Stress Management for People Who Can’t Afford to Burn Out

Absolutely. I work with you to create up to 3 different versions of your practice of different lengths to fit in with your lifestyle, rather than take it over. However, it is also true that a part of this program is exploring and committing to finding some time for a self-regulatory practice, and then observing the impacts of this. What is it like to prioritise yourself in this way? Nevertheless, there are always elements of the practice that take just a few minutes and can be done anywhere, even when travelling.

That’s a fair question, and one I hear often. The difference here is that you’re learning to work with your own nervous system, rather than outsourcing your wellbeing to someone or something else. What we do together serves as a starting point to equip you with practical, lifelong tools — not just a temporary escape. Moreover, unlike coaching or psychotherapy, this process is concerned not with cognitively processing your past, but managing how your past (wounds, habits, conditioning) is showing up in your present. All of which happens in your nervous system, without words, creating unhelpful patterns of thought and behaviour. Your new tools are designed to help you adapt better to living in the present, on an ongoing basis, without needing to rely an intervention from outside of yourself.

Physical fitness is very important and absolutely needs to be a part of all our lives. However (and I speak from my own past experience), many of my clients are very fit yet still feel stressed, disconnected or unfulfilled. Lots of people live fast-paced, high-intensity lifestyles and often they adopt the same approach to improving their physical health. In other words, they feel as though it’s not working if they’re not sweating and aching.

But being busy, on the move constantly and navigating work stress is already up-regulating your nervous system; adding intense workouts on top of that, without any counter-balance, only pumps out more stress hormones and exhausts your system more, until you may be at risk of, for example, burnout. It’s important to balance movement with stillness, learning how to down-regulate your nervous system too, such that processes including digestion, repair of damaged tissues, rest and bonding with partners, friends and family - capacities that are suppressed during sustained nervous system activation - can come back online. Moreover, a better relationship with slowing down and stillness facilitates embodied awareness, including a capacity to listen and respond to the internal signals of your body and meet your needs, something called ‘interoception’ in neuroscience. What I teach addresses the parts of you that a workout can’t reach.

Not at all. I work in a way that’s completely grounded, trauma-aware and free of jargon or dogma. I’ll provide some information about the origins of some of the tools you will work with, as well as the science of how and why they work, but what you decide to do with that information is up to you. You won’t need to chant, memorise Sanskrit names for postures or adopt a particular belief system — unless you choose to.

That’s completely fine. This work doesn’t require you to share or relive difficult stories. You are free to share as much or as little as you like. It’s not about analysing your past — it’s about working with what’s happening in your body and mind here and now, and that doesn’t always require words.

Yes. The practices are portable and flexible, and I build your toolkit around your lifestyle. You don’t need to be in the same place or keep the same schedule week after week.