comes out as a clear, grounded 'no'.

All of you is welcome here . 🐯

08/04/2026

The hardest part of this work can be the times when we feel stuck, and where nothing seems to be happening.

But stuck is an inevitability in the healing and recovery process, not a choice.
Often, it’s a sign your system is taking time to process, to integrate, to build capacity in a way that actually lasts. In the stuckness, we learn to adjust, to experiment, and to find flow again.

This kind of change isn’t always obvious from the outside.
It can feel frustrating, confusing, and disheartening.

And also underneath… things are shifting.

New patterns, responses and ways of meeting yourself are forming, gradually over time.

What's your experience with feeling stuck? Can you think of any moments when that changed, and a sense of more movement and flow came again, from the stuckness?

If you’d like to explore how somatic therapy could support you in navigating stuckness, freeze and overwhelm, you can find details about working together 1:1 via the link at the top of my page 🤍

06/04/2026

Are there things we can practise, day to day, that support recovery from long term stress and trauma?

In my experience there are.

Simple, small ways of bringing our attention back to your body, to the present moment, and to the world around us. Over time, these moments can begin to build something really important - a sense of connection, awareness, and capacity.

Of course, this isn’t everything.

Each person’s experience of trauma is different. Recovery is layered, and often requires deeper, more individual support over time. This kind of work isn’t a quick fix, and it’s not meant to replace that.

But it can offer a really robust foundation.

A place to begin reconnecting, a way to start building a different relationship with yourself, moment by moment.

If you’d like to explore this in a more supported way, we’ll be practising this together tomorrow evening in a gentle, guided space.

There will be space to practise, to notice, to ask questions, and (if you’d like) to share.

Gather & Ground
Tuesday 6–7:30pm UK time
Online

You’re very welcome to join us 🤍
Comment “Gather” below or sign up through the link in my bio

05/04/2026

Our system is always trying to complete what once got interrupted or left unfinished.

So often, we find ourselves caught in cycles, habits, or patterns that don’t quite make sense, or feel hard to step away from.

Maybe it’s something that keeps showing up in your relationships, leaving you feeling unseen or unwanted.
Maybe it’s a belief that keeps pulling you back into a habit you’ve been trying to change.
Or a pattern that appears every time someone gets close… repeating itself again and again.

This isn’t random.

It’s your system attempting to repair something from the past.

A kind of reenactment, searching for resolution.
A way of trying to bring closure to something that never quite finished, to tend to a wound that’s still open.

So when you notice yourself looping in a familiar response, it can be helpful to gently ask:
What does this remind me of?
How old do I feel right now, as I’m in this?

What keeps repeating is often what hasn’t yet been completed.

And this kind of completion takes time.
It takes attunement.

It’s about meeting yourself, listening to yourself, and allowing yourself to be seen, in a way that perhaps wasn’t possible before.

This was Canford Cliffs beach this evening, in Dorset, UK where I live.

🧡

03/04/2026

I wish I knew this earlier about my racing mind and threatening thoughts...

They are a survival mechanism that try and keep us safe

They will predictably rise up in moments of peace and quiet and may take forms like 'someone could be hiding in that bush and about to kill me' 'that person hates me' and a million different flavours in-between

And our ancestors through time needed to be vigilant to danger, it was how they actually survived. So this hypervigilance may be due to trauma in our own lives, but its also likely that it didn't start with us, it's also an evolutionary thing.

We can work to rewire our nervous system through the practice described in the video.

That doesn't mean there aren't moments where we need to be vigilant

But when we're in an actual safe place, we can get familiar with these thoughts and resistance to peace, and as we do that, create some space around them : 'hello thought. I see you'

We can tend to the stress response that comes up in our body in the moment, as a result of the thought. And we can work with this as a practice, to rewire our nervous system towards more of a baseline sense of safety.

See video for more on this.

Charlotte x

02/04/2026

Good morning 🌞 reintroduction post : exploring somatic therapy and recovery from complex trauma. What is somatic therapy? What does it even mean to 'be in your body'? What is complex trauma? Follow along on this journey if this speaks to you or sparks your curiosity.

I'm feeling the urge to share a bit more through words, and I'd love it if you joined me on this journey.

I'm interested in exploring things hopefully in a way that's helpful, things like 'what does it even mean to be in your body' and these phrases that we see everywhere, what is somatic therapy? How can somatic therapy support recovery from long term stress and complex trauma? What even is complex trauma?

Follow for more around realistic, sustainable recovery from long-term stress and complex trauma.

30/03/2026

There's a version of healing that tells us to calm down, soften, and let go of anger… to choose peace instead. This message can be so harmful and shaming! Read the post to explore why, if this sparks your curiosity.

When we’ve experienced complex trauma, anger isn’t the problem.

It’s often a very appropriate, protective response to what we’ve lived through. The part of us that recognised something wasn’t right, that a boundary was crossed.

And if that anger wasn’t safe to express at the time, it doesn’t just disappear. It gets held in the body, turned inward, or replaced with shame and collapse.

So healing isn’t about getting rid of anger.
It’s about gradually building the capacity to feel it, to understand it, and to let it move in a way that doesn’t overwhelm us.

Over time, this brings not just more calm, but more connection with ourselves, our needs, and our boundaries.

If you're exploring reclaiming your anger, I see you. 🧡

You can find more about my specialist somatic work for complex trauma recovery via the link at the top of my page.

27/03/2026

Learning to regulate your emotions isn’t just about calming down.

It’s about learning how to be with what you feel, and allowing it to move, gradually, in a way that feels safe.

For many of us, especially if we’ve experienced trauma, we learned to survive by pushing feelings down.

By disconnecting, getting on with things and not having the space to feel what was actually there.

That wasn’t a mistake, it an intelligent adaptation.

But over time, what helped you survive can start to feel limiting.

You might notice:
a tightness in your chest
waves of fear or anxiety
anger that feels unfamiliar or overwhelming
a sense of disconnection from yourself

These aren’t signs that something is wrong.

They’re often signs that your system is beginning to have more capacity to feel.

And this is where the work begins.

Not by forcing anything out.
Not by trying to fix what’s there.

But by learning how to be with what’s here
— little by little
— at a pace that doesn’t overwhelm you

This is what real regulation looks like.

Not suppressing…
but creating space for your experience, and staying with yourself inside it.

—

If you’d like support with this, you can find more details about my specialist work in trauma and complex trauma recovery (using a somatic approach) via the link at the top of my page.

26/03/2026

When you’ve spent a long time suppressing how you feel,
your body can start to experience even simple sensations as unsafe : like an increased heart rate, a tightness in your chest, a wave of emotion.

All can all register as something being wrong.

Not because they are, but because your system learned that feeling wasn’t safe.

You might have been told (even in a well-meaning way) 'dont cry, you're fine'. Or you learned in other ways that connecting with and expressing how you feel wasn't safe or wouldn't be met in a helpful way.

So when emotion and sensation comes up now, it can feel unfamiliar, intense or even alarming.

This is something I see when working with people over a period of time (and I've experienced myself as I began with somatic work).

As we begin to reconnect with our bodies, instead of relief, there can be confusion, or even fear.

“What is this?”
“Why does this feel like too much?”

This is likely reconnecting with your body, and learning to sense and feel again. The experience can be surprisingly intense!

Over time, and with the right support
we can begin to gently build our capacity and okayness with these sensations.

Touching into sensation
and then allowing space for it to settle

Again and again

Until your body starts to register that this can be felt
and I am still safe.

—

If you’d like to begin exploring this in a supportive space,
I host a monthly free online session called Gather and Ground

A place to slow down, reconnect, and gently build capacity in your system

The next one is:
Tuesday 6th April 2026
6–7:30pm (UK time) online

Comment “Gather” below or sign up through the link in my bio

Charlotte x

25/03/2026

Sometimes your body reacts as if something is wrong,
even when nothing is, and nothing threatening is actually happening in the present moment.

This might be because your nervous system has learned to associate certain sensations with danger.

Like an increased heart rate. Thus can bring a feeling of urgency, or even panic.

Intense sensations can start to feel unsafe when your nervous system has spent a long time in survival.

This is something I see often, or hear often, when I'm working with people.

Over time, we can begin to gently explore these sensations, in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the system.

We begin to touch into activation, and then give space to settle.

For example, noticing the sensations of an elevated heart rate, and then giving time for the heart rate to settle again.
We contact short amounts of time in activation before allowing settling again.

Gradually, your body often starts to register:
this feeling can be experienced without something bad happening.

And from there, something begins to shift : you might still feel activated, it doesn't feel like danger.

That distinction is where more choice starts to come in

—

If this resonates, you’re not alone in it
and it’s something that can change over time

Charlotte x

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Wood Green

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https://charlotte-preston.com/

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