Behind the scenes: January - July 2025

 

Welcome to my first ‘behind the scenes’ post, where I share a bit about what’s been going on for me in both my work and my home life.

The wider world

First, it would feel impossible to even begin this, without acknowledging what a weird and, frankly, horrible 6 months (and some) this has been in the wider world. With Trump in power for a second term and turning the clock back a good 50 years or more with his bigoted and oppressive policies, with everything that’s going on with Israel’s genocide in Palestine, with the climate crisis escalating, and with the rise of Reform in the UK and the rise of hate and lack of acceptance in general*, I know a lot of us will be struggling with knowing what to do and how to help.

I don’t have any answers. Some days, I feel like it’s impossible. How do we carry the weight of all the hate and othering that goes on? How do we bring people back to compassion? How do we not fall into the trap of othering those who disagree with us (whilst still holding boundaries that align with our values)? Above all, how do we take action?

I can have big wobbles about my work - does it even matter given the current state of things? Is it frivolous? What do people really need right now?

I think I will keep wondering these things probably forever. But hopefully will also make progress on them, and keep taking action where I can. I have to remind myself that I can’t do it all, that there a lot of ways to make a difference, and that maybe, just maybe, movement work is a tiny part of the solution - bringing people back to their bodies, connecting people, meeting people where they’re at, bringing glimmers of joy… Otherwise, in all honesty, it’s hard to know how to continue.

Work stuff

But I love my work! And I do know that it’s important, and that it does have its place. I have to be able to carry two truths - one is that the world as we know it is crumbling, and the other is that we have to continue to live, because what else is there. So here’s some things that have been happening in my work life…

The membership has been slowly growing - marketing is not my forte, nor do I have a massive amount of time for it (I still only work a few hours, due to home educating our kids), but more people are hearing about this work and are drifting to it. I managed to create two extra spaces in our very full in-person membership by removing some furniture in our lounge space where I teach, and by my husband (who attends the classes) saying he’ll drop out on weeks where everybody can make it along!! Those spaces will now open up when we start our next block of sessions in September.

The online membership has had some wonderful new members too. Both groups are fantastic to work with (thank you all, lovely members, for being so willing and curious and keen!!), and it’s exciting to hear their insights, how they develop their practice, and how Somatic Movement impacts them in their lives. They are also just genuinely such a lovely bunch - so welcoming and mutually supportive - I feel very lucky to work with them!

(Love this feedback from after a recent online session!)

I’m now teaching Somatic Movement sessions in blocks so that beginners can join at the start of a block, which is working well. And we’re doing much the same in our salsa classes too - we no longer offer drop-in sessions for beginners, because we were finding we just had to keep starting from scratch and we weren’t able to progress our dancers. So we run beginner courses 2 or 3 times a year. This is very unusual in the salsa world but for now it’s working for us - it was the only way we could see to really bring people along, and that fits with our personal life currently as well. Trying these new structures has been scary - would people go for it? Would it be too much to get the blocks/courses running? What if no one comes!!! But as I say, it seems to be working right now. Phew!

(Dancing in the lounge. Because why not!)

I have a little bit of space to fit in some 1:1 Somatic Movement sessions, and am working with some truly delightful clients at the moment, who are keen to explore and meet confusion (aka learning!!) and make changes in their beautiful somas. Although I also offer online 1:1s, my current clients are local to me and getting hands on with people is a lot of fun. It also gives me increasing experience for the next stage on my Somatic Movement path, which brings me on to…

…having been accepted onto the next stage of training for this work, which is a 600-hour, 2.5-year course, to go deeper into this work, including hands on movement protocols as developed by Thomas Hanna (the creator of Somatic Movement), more on the neurophysiology, and even going deeper into the philosophy of the work (if you ever read anything by Thomas Hanna, you will find he was indeed something of a philosopher!). I am TERRIFIED about how I’m going to find the time to do all the work, but It Will Happen, I know that much! Watch out for more on this as I will be offering very low-cost sessions to people who can get to me in person, to get my 200 hours of hands-on clinical practice time!! VERY excited to see how this work will inform my teaching, and to bring you all even more new ideas and nuances in this work, to make it even more effective!

I’ve also just created a brand new course. I had the idea some time ago to offer something in more bite-sized pieces to get people started on doing this work - since a lot of us live full lives, and finding an hour to do the work can be very tricky! Especially before you have really experienced what it can do for you. I planned it out, with some short theory videos, and lots of short(ish) practice videos. Then my husband took the kids away for a weekend of camping - and I created 35 videos for the course!! It was a marathon but wow, did my soma feel great afterwards! (If you like the idea of this, you can have a look at the information here - we’ll be starting a supported run-through very soon for this first round, so if you like accountability and motivation and feeling like you’re not alone doing the work, this might be for you!)

(The wonderful Back Lift movement in Somatics)

Personal life

So the weekend where my family went camping to free me up for a weekend on my own to work… Was I a bit jealous (especially when I saw the pics!) - yes, yes I was! Was I excited to have a chunk of time to only think about the needs of my business, and looking after myself? Absolutely!! I do find when they leave me alone, it gives the demons a chance to be heard more clearly (‘Why are you doing this? What’s the point? Is it even worth it? Does anyone actually want it?’ and so on). This can be challenging, but I’m more ready for it than I used to be, and I see it as a valuable opportunity to have the space to explore what’s working, what I really need, how I want to show up and serve, and questions like that. There is just no free headspace most of the rest of the time, as I’m sure a lot of you can relate to!

(Bit jealous? Yes I was!)

My husband and I are still really enjoying teaching our salsa classes, along with our amazing friend and third salsa team member, Helen. We started back a couple of years ago after a loooooong break due to the demands of parenting. It has been an absolute joy to get back to both teaching and dancing again and, much like with our Somatic Movement community, the Purple Salsa group is like a little family to us now - they are a wonderful bunch! We have also taken up a new dance called West Coast Swing, which has taught us so much - coming right back to beginner level has been incredibly informative and helpful for us, both in terms of our dancing and of our teaching. We also enjoy the dance a lot - but salsa will always be our first love!!

(Just some of our amazing salsa community!)

I’ve also really gotten into climbing, which I started because of my daughter’s interest in it. Along with that, and my weekly strength training sessions, I’ve actually started to get some muscles! I really noticed how much stronger I felt when we decided to climb Yr Wyddfa in Wales - it wasn’t easy, but we made it to the top, and were VERY proud of ourselves for doing it! I’m going to write more about that in a future post, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested.

(The Pyg Track. Harder than we thought it was going to be. But so worth it.)

We’ve had some upsy-downsy times with family health things - I had vertigo for the first time ever (and hopefully the last thanks!!) back in February, which gradually eased but nearly made me miss a Somatic Movement weekend I was booked on up in York (we’re down south in Berkshire). But my lovely family managed to wangle it to drop everything and take me up there so I didn’t miss out - they are awesome! And parents have had some health issues going on which have made things a bit wobbly at times.

We’re still home educating all 3 of our children, although are delighted that the oldest is now in post-16 provision (which means we don’t have to write a report for the LA anymore for him whoop whoop!). Being in charge of the home education, plus running the household (managing the children’s needs, coordinating where everyone needs to be when, making sure we get to do the things we want to do, making sure there’s food on the table that everyone will eat…) takes up a lot of time and headspace. But it is an absolute delight to spend time with my kids, and to see them continue to blossom and become more and more themselves. I am deeply grateful to my Hand in Hand Parenting training for the incredible, respectful relationship I have with my teens/tween, and that makes it so joyful to be around them.

I make time for reading (either novels, or non-fiction) which I love, as well as dabbling in my hobby of crochet when I get the time. I love making blankets but a single bed-sized one takes about 100 hours, so completed projects are few and far between! But I do love tickling away at it and seeing how it all comes together.

(I do love my books.)

And I continue to love finding out more about nature - my latest favourite thing is my Merlin app, which identifies birds from their songs! I am mildly obsessed with corvids (ravens, crows, magpies etc) and am enjoying learning about them with no purpose other than my own interest, and learning their calls, how to tell them apart, and where we might find them. We were very lucky to VERY briefly spot choughs on our trip to Wales this year - just hooded crows to tick off now!!

(One of the fantastic crows that lives near us.)

Looking forward to the next half of the year

For the next 6 months in my personal life, I will be continuing to manage balancing the kids’ needs, with my (our!) own. I know everyone here who cares for children or other family members will understand the challenges inherent in balancing people’s needs within the family unit - over the years we have worked hard to get our (we parents’) needs to the joint top of the list, because without doing that, we were going to be no good to anyone. That includes both looking after ourselves with things like our personal Somatic Movement practices, and doing the things we love like our dancing.

For my own Somatic Movement practice, my focus will be on continuing to regain mobility in my shoulders and upper body as a whole. I’ve made great strides, but there is more to do, and I relish the prospect of continuing to improve my movement with age, rather than following the ‘inevitable’ slide that our culture tells us we must put up with. I stay motivated by attending weekly classes myself, which spurs me on both in terms of all the new stuff I learn about how I personally move, but also for adding new ideas and layers to my teaching.

Of course the new training I will be undertaking will take up a massive chunk of time going forwards - and not just for the next 6 months! So that will be big on the agenda. I’m really looking forward to bringing new elements from that to my teaching as well. That, and looking after my clients, is going to be top of the list in terms of work things in my life. I don’t think I’ll have the bandwidth for too much in terms of sharing this amazing work with new people - is anyone else a bit jaded by social media these days?!! - but my weekly emails will definitely continue, so I hope that will help keep us all connected and motivated!

We’ll keep dancing - and I want to continue to develop my musical expression in my salsa particularly, so that I can support others to develop theirs, as well as just to increase the fun I have when I dance. Musical expression is definitely an art, but getting into the mindset of just trying something and being prepared for it to not work is definitely helping me on that front - not something I find easy though!

We don’t have any mountain-climbing plans for this coming year, but I daresay I will think of something that I really really want to do, and my lovely family will probably go along with it. These ‘interesting’ schemes are usually my idea - but I love how my family gets on board with them, I really do! Trip to Scotland to find those hooded crows anyone…?!!

That’s about me done for now - did you enjoy hearing a bit about the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on in my life? What did you find out about me that you didn’t know before? What else would you have liked to know?! I’m excited about the next 6 months - and I’ll look forward to sharing about it with you in January 2026!!!

(Celebrations!)

 

*Sadly, not even nearly an exhaustive list.