Facilitating growth, self-rediscovery, and lasting change
Healing involves the whole, unique person, and lasting change requires more than simply talking things through or following a generic protocol.
The deeper shifts are achieved when we are guided to experience things in new ways, release old adaptations and, ultimately, become more fully ourselves.
The Root & Branch approach
My approach is trauma-informed, and I offer a carefully personalised and tailored pathway of coaching, guidance and therapeutic methods, based on techniques drawn from:
therapeutic coaching
subconscious work and hypnotherapy
nervous-system, mind-body and neuroplasticity approaches
emotional awareness, expression and release therapies
somatic work and body-based feedback methods
This work involves addressing unresolved emotions, issues and internal conflicts – including those which may have been buried. We work together to shift your relationship with difficult events of your past and present, enabling you to reconnect with the part of you that has always been whole, and to let go of the parts that had to adapt, survive or cope.
This can be a profoundly liberating process which leaves you feeling different on the inside, so that you naturally choose and respond authentically, and in ways that support your ongoing growth and healing.
Tailored to your unique experiences
You may have already tried talking therapies, brain re-wiring programmes, stepped protocols, nervous system regulation techniques, or therapeutic formulas, but still feel stuck. You may have a sense that there is something deeper that needs to shift, something beneath the surface that currently feels out of reach, something that’s personal to your life and your experiences.
I understand this, and my approach is based on fundamental principles drawn from psychology and neuroscience, combined directly with the uniqueness you bring. I tailor the therapy to you – listening compassionately, moulding therapeutic methods to your circumstances, and using biofeedback techniques to ensure that together we target the work towards creating the lasting change you want.
Discovering the patterns beneath the symptoms
Do you want to keep talking about what is ‘wrong’ with you? Or do you want to be guided towards experiences that can help you to grow and heal, and ultimately set you free?
You may have spent years trying to think your way through the issues that appear as problems in your life. You may have talked about them with friends, family, even with therapists. This can be a useful step in understanding and acknowledging challenges, and helping you to gain insight into how you ended up where you are ~ but insight and understanding alone don’t always create change.
Sometimes the shifts we’re looking for lie outside of conscious awareness and beyond the ability of the thinking mind to make sense of our experiences. Sometimes ongoing analysis may even be counter-productive, especially if you already have a tendency to overthink, second-guess, self-criticise, or rely on others rather than trusting in yourself.
There is another way of learning and creating change
We are more than our thoughts. Our bodies are the home of our most intense experiences – fear, anxiety, pain, anger… joy, laughter, love, awe… These sensations are produced by our infinitely complex nervous system and experienced directly in our bodies. Modern neuroscience has shown that these embodied sensations are designed to move us away from what may harm us, and towards what supports us (Panksepp, 1998).
This means your emotions and physical symptoms are there for a reason. What if they’ve been trying to tell you something useful all along? What if guided, therapeutic exploration of these sensations can lead to the release of the very challenges that lie at the root of your difficulties… challenges that no amount of head-based analysis can uncover?
Your subconscious brain and nervous system constantly try to guide you towards what they believe is most likely to keep you safe. But your life experiences may have taught them to be too cautious, to react too quickly or too strongly, or to produce sensations that are out of step with your actual needs. This could feel like pain, or anxiety… IBS, or a need to put others first… migraine, or a pressure to be perfect… physical exhaustion, or a tendency to overthink, over-analyse, over-worry…
Much of this happens beneath our conscious awareness, but there are ways we can gain access and start to make profound shifts and experience lasting change. Used alongside compassionate discussion of how you wish to change, these form the basis of the Root & Branch Healing approach.
Who this work helps
If you’ve been living with long-term physical symptoms, or from a version of yourself formed through coping and adapting, this approach may suit you. You don’t have to stay stuck in old patterns that no longer serve you:
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Overthinking
Analysis
Rumination
Constant mental planning
Living in your head
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People pleasing
Struggling with boundaries
Avoiding conflict
Seeking approval
Adapting to the needs of others
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Perfectionism
Self-criticism
Fear of others’ judgement
Feelings of guilt and shame
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Anxiety and panic
Hypervigilance
Overwhelm
Constantly ‘on alert’
Seeking reassurance
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Persistent physical symptoms
Pain
Fatigue
Digestive issues
Sensory disturbances
Dizziness
Feeling broken, frail or fragile
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Unsure of your own wants and needs
Self-doubt
Emotional numbness & disconnection
Losing contact with your own judgement
Second-guessing
Struggling to be authentically you
I offer an alternative to traditional talking therapies, which helps you work beneath the surface, where deeper patterns live, supporting lasting growth and change. If you recognise any of the experiences above, please get in touch to talk about how we may be able to work together to help you reconnect with yourself and rediscover more comfort and ease.