Helping people with anxiety has traditionally been seen as the territory of mental health professionals. Anxiety is most commonly framed as a psychological problem. My clinical experience for over twenty years has been that by safely connecting to the body, people...
As a young child, one of my clients learnt to dissociate when her parents were arguing. When I first started treating her, and didn’t understand the dissociation model I now work with, we both thought the sessions were productive because she consistently reported a...
My goal as a bodyworker is to help people - whether they are working with trauma, pain or anxiety - reconnect to a sense of wholeness and include more in their sense of self. Embodiment is key to this process - when we feel at home in the space bounded by the skin,...
Did you know there are two types of touch? It is useful to understand the difference between quick touch and slow touch. Quick touch goes along big, thick A fibre nerves. These nerves are like motorways. Slow touch is different, it goes along slow, thin C fibre...
About Touch Is Really Strange When did you start working on the book? The idea for a book on touch has been in my head since 2019, but definitely a lockdown project. The Really Strange series has been huge fun and continues to get heartwarming feedback. There have...
Overview Connection to the body is the foundation of connection to self, connection to others, and connection to the natural world. Transference is when feelings, attitudes, associations originally experienced with important people from the past are transferred onto...
Links between pain and trauma Polyvagal theory developed by Dr Stephen Porges is very influential in the trauma world. The essence of polyvagal theory is that feeling safe is the fundamental drive for humans. If there is the perception of danger ('neuroception' is the...
From my mid-20s onwards, the question ‘how do we feel?’ has been a fascination for me. How do we construct our experience? What are our beliefs and how does that affect our experience of our bodies? Volunteering with people with learning difficulties and then working...
Steve Haines presentation slides @ Trauma Education for Facilitators 30 May 2020.https://embodiedfacilitator.com/trauma-education-day On the panel with Dr Stephen PorgesPart 1 Why Touch [pdfjs-viewer...
Finding Safety: Trauma and the Body What is trauma? When your physiology is stuck, you are stuck. Trauma can be defined as being stuck in protective reflexes. Dissociation is a protective reflex most people are unaware of. In my experience, most people dissociate most...
Here is podcast of me being interviewed by Mark Walsh. At the start there is some framing of how I believe cranial work works, the importance of feeling and the limits of energy models. For TRE folks at 00:34:30 we discuss TRE, including some responses to critiques of...
https://vimeo.com/manage/362675753/general “Touch, my studies show, is the primary language of compassion, love, and gratitude - emotions at the heart of trust and cooperation.” -Keltner, D. (2009) Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. 1st Ed, W. W....
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