A little bit about me……

Let the beauty we love be what we do

- Rumi

My journey into bodywork began in the mid-1990s whilst working for nearly 20 years at a Women’s Refuge. There, I experienced first-hand just how vital body-oriented support can be for people in distress, and how it also helped me, as a practitioner, to manage my responses and resources. Since then, I have dedicated my career to body-based therapy, working in drug and alcohol services, as well as with Weston Park Cancer Charity and Cavendish Cancer Care, including across Sheffield NHS hospitals. During the Covid lockdown, I adapted face-to-face services at Cavendish to deliver online body-based therapies, ensuring support remained accessible.

In addition to my ongoing work with Weston Park Cancer Charity, I am part of the Snowdrop Project and co-manage a clinic in Nether Edge, 4 Good Health, where I offer private sessions both in person and online.

Health - a return to nature

Central to health as Lao Tsu says is a “return to nature” (quoted in Masunaga’s “Zen Imagery Exercises”). Authenticity emerges when we can express our true selves, whether symbolically, with movement, non-verbally, or through language. Our experiences often reflect the world around us. Within a Chinese Medicine paradigm, the human is a micro-reflection of the earth and energetics are related to yin/yang and the five elements (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood).

Thus my work is grounded in the understanding that energetics are not only individual but also collective and intergenerational in nature. This means that the ways in which we respond to distress, as well as the creative strategies we develop to survive and enliven, can be shared and felt across families, communities and even generations. These energetic patterns, whether rooted in distress or resilience, shape how we experience ourselves and relate to others and how political environments weigh upon us. I believe there has been a flattening of experience in relation to traumatic experiences. Recognising this, I strive to honour both the challenges and strengths that may have been carried forward, supporting each person to connect with their authentic self within a wider web of experience.

Collective Energetics

Collective energetics underpinned my co-founding of Sheffield’s first Acupuncture multi-bed clinic in 2008. More recently, my work in hospital settings has underscored the importance of collective energy, mutual support among colleagues, and collaboration with medical teams is important. At the Snowdrop Project, time and again, people refer to it as “home away from home”—all of which shapes the therapeutic atmosphere.

I am committed to anti-oppressive practice, recognising that socio-political norms and oppression hugely impact how we move and are received. Collective solidarity is imperative, especially during times of heightened oppression.

“..trauma is political. Oppression is how we organise trauma in society” Prentis Hemphill, 2024.

Creativity is central to how I work. I enjoy integrating different modalities within a supportive therapeutic framework, always grounded in relationship and ethics.

I love this work.

It feels precious.

Curious?

All modalities focus on embodied somatic processes that promote a sense of agency and engaged aliveness.

My approach

I value deep listening and holding space with integrity, collaboration, dignity and respect. An awareness informs my practice of cultural differences, personal narratives, and how my own privilege and identity influence and intersect the therapeutic relationship. I recognise that the body carries both personal and political histories, and I aim to support each individual in a way that honours their unique experience within the context of communities. Building trust and fostering agency are central to my approach, and I understand that this relational process takes time.

Rather than listing specific diagnoses, I respect each person's relationship with their diagnosis and how it may affect their life. While diagnoses can provide access to services and a framework for understanding, they may also feel and be experienced as restrictive or burdensome. My work addresses the energetic dynamics that arise, to creatively support a settling into authenticity and aliveness, not being defined by a diagnosis. 

In practice, this may mean, for example, integrating Acupuncture with Psychotherapy, Self-Shiatsu with shorter-term counselling and/or any one of these modalities by themselves.