Unity Physiotherapy & Wellbeing

30/07/2026

🌿 Systems Thinking and Connectedness

This afternoon I attended a three-hour workshop on post-exertional malaise (PEM) as part of Action for ME PRIME series.

There was so much to take in, and I’ll share more reflections another day after I’ve had time to process everything.

One thing that has really stayed with me came from hearing Mark Faghy speak about the importance of taking a systems approach — recognising the connectedness of the body’s systems and how they continually interact and influence one another. Todd Davenport also spoke about the value of systems thinking, and it was encouraging to hear this theme woven through the workshop.

This really resonated with me. It reflects how I think about health and wellbeing, and how I aim to work: with compassion and curiosity, recognising that nothing exists in isolation and that there is rarely a single answer.

I’d love to see this kind of systems thinking and curiosity become even more embedded across healthcare and research.

Thank you to Action for ME and all the speakers for such a thought-provoking afternoon.

29/07/2026

🌿 Small habits, lasting change

When we want to make changes, it can help to start small and ask, “What could support my health and wellbeing?” Often, as we gently include more of what’s supportive, some of what no longer serves us naturally begins to fall away.

Starting is one thing; finding consistency can be another.

One of the things I often encourage in my work is attaching something you’d like to do more consistently to an existing daily routine.

It can make new habits feel much more natural, rather than becoming another thing on an already full to-do list. Sometimes they take a little extra time and sometimes none if they can be integrated into another activity/task.

Recently I’ve been putting this into practice myself. I’ve had dry eyes for a long time, and using a heated eye mask was recommended. Despite meaning to use it, I kept forgetting — putting it away in a drawer probably didn’t help!

So rather than trying to remember at random points in the day, I attached it to something I already do every morning. I now wear it for the first 10 minutes of my meditation, so it doesn’t require any extra time.

Now I spend the first 10 minutes of meditation wearing the eye mask before using my eye drops after the mediation. It may be helping my eyes a little, but something else unexpected has happened too.

The warmth and darkness have become a beautiful part of my meditation. By reducing the light reaching my eyes, I’ve noticed my awareness settling inward more quickly. I’ve realised the eye mask supports this inward turning of the senses. My body remains upright and alert, yet deeply at ease, and my breathing often slows and softens sooner as the practice unfolds.

Sometimes the smallest changes can have the biggest ripple effects.

When we listen to what our body needs with curiosity and compassion, responding with care gradually becomes part of how we live.

💭 Is there something you’d like to do more consistently? Could you gently attach it to something that’s already part of your day?

28/07/2026

🌿 Compassionate Trauma-Informed Working Begins with Awareness

Before we communicate, collaborate or try to solve problems together, we bring ourselves into the room.

This includes our thoughts, emotions, nervous system state, beliefs, experiences and the way we relate to ourselves and others. We also bring our assumptions and biases, while being influenced by the environment and culture around us.

Becoming aware of how we’re arriving is an important first step in being able to be present and respond compassionately to ourselves and others.

When we’re feeling under pressure or overwhelmed, it can become harder to stay curious, listen deeply, think creatively or work collaboratively. This isn’t a personal failing — it’s part of being human.

Compassionate trauma-informed workplaces recognise this. Rather than expecting people to simply “perform”, they truly value their people and create cultures that support awareness, compassion, psychological safety, nervous system regulation and collaboration.

Practices that cultivate self-awareness, self-compassion and nervous system regulation don’t just support our own wellbeing. They also influence how we communicate, how we relate to others and the world around us, how we respond to challenges, how we navigate conflict and how we collaborate.

The way each of us shows up influences the people around us. As awareness and compassion grow, so too can the ripples they create — within teams, organisations and, ultimately, the wider systems and communities we’re part of.

A couple of important questions we can bring into our working day are:
✨ How am I arriving in this space today?
✨ How am I arriving in this conversation?

27/07/2026

🌿 Coming Home to the Body

In chronic illness it’s really common for people to disconnect from their body due to all the symptoms and it no longer feels like a safe space; and for some people it never has due to trauma.

Trust in the body often decreases. Hands up if you’ve been there 🙋🏻‍♀️

If you’ve lost trust in your body and it no longer feels like a safe place, know this can change. I know this both personally and professionally.

When we’ve been living with chronic illness for some time, our window of tolerance often becomes narrower and many protective responses across different body systems can remain active because the body (brain included) still perceives them as needed.

This can change. As we begin to relate to ourselves with greater compassion and curiosity, the body can gradually become a place we no longer need to escape from, but somewhere we can begin to gently return to.

This doesn’t mean every symptom has disappeared. As our relationship with our body becomes more compassionate, more trusting, and more attuned, our experience of living in our body begins to change, and suffering tends to decrease.
As we become more willing to compassionately stay present with ourselves, awareness deepens. We begin to notice that beneath the fear, tension, or contraction, there can also be moments of steadiness, spaciousness, and quiet aliveness.

Over time, the body can begin to feel like home again. Not because it’s perfect, but because our relationship with it is changing. We begin to move from:
* fearing the body
* fighting the body
* distrusting the body
* overriding the body
towards:
* listening to the body’s wisdom
* being curious about the body
* responding compassionately
* listening to and honouring our needs

Compassion, awareness, and nervous system regulation gently support us in coming home to ourselves. And sometimes, in that homecoming, we rediscover the quiet steadiness, trust, and wholeness that have been there all along.

✨ This is something I feel deeply passionate about supporting people with, because I’ve seen how transformative this can be.

26/07/2026

🌼 A Special Bloom

I planted a Roald Dahl rose in March, around the time my poetry book Living Wholeness was published.

It has grown slowly, with much smaller leaves than it usually has, the rose supplier reassured me there was nothing to be concerned about. I don’t imagine the extreme heat we’ve had this year has helped, although I’ve continued to care for it each day.

Over the last few days, it has opened its first flowers 😊

There was something especially joyful about seeing it bloom just over four months after my book was published. It felt like a gentle reminder that growth often happens quietly beneath the surface before it becomes visible, and that noticing what’s needed, responding with care, and allowing time all matter.

If you’d like to find out more about Living Wholeness, you’ll find the Amazon link in the comments. I also have a few author copies available if you’re in the UK and would like one (these can be signed if wished).

💭 If you’ve read, or are reading, Living Wholeness, I’d love to hear what resonated with you. And if you have a moment to leave an Amazon review, I’d be very grateful — it helps other readers discover the book.

26/07/2026

🌿 A Sunday meditation reflection

One of the greatest gifts my meditation practice has given me is the opportunity to be present with whatever arises. It’s not about fixing anything or trying to create a particular outcome. It’s an invitation to listen more deeply within —with compassion, curiosity, and openness.

Meditation doesn’t ask us to fix ourselves or force anything to change.

It invites us to notice.

To become aware.

To meet whatever is here with curiosity, compassion, and a willingness to simply be with it.
(We need a wide enough window of tolerance to be able to be with all of what’s present.)

When I gently notice places of contraction within myself, something interesting often happens. Rather than becoming entangled in them, compassionate awareness creates a little more space. From there, I often notice the contraction beginning to soften, sometimes revealing the spaciousness that was already there.

I’ve found that even when challenges are ongoing, or still moving through me, moments of spaciousness, steadiness, and peace can still be present.

In my practice this morning, I became aware that the challenges of the week had moved through me and I I found myself resting in a deep sense of spaciousness and peace.

✨ Meditation doesn’t create spaciousness; it gently reveals what has been quietly resting beneath the contraction all along

Meditation has been part of my life for many years. I have had a personal practice for a long time and trained as a meditation teacher 12 years ago, and have done additional trading since then. My practice has continued to deepen, both personally and within my work. Over time, meditation has become about meeting life with greater awareness, compassion, and presence.

💭 I’m curious... if you have a meditation practice, how has it supported you, and what has it revealed to you? And when life feels full, what helps you reconnect with yourself?

25/07/2026

🌿 Choices and Noticing What’s Nurturing

Each day, there are often small choices we can make that support our health and wellbeing. They don’t have to be big things.

What also matters is noticing what feels nurturing and how our body responds, allowing ourselves to really take in moments of joy, peace, or whatever arises if it feels supportive — resting in compassionate somatic awareness.

This morning I chose to visit a garden centre early to buy some compost for my houseplants that need repotting and spend a little time wandering amongst the plants.

Being surrounded by plants felt deeply nurturing. I noticed the joy and peacefulness of the flowers, the many different hues of green, and the fragrance of the blooms as I wandered.

One rose especially caught my attention. It also happened to have very few thorns and be wonderful for pollinators which is important to me, so I chose to bring it home.

After a rest, and before the day became too warm, I planted it. It felt grounding, nurturing and joyful. Afterwards, I rested again.

There were also little dandelion-like seed heads drifting through the breeze, another small moment of joy and wonder.

Nature has so much to teach us. It reminds us to slow down, to connect, to notice what’s needed, and that both growth and rest are important. It teaches adaptability, resilience and so much more.

💚 What’s been nurturing for you today? Perhaps there’s been a moment of peace, joy or wonder that you’ve been able to really take in.

24/07/2026

🌿 Some Weeks Ask More of Us Than Others

This week has been one of those weeks for me, so I wanted to share a few reflections.

In this video I talk about recognising our common humanity, acknowledging suffering with compassion, taking wise action where we can, noticing moments of joy or ease and really allowing them to land, and the importance of having daily practices and a toolkit to draw upon during more difficult times.

This week has reminded me just how much these practices support me. I’m always grateful for them, and this week especially so.

💭 How has your week been? I’d love to hear whether anything in the video resonates with you.

23/07/2026

🌿 Compassionate Trauma-Informed Working, Choices, Collaboration & Possibilities

Possibilities has been a theme running through my recent posts. Today, I’m reflecting on possibilities in the workplace.

Compassionate trauma-informed workplaces don’t create possibilities by chance. They create the conditions in which possibilities can emerge.

When people feel psychologically safe, listened to and valued, they’re more likely to share ideas, ask questions, learn together and work collaboratively.

Rather than relying on one person having all the answers, possibilities emerge through relationships, curiosity and a willingness to explore different perspectives.

Creating these conditions might include:
• Effective team working
• Agreeing a small number of shared goals
• Psychological safety and a sense of safeness
• Valuing equality, diversity and inclusion
• Reducing unnecessary hierarchy and command-and-control ways of working
• Regular reflection and learning together
• Curiosity and openness to different perspectives
• Working across professional, organisational and system boundaries
• Addressing unacceptable behaviour compassionately, consistently and effectively
• Open, honest and compassionate communication

Possibilities grow in environments that support compassion, nervous system regulation, listening across disciplines, valuing different forms of expertise, collaborating with people rather than doing things to or for them, and creating the conditions where new ideas can emerge rather than trying to control outcomes.

The way we communicate with one another is one of the most powerful ways we create these conditions.

💭 What helps create the conditions for possibilities to emerge in your team or workplace?

22/07/2026

🌿 Sjögren's - Awareness, Understanding & Recognition

I've been spending some time watching the excellent Sjögren's Summit organised by Kara Wada MD.

It has been a valuable reminder of how important it is to keep learning. I’ve learnt a lot, especially from the menopause and Sjogrens talk. One of the messages I've taken away is this:

Sjögren's is far more common than many people realise, and it is frequently missed or diagnosed years after symptoms begin.

It disproportionately affects women, and whilst it’s most common over 40 it can affect anyone.

Different factors such as viral infections, hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause, genetics, immune and nervous system dysregulation may all contribute in different ways for different people.

Although many people associate Sjögren's with dry eyes and dry mouth, it is a systemic autoimmune condition that can affect multiple body systems, contributing to symptoms such as:
* fatigue
* brain fog
* muscle and or joint pain
* gastrointestinal symptoms
* dry, itchy skin
* dental problems
* and much more

What has particularly struck me is how varied the condition can be — there are 60+ ways Sjögren's can affect the body! The most common system has been suggested to be fatigue.

Like many persistent conditions, no two people present in exactly the same way.
Several of the talks also highlighted the growing understanding of the immune system, nervous system and gut. There are exciting developments in more targeted immune therapies that may become available in the future (currently in different phases of research).

As someone working with people living with persistent pain, ME/CFS, Long Covid, fibromyalgia, post viral fatigue, PoTS, and other long-term conditions associated with pain and fatigue, these conversations are incredibly relevant. They reinforce how important it is remain curious and consider all the different factors that could be contributing to symptoms.

Something I learned from the summit has already informed my clinical reasoning this week.

If you're a healthcare professional, or someone living with Sjögren's, I would recommend taking a look at the summit. It’s available to watch free until 27 July, with an option to purchase longer access if you wish.

https://www.sjogrenssummit.com

Have you watched any of the sessions?

💭 I'd be interested to hear which talks you found most valuable.

Stronger With Sjögren's: Thriving in the New Era of Treatment & Self-Management. Claim your complimentary Live Access Pass to VSS2026, July 16–18, 2026.