There was a time when I had all the right qualifications but couldn't heal my own childhood trauma which included physical, emotional abuse, poverty, being let down by services meant to help me and caregivers either absent or with their own severe mental health problems.

I spent years in the NHS as an Occupational Therapist and Clinical Lead specialising in neurology - literally working with how nervous systems potentially heal after brain injuries; cognitively, emotionally and physically. Plus the impact life changing neurological events had on an individual, their sense of self and role in relation to loved ones and the wider society. I understood the clinical side perfectly, but when it came to my own emotional healing, cognitive mindset only approaches weren't enough.

Psychodynamic therapy gave me the understanding of how my past shaped my adult behaviours and brought some of my unconscious process into my field of awareness. However, I was still hell bent on self destruction and oscillating between fight/flight/freeze. Although at the time I wasn’t even aware of these terms. I just knew I was angry, hurt and unable to form healthy relationships with myself or others.

Seeing a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner became my gateway to understanding how childhood trauma lives in my nervous system. For the first time, I felt genuine consistent self compassion and slowly, gently my feelings and actioned aligned. I amalgamate professional training with lived embodied experience. My journey, like many, has not been linear but now, through specialist trauma therapy, I have: a more regulated and resilient nervous system, healthy boundaries and a life where my actions are aligned with my sense of self worth. I have the privilege of walking alongside other women as they claim their sense of safety and self.