After studying therapies for many years, I have found that body centred psychotherapy is the best way to help people with emotions like stress, anxiety and depression. Also known as somatic therapy, body psychotherapy works with the body to help you reduce emotional distress, especially when early experiences affect parts of your life disproportionately.

We begin by noticing where emotions show up in your body; tension, numbness, a shallow breath. We explore how these patterns may relate to your life experiences.

To give you a clearer sense of how somatic therapy works, here’s a short video where I explain the approach and guide you through a simple practice you can try for yourself.

Somatic Psychotherapy is a powerful way of working when early experiences have shaped the way we relate, feel, or manage life. The stories we hold in our minds often come with deeper patterns – held in breath, posture, muscular tension, or a sense of disconnection from the body. You may not always have words for what’s going on, but the body often speaks in other ways.

Sometimes, when painful events happen early in life, the nervous system and body adapt in ways that are creative and protective – but can leave us feeling stuck, anxious, disconnected, or burnt out. When stress or discomfort is ignored, it can become overwhelming.

This approach helps you reduce your emotional distress by including physical sensations and patterns, not just thoughts. Body-oriented psychotherapy creates space to include all parts of your experience, not just the stories in your mind. This can be especially helpful if talking therapies haven’t felt like quite enough.

In our body psychotherapy sessions in Bristol, we focus on your experiences and ways to express yourself, through talk, movement, breath, or creative methods. This whole-body approach invites healing beyond words, connecting you to your true nature.

• Research has found that the mind is present in the whole body. Information is stored in every cell, and each cell can talk to other cells. We study this valuable information.
• Paying close attention to your body's experience can invoke a shift.  You can move on, simply by paying attention.
• The recent discoveries about the brain in Neuroscience also provide new ways to feel less anxious or happier.
• In Somatic Therapy, we work on changing your hidden beliefs by focussing on the body. We examine strong beliefs like "I am not important" or "No one cares about me," with gentleness, understanding and compassion.
  

Listen to my podcast here how body psychotherapy works

Somatic Therapy often involves being guided in the following:

• Becoming aware of and sensing your body's experience.
• Naming and labelling your sensations and feelings.
• Bringing compassion and honour to your experience
• Digesting and integrating
• Paying close attention to your vitality and resources. In body psychotherapy, we look to tap into your body's ability to heal itself.

One of the ways trauma is addressed in somatic psychotherapy (carefully and over time) is through discovering a genuine experience of safety.

During trauma, the body has an instinctive nervous system threat response. This response can get stuck in the body, leaving you on stress alert or depressed.

Somatic psychotherapy aims to rediscover the possibility of having a different response. Freeing you to embrace life and relationships from a position of safety.

Shelley talks about the trauma of jury duty on ITV West here.

Somatic psychotherapy includes many different ways of working with body awareness. Below is a short, guided Natural Breath Practice. It isn’t a full therapy session, but it gives a simple introduction to how breath awareness can support nervous system awareness and gentle regulation.

For more nervous system regulation practices, visit the Nervous System Practices page

People often naturally assume that body oriented therapy involves touching the client.

This is not necessarily true. As with other psychotherapeutic approaches, the use of touch is very sensitively handled, and will only be used in the most ethical of circumstances, with trust and assured permission.

Although touch, as well as noise and movement, may also be important in the healing process. Many people have been severely deprived of loving touch. But it will only be used very carefully here. Despite being a trained massage therapist, your psychotherapy sessions with me are extremely unlikely to involve massage or physical manipulation.

Shelley Treacher BACP Accred is trained in working with trauma with body centred psychotherapy and works to a strict ethical framework.

Low self-worth can quietly shape anxiety, emotional eating, and relationship struggles. In this video, I explore how somatic therapy helps you recognise where self-worth lives in the body, and how nervous system awareness supports healing. With compassion and simple practices, you’ll learn how to rebuild a more grounded and resilient sense of self.

For more nervous system regulation practices, visit the Nervous System Practices page

You can also read how psychotherapy works here before deciding.