Body Oriented Therapy
A body oriented approach to therapy acknowledges that the body plays a huge role in our health and wellbeing not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Yoga Therapy, Somatic Experiencing® and Somatic Movement offer many pathways to support you with:
Reconnecting with your body
Regulating your nervous system
Chronic Stress
Anxiety
Depression
Mental and Emotional Health
Trauma, PTSD & Complex Trauma
Physiological Health Issues
Below is more information on each of the modalities I draw from. In a session we can choose to use just one or a mixture of all of them to fully support what you are working with.
Somatic Experiencing®
I am currently on a three year training as a Somatic Experiencing® practitioner (body oriented trauma therapist) and have completed year 1. Where appropriate I can offer Somatic Experiencing sessions up to the level I am trained at and alongside my practice as a yoga therapist.
Somatic Experiencing® aims to resolve symptoms of chronic stress, shock, and trauma that accumulate in our bodies and adapt the functioning of our autonomic nervous system. Somatic Experiencing® focuses on how dysregulation shows up in the physiology of our body and how this can impact our life, changing the way we feel, the meanings we make our behaviours and how we percieve safety and threat.
When we are stuck in patterns of fight, flight, or freeze, SE can help us slowly discharge some of this energy so our nervous system naturally recalibrates and returns to a longer lasting more regulated base line supporting us to reoriente to safety in our envornment again. Somatic Experiencing® is a body-oriented therapeutic model applied in multiple professions and professional settings. It is the lifes work of Dr Peter Levine.
Somatic Experiencing® is a gentle appraoch that has a big focus on resourcing and introducing what you are finding challenging very slowly. It acknowledges that trauma is anything that was too much, too fast, too soon and works against retraumatising the system. We can work with what the body is telling us through sensation, image, emotion, behaviour and meaning so going into the full story is often not necassary but also welcome if it is helpful to you.
To support this process yoga therapy can be helpful in cultivating a sense of groundedness and stability in the body.
Yoga Therapy
What is yoga therapy?
A series of yoga therapy sessions are designed to meet the unique requirements of your needs whether they are physical, mental, emotional or a mixture and any health conditions you might be navigating. Yoga is a practice and philosophy that has tools to address the whole body-mind and looks holistically at the whole person, therefore it can be an empowering resource helping you to take responsibility for your own health and wellbeing in a gentle, manageable, inclusive and positive way.
I work with a somatic and trauma informed approach which can also support nervous system regulation and help you establish your body as a place of resource, stability and safety so that it can naturally move into a place of regulation, regeneration, health and vitality.
Somatic approach: A somatic approach focuses on re-establishing a connection to our body from a place of felt sense and can really support people who feel disconnected from thier body to return to a place of connection. It can help us to listen inward and become mindful of what our body may be trying to communicate with us. A somatic approach cultivates a connection to the feeling, sensing body rather than our ability to perform, do or achieve certain postures. Building a relationship with the feeling sensing body can support our ability to inhabit the present moment and our bodies more fully and help to cultivate more nourishing experiences in our relationship with ourself, others and the world around.
Trauma Informed Approach: My approach to yoga therapy is through a trauma informed lens, as whilst yoga can be a great way to connect with our body, reconnecting with the body can present with specific challenges for people who have suffered from trauma, PTSD or are struggling with mental health conditions. It can be helpful to take this into account and work slowly and gradually whilst rebuilding a connection. I have found that a trauma sensitive approach is helpful for most people as we explore building a healthy relationship with our body/mind in a safe and manageable way.
What will the session entail?
The session could entail some or all of the following depending on what you feel comfortable with and how you would like to work with your body:
Asana (the physical practice of yoga postures) Having a strong and relatively flexible body is a baseline for physical health. Yoga Asana’s are the physical aspect of yoga that stretch, strengthen, twist, invert, open, close and move the body through a fuller range of motion supporting ease and fluidity of movement. As well as supporting the musculoskeletal system, yoga asana also positively affects other body systems such as the circulatory, respiratory, endocrine, digestive and nervous system. Connecting positively with our physical body can also support us mentally creating states of stability, self regulation and grounding in the body.
Somatic movement If appropriate we can also explore developmental movement patterns from Body-Mind Centering®. Developmental movement patterns supported us to grow and transition from a single cell to upright human being. Sometimes we lose our connection with them. We may inhabit them with less enthusiasm, resonance or purpose than we once did or perhaps we are stuck more in one pattern and have lost connection with others. This might impact our ability to rest deeply or step forwards more fully into life. Remembering and revisiting these patterns can offer us the opportunity to inhabit a fuller expression and movement potentiality in our bodies.
Pranayama (Breath Expansion) - working with breath is an integral part of yoga. We can explore this is many ways to cultivate our connection to the essential vitality and lifeforce energy that is present in all living beings. Working with the breath can improve and support many physical conditions and also support nervous system regulation and address habitual breathing patterns and states of imbalance through the whole body mind.
Relaxation, meditation and yoga nidra are all deep states of rest that are essential for rejuvenation and our ability to be active and dynamic in our lives with balance and ease. Everyone’s relationship to rest and stillness is different so approaching this individually and sometimes slowly and gradually can be helpful.
Creating resource resource is a principle taken from Somatic Experiencing® that focuses on our ability to create feelings of stability and safety in the body. We can work together to look at yoga and somatic movement practices that might create or support feelings of resource inside the body.
Self Practice If you would like I can give you things to practice at home so you have access to a self-practice that you can do anytime anywhere. It is also not essential that you practise at home, though it can be helpful.
Booking
If you would like to book a Body Oriented Therapy session with me either to explore Somatic Experiencing®, Yoga Therapy or both please email me to arrange your first session. We can also have an informal chat on the phone.
I recommend booking an initial session to meet each other and explore the potential practices that might be supportive. From there if you decide sessions are right for you I ask you to commit to a series of six sessions. You can pay as you go and you can also cancel at anytime.
Pre session I will ask you to fill out an intake form and during our first session we will look through this together.
Prices:
Sessions are £60 per 1hr. They are held near Ashburton at The Soma Shala which is based at The Husbandry School.
Subsidised Prices:
I self fund subsidies to make this work more accessible for those experiencing financial hardship. I especially welcome enquiries from anyone experiencing financial hardship who identifies as being marginalized due to race/ethnicity, disability, gender, from the LGBTQI+ community and those in reciept of state benefits. Please email me for more information, at the moment I am working via the bottle system so you can decide which price feels right for you based on your circumstances.
“My yoga sessions with Emily have been a really big support to me during a difficult period in my life with chronic illness. Her classes have provided a deeply nurturing and restorative space and a richness that I had not experienced in any class before. I felt that my individual needs were met with such presence and warmth. There was always attention to what was going on for me both physically and emotionally and I felt completely accepted. Whatever I brought with me to the class, she would meet with honesty and generosity by sharing her knowledge and experience wherever these could possibly be of help. My relationship to yoga has fundamentally changed. Instead of pushing myself and my body into positions, my intention now is to listen inwards and follow what is most healing for me on any particular day. A move from my head into my body; and from a place of continual striving that could never be truly satisfied, to a place where deep nourishment can be found. This is a big learning for me and I can see just how vitally important it is to the rest of my life and in helping me as my journey continues. ”
“Allows the process of ‘undoing’ and can often find some space from the ‘should be doing/feeling...’ mind set. This creates an inner softening and sense of inner connection. Whatever happens for me during the class I always feel quieter and softer following the class which helps me feel more open and connected to others.”
“This was the first time I felt so in tune and at ease with my body and this first time at yoga was truly an amazing experience, which has stuck with me ever since. Emily has accompanied me in finding a new way of taking care of myself physically and mentally, in a very professional and educated way, and for that, I am forever thankful.”
“I have learnt so many ways through yoga to reconnect not only to my body but also be in the moment to my surroundings too. You have taught me ways to deal with anxiety, stress, anger and sad energy states. Always you have been empathetic, kind and gentle.”