Scans normal but still in pain?

Understand your stress–body pattern, reduce medically unexplained symptoms and learn to live and work in a body that feels like home again.

 

Join The Somatics School

This is for you if...

You are the one who holds everything together

 

Recognise any of these?

  • You are exhausted in a way that sleep does not fix

  • Your gut, throat, chest or breath flare when pressure rises

  • Your tests come back “normal” while your symptoms remain

  • You cope in the room but crash when you close the laptop or door

  • You swing between high responsibility and quiet collapse

  • You feel you “should know better” but your body does not respond to insight

You are not broken.

Your body is running a pattern that once kept you safe. The Somatics School exists to help you understand and unwind that pattern in a clinical, grounded and relational way.

START NOW FOR FREE

Medically Unexplained Symtoms course

  1. WHY YOUR BODY WON'T SWITCH OFF

    4 lessons
    1. What scans and tests CAN'T tell you
    2. Understanding "Personality" from a Psychosomatics Perspective
    3. Enter Psychosomatics and Body Psychotherapy...!
    4. PSYCHOSOMATICS EXERCISE - States of your senses

  2. MODULE 1 — THE STRESS–BODY MAP

    11 lessons
    1. Functional vs Structural Symptoms
    2. The Four Stress Shapes
    3. The Stress–Body Cycle
    4. Introducing the concept of the armour segments
    5. OCULAR ARMOUR
    6. ORAL ARMOUR
    7. CERVICAL ARMOUR
    8. THORACIC ARMOUR
    9. DIAPHRAGMATIC ARMOUR
    10. ABDOMINAL ARMOUR
    11. PELVIC ARMOUR

  3. MODULE 2 — THE PERSONALITY ARMOUR FRAMEWORK

    11 lessons
    1. Diagnosis Disclaimer - watch first
    2. DEPENDANT / (oral)
    3. DEPENDANT (oral) Assessment Questions
    4. MASOCHISTIC Personality Introduction
    5. MASOCHISTIC Personality Assessment Questions
    6. OVERBEARING Personality Introduction
    7. OVERBEARING Personality Assessment Questions
    8. UNWANTED CHILD Personality Introduction
    9. UNWANTED CHILD Personality Assessment Questions
    10. RIGID Personality Introduction
    11. RIGID Personality Assessment

  4. MODULE 3 - THE ANATOMY OF HOLDING

    9 lessons
    1. IMPORTANT - Finding your "Secure Base"
    2. The Tongue, Theory
    3. The Tongue, Practical
    4. The Jaw, theory
    5. The Jaw, Practical
    6. The Chest Theory and Practical
    7. The Lower Back
    8. Abdomen & Pelvis
    9. Reflective upload

  5. MODULE 4 — FUNCTIONAL SYMPTOMS & MUS

    6 lessons
    1. Throat Symptoms
    2. Gut Symptoms
    3. Chest, Breath & Fatigue
    4. Why Emails Trigger Physiological Responses
    5. Boundaries... what boundaries?
    6. Dizziness, Brain Fog & Derealisation

  6. MODULE 5 — EXERCISES

    8 lessons
    1. The Lower Back - Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
    2. States of senses - Exercise
    3. The Hollow Bamboo Game
    4. Tremoring 1
    5. Tremoring 2
    6. Tremoring 3
    7. Tremoring 4
    8. Tremoring- a reflection from Mollie

  7. MODULE 6 - RECEIVING TOUCH

    5 lessons
    1. What is this module about?
    2. Receiving touch - 3 concepts
    3. Receptive and available touch
    4. Compliant touch
    5. Stone-like touch

  8. BONUS MODULE- Understanding ADHD in Psychosomatics

    6 lessons
    1. What is ADHD?
    2. How is ADHD diagnosed?
    3. The Different Types of ADHD - a brief essay
    4. "Time Blindness"
    5. Heritability in ADHD
    6. ADHD - a celebration of learning
NICE TO MEET YOU

Hi, I'm Stephen

I'm an Integrative Therapist here in the UK accredited with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and a member of the Body Psychotherapy Network with an MSc in Body Psychotherapy and Body Psychology. 

After training as a dancer in London, and sustaining an injury I took my life in a different direction. Working in the competitive and (at times) difficult world of theatre as a creative, vocal coach and pedagogue led me to my own therapy. 

It was here, through doing deep and meaningful work across several therapists and disciplines that I finally felt like I was living a truer life. This stage of my journey on this earth feels more aligned and with more purpose than I've had my whole life. 

And so I'm on a mission to help more people live a meaningful life through being at home in their body. 

With every new concept, the body can update how it feels about itself. This is why I think psychosomatics is so powerful for those of us who have been told it's "normal" to be in pain every day.

You might not yet consciously know why you experience the pain, discomfort or depression that you do, but your body is wise and can help you - if only you'll listen.

At The Somatics School:

Somatics School (access all areas)

I’m on a mission to help people reconnect their mind and body to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life. Through this experiential course, you might just be able to connect to yourself, your function and others differently. Join the Somatics School to explore your personality, psychosomatics and be part of a curious and interesting community of people who are seeking to change their lives and learn about the body/mind connection and medically unexplained symptoms.

ÂŁ175.00 GBP

1-2-1 session

A 1-2-1 session with Stephen exploring your somatic armour, and how we wear our emotional pain. 

ÂŁ120.00 GBP

6x Sessions in a private Somatic Course

I’m on a mission to help people reconnect their mind and body to live a more meaningful and fulfilled life. We can do that together in this 1-2-1 setting for 6 weeks.

ÂŁ700.00 GBP

  Be part of something bigger than yourself, find your people and grow

The OPEN CIRCLE online community is a place to connect, grow and change with (almost) weekly LIVE sessions on Thursdays at 1700UK, and even IN PERSON events around the UK.

Here you can work on your psychosomatics in skillfully held groups exploring themes and de-armouring

Join the community
FREE GIFT

Test out module 1 completely free

Join in to see if this could help you confront your medically unexplained symptoms and live a more meaningful life.

Take me there
CATCH ME ON YOUTUBE

FREE PSYCHOSOMATIC CONTENT

Every week on Youtube, I release free content, just for people like you. Why not join me there?

Your Symptoms are not random, they are armour.

Chronic tension, gut symptoms, throat tightness, fatigue and shutdown are often not signs of disease. They are signs of what Reich called armour: patterned ways the body learns to hold itself in order to cope.

In this school I use a contemporary, relational version of this work.
We map seven core patterns:

  • Dependant armour – collapsing, hunching, depletion

  • Unwanted Child armour – withdrawal, spacing out, distance

  • Overbearing armour – chest bracing, over-control, high functioning

  • Masochistic armour – compressed energy, swallowed emotion

  • Rigid armour – upright tension, perfectionism

  • Guarded Larynx pattern – throat protection, voice changes

  • Gut–Brain pattern – abdominal gripping, IBS-style symptoms, reflux

Once you see your pattern, your symptoms begin to make sense. After that, we can work with your body rather than against it.

Join The Somatics School

The Somatics School is a postgraduate-level training and live community for professionals who are burnt out, symptomatic and still on their feet. It combines:

  • An 8 module, structured course

  • A live weekly session with me

  • An ongoing community space with support, discussion and accountable challenges

You learn the theory, apply it to your own body and then integrate it into how you live and work. This is not abstract somatics. It is a practical framework for people who carry responsibility and cannot simply step away from their lives.

Join the community