What I help with
Emotional pain and trauma that hasn't let go
You've talked about it. Maybe for years. You can tell the story clearly, you understand why it happened, and you may even have made peace with it. And still, something in you reacts. A tone of voice, a smell, a date in the calendar, and you're back there.
Or perhaps you can't point to one big thing at all. A heaviness, offence or irritation, a reactivity to someone you don't want to react that way towards, a sense that something old is running the show or that you are at the mercy of other people's choices, with no idea where it comes from.
Does this sound like you?
- Something from years ago that still hurts like yesterday
- Triggers you can name but can't stop
- Childhood stuff you've talked through, still landing in your body
- A reaction far bigger than the moment
- Feeling numb, or feeling everything
- Being tired of telling the story
If you nodded at even one of these, you're in the right place.
Looking for help with pain or symptoms in your body? See Pain in the body → Many people carry both. The work is similar, and we start wherever you are.
Why talking about it hasn't been enough
Trauma isn't only a memory. It's an experience the nervous system stored as a threat, whether or not you agree that it is. This storage is now a survival response that never got to complete, grow up, move on, or know that it's over. Talking can help you make sense of it, understand it and yourself and others. But making sense of something isn't the same as it no longer firing.
Understanding does not switch off the nervous system's activation loop.
People often describe this as trauma stored in the body. In my experience it's held in the brain's threat system and shows up in the body.
How I work with emotional pain and trauma
Sessions begin with Havening Techniques®, a gentle psychosensory method using touch, your own hands with me alongside you, that calms the system so old activations can be worked with safely. From there, I use Jentle Soma to clear what's still held, so the response that kept firing can resolve in the brain where it is stored. Some people call this releasing trauma.
You don't have to retell anything. You don't have to relive it or push through it. Alongside the clearing work, you'll learn simple ways to steady or 'regulate' your system between sessions, so new stress isn't stored while the deeper work unfolds.
What can change
Clients often describe the memory still being there, but the charge is gone. They can think about it without their body reacting, (no, not by disassosicating from it). Some describe feeling lighter. Some simply feel more like themselves.
Before and after
Before
One comment and you're right back there. Same heat, same tight throat, same old story, even though you know better.
After
The same comment lands. You notice it, and that's all. The past stays where it belongs.
Questions people ask about trauma
Why can't I get over something that happened years ago?
Because getting over it isn't a decision. If your nervous system stored the experience as a threat that never finished, it keeps responding as if it's still happening, however long ago it was and however well you understand it. Time and insight don't switch that off. Completing the response does.
How do I know if trauma is stored in my body?
Common signs are reacting more strongly than a situation calls for, feeling on edge or shut down without knowing why, or tension and symptoms that don't have a clear physical cause. That isn't a diagnosis, but if it sounds familiar, it's worth exploring.
How do you release trauma trapped in the body?
In my work, by gently completing the response that never finished, rather than reliving what happened. Havening Techniques® calms the system first, then Jentle Soma works with what's still held. You don't have to retell your story for it to resolve.
Is this right for you?
This work is for people who are done with managing old pain rather than resolving it.
If you're in crisis right now, please contact your GP, NHS 111 or the Samaritans on 116 123 first. This work is not a substitute for mental health care.
Sessions are 90 minutes, in person in Walton-on-Thames or online by Zoom wherever you are in the world. Fees and booking →
Keep reading
Start where you are.
A free 20-minute call to see if this work is right for you. If it isn't, I'll tell you.