Many people experience anxiety or depression at some time during their life.

While medications, relaxation exercises, holidays, exercise, natural remedies and many other interventions help to alleviate the symptoms, they may not address the underlying cause.

Biodynamic massage was developed within the context of biodynamic psychotherapy, so it is a form of bodywork ideally poised to work with these conditions.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) has given me additional tools to use: anxiety and depression can be seen as symptoms of unresolved survival-related nervous system phases (orientation, fight, flight and freeze), and SE offers effective ways of working with these.

It is often said that depression is "anger turned inwards." Anger, irritation or frustration are the emotions which are dominant if we have unresolved fight impulses.

Depressed people also appear (and may experience feeling) cut off or shut down: this is a feature of unresolved freeze.

Anxiety is sometimes described as "excitement without breathing." If unresolved flight or orientation responses are lodged in our nervous system, we may become hypervigilent or fearful, both of which give rise to feelings of panic or anxiety.

I am not currently taking on new clients but please email me to register an interest if you might like to pursue sessions in future.

"There is a real truth in depression which is that life is too much for you to hold up on your own."
Jeff Foster

"No one can do it alone, and no one can do it for you."
Peter Levine

For more information about Somatic Experiencing (SE) for anxiety and depression, read this article by Benjamin Fry from The Times.