When the body is still holding
Pain that outlived the injury, pregnancy or surgery. Or a feeling that has a location, and will not move for anything you understand about it.
One to one somatic work for persistent physical symptoms and for emotional pain held in the body. Alongside your medical and mental health care, never instead of it.
Jenna Nye on persistent pain, what mainstream pain science says, and why this work is now a pre-registered study. 8 minutes.
If this sounds familiar
Understanding is not the same as completion. You can know exactly what happened and still be carrying it.
What people have brought
Not a list of what this work fixes. Nobody can honestly give you one. This is what people have arrived carrying, after the medical route, so you know that yours is not too strange, too small or too old to mention.
A shoulder that froze and stayed frozen. Tennis elbow that outlasted the competing. A shoulder injured in the gym on a very bad day, still unhealed nine months later with nothing on the scans. Rib pain carried since childhood. A shoulder hurt in a martial arts demonstration nine years earlier. A collarbone that healed on the scans while the pain and the stiffness stayed. Sciatica that arrived the same month as retirement. A cricked neck that never uncricked. Three years of knee pain. A tender ankle. Whiplash from more than a decade ago, and not being able to look over a shoulder to drive. Nine years of daily sacroiliac pain and a standing monthly osteopath appointment.
And the things without a diagnosis. Sadness that sits in the chest. Anxiety that lives in the stomach. A brain that goes blank and foggy under pressure. A throat that tightens at the exact moment you need to defend yourself.
What I am deliberately not telling you
You will notice there are no outcomes on that list. That is not because there are none.
I have sat in the room and watched pain reduce and resolve. I have watched range and strength return, partially and fully. I could write those stories here, attach names and numbers, and let them sell for me. Almost everyone in this field does.
I have decided not to. A story from me about someone else is not evidence, and you deserve better than being told this works. I would rather show you. That is why I am running a pre-registered study, with validated measures and a commitment to publish whatever it finds, including nothing.
So the outcomes are being held back on purpose, until they can arrive with proof attached.
Some people report change. Some report partial change. Some report none. If what you carry is not on the list above, that means nothing. The list is what people happened to bring, not the limit of what belongs here. Book the call and ask.
Why the body keeps going after the reason has passed
Why pain persists when the scans are clear
Pain is not only a reading taken from the tissue. It can also be produced by the brain, based on its best guess about what is happening in the body and how much danger it 'thinks' you are in.
That guess is built from the state of the tissue, and also from what happened last time, what you have been told, what you are afraid of, how safe you feel, and what the body learned at the time.
Pain after an injury has healed
Usually the guess updates. The tissue heals, the danger passes, the prediction changes, and the symptom settles.
Sometimes it does not update. The body continues to produce a real, physical, entirely genuine response to something that has already finished.
Where emotional pain is held in the body
An experience that was loud at the time can be encoded with everything that came with it: the sensation, the position, the tightening, the held breath, the thing you could not say.
Afterwards, the event is over and the encoding is not. So the chest tightens, the throat closes, the stomach drops, and it does so on cue, in response to something that has already passed. When that encoding fires in response to a trigger rather than sitting continuously, I call it activation.
Why understanding it has not helped
This is why insight is sometimes is not enough. Insight speaks to the part of you that already understands. The part still holding it was never using words.
If something is being held rather than remembered, it may be possible to work with the holding directly rather than only with the story or only with the tissue. That is what this work attempts.
If you are struggling right now
If you are in crisis, in acute distress, or thinking about harming yourself, this page is not the right place for you tonight and I would rather say so than have you keep scrolling.
Please contact your GP, call NHS 111, or call the Samaritans free on 116 123, at any hour. In an emergency, call 999.
The work described here is for people who are stable and supported. It is not crisis support, and it is not a substitute for mental health care.
What happens in a session
We work with what is in the body directly, at the pace you decide, in the layer presenting at the time. We use a naturally occurring, relaxed brain wave 'safe' state with psychosensory touch, and 3 protocols that meets the pain signal where it is, and invites resolution where appropriate.
You stay awake, aware and in charge throughout. Nothing is done to you. You are not analysed, you are not asked to relive anything, and you are not required to tell me a history you do not want to tell.
Sessions are 90 minutes. Most people work in a batch of three, six or nine, depending on what we find in the first conversation.
Many people notice a change in the session. Some notice it later. Some do not notice one, and I will tell you honestly if I do not think I can help and why.
Not sure if this is the right fit?
A 20 minute conversation is enough to find out, and it costs you nothing.
Book a free discovery callWhat this is not
This is not medical treatment and I am not a doctor. It is not psychotherapy, counselling or psychiatric care. I do not diagnose, I do not prescribe, and I do not treat any condition, physical or mental.
Keep seeing your doctor. Keep your therapist if you have one. Keep your appointments. Keep taking what you have been prescribed. Follow the advice you have been given. Anything I do sits alongside your care and never in place of it.
This is also not a promise. I do not know in advance whether this will help you, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something.
Who this suits
People carrying something in the body, physical or emotional, that has been going on too long. Who have been through the appropriate medical or therapeutic route. Who are stable, supported, and curious rather than desperate.
Who this does not suit
How to start
Book a free 20 minute discovery call. You answer a few short questions when you book, so I arrive already understanding what is going on. It is a conversation, not an assessment, and it costs you nothing.
I tell you what I think. Honestly, including if the answer is that this is not for you or that someone else would serve you better.
Sessions, if it is a fit. 90 minutes each, in batches of three, six or nine. Experience has shown that most people need 3 for pain deriving from injury or surgery, 6 for vertigo and tinnitus.
If you are a clinician or a therapist
If you have a patient whose recovery of physical symptoms have plateaued, or a client who understands their history completely and is still carrying it in the body, I am happy to talk.
I work alongside medical and therapeutic care, I report back to referring clinicians where the person consents, and I will tell you plainly when someone is not suitable for what I do.
Get in touch about referralsQuestions people ask
Is my pain real if the scans are clear?
Yes. Pain produced by an out-of-date prediction is exactly as real, and exactly as physical, as pain produced by damaged tissue. It hurts the same amount. The distinction is about mechanism, not legitimacy.
Is chronic pain all in your head?
No. All pain is produced in the brain, including the pain of a broken bone. That is not the same as imaginary. If anyone has used that phrase at you, they were being careless.
Why hasn't understanding my trauma stopped the physical symptoms?
Insight speaks to the part of you that already understands. The part still holding it was never using words. That is the gap this work tries to address.
Do I have to talk about my past in somatic therapy?
No. You can tell me as much or as little as you want. This work goes through the body rather than through the story.
Can I do somatic work alongside therapy?
Yes, and many people do. It is not a replacement for it, and I would not want you to stop anything that is helping.
How many sessions does somatic work for pain take?
I do not know until we have talked, and I will not pretend otherwise. Most people start with three or six.
Will it definitely work?
No. I do not know whether it will help you, which is why I am running a study rather than making claims, and why the first conversation exists.
Can I do this instead of my medical or mental health treatment?
No. Please keep all your care and follow the advice you have been given. This sits alongside it.
Do you work online?
Yes.
What if you do not think you can help?
I will say so. That is the point of the first conversation, and it costs you nothing to find out.
What is the difference between this and your Activation page?
Activation is a response that fires when something sets it off. What this page describes is something continuously present, whether or not anything has just happened. The underlying mechanism is the same. If you are not sure which fits you, book the call and we will work it out. Read about activation.
Can somatic therapy help pain that has lasted for years?
Some people report a change even after pain has been present for years. I do not know in advance whether it will help you, which is exactly what the discovery call, and the study, are there to explore.
This work is not medical or psychological treatment and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Please continue with all medical and mental health care and follow the advice you have been given.
If you have a new, changing or undiagnosed physical symptom, see your GP first.
If you are in crisis or acute distress, contact your GP, NHS 111, or the Samaritans on 116 123. In an emergency, call 999.
