A 2 Minute Intro to Movement Therapy

I've been using what I call 'Movement Therapy' with clients in my Los Angeles psychotherapy practice for a long time already - it's been hugely impactful for my clients, especially those dealing with anxiety, perfectionism and chronic physical conditions.  

Back when I was working as a personal trainer in England, Australia and closer to home in Santa Monica, Venice and Beverly Hills, I saw how powerfully the body could tap in to our emotions and channel our energy for mental wellbeing. That started a decade-long adventure to train as a psychotherapist, and a rich passion (that I didn't know this cynical Brit had in her!) to blend these two fields in ways that could really help create positive change in people's lives.

'Movement' is the term I use to describe any and every way our body moves. I use it to include all the obvious things – sports like basketball, swimming, jogging; the things that maybe don’t count as ‘sports’ – dancing around your living room, those little stretch breaks you take when you’ve been sitting at your desk all day, etc. but also the things that often go completely unnoticed, like the movement our body goes through as it inhales and exhales, or our posture and muscle tension as we sit and stand throughout our day.

Movement is so much more than what it often gets boiled down to in Western lives – a way to attempt to get or keep our body in the shape we/society approve of. But that’s missing its whole superpower – movement is the swiss army knife of wellbeing. It’s got just the thing for whatever you’re dealing with – run of the mill fatigue, isolation, crappy self-esteem, vague sadness or lack of joy, stress, everyday coughs, colds, aches and pains, through to clinical depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical diagnosis including all the chronic auto-immune diseases that are currently stumping most of the western medical world, like Crohn’s, Fibromyalgia, IBS, Lupus – when it comes to finding effective treatments.

That’s where I want to come in and that's entirely what I do at MOVEMENTAL. I'll be offering an approach to physical and mental wellbeing that is movement based, uses the powerful connection between body and mind that western medicine and traditional psychotherapy overlooks almost entirely, and best of all.... it’s actually fun and enjoyable to do.

Through a combination of talking about our past and present, in conjunction with unique movement experiences, I work with my awesome clients to create their unique movement therapy prescription – the type of movement and when, how and why to do it that’ll give them more of what you want (e.g. energy, self-confidence, stress-tolerance, joy…), alleviate what they don’t want (depression, anxiety, physical auto-immune systems) and allow them to take back control in a fun, fresh way.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with how your mind and body connects and influences each other.

And if you’d like try a different approach to improving your mental health, to resolving your chronic physical symptoms, or are just desperate for a wellbeing reboot – come hang with me, I'm offering free 15 minute consultations, with zero pressure to join me long term, just a genuine desire to share what I know with those that could use it!