“The mind is like the wind and the body is like the sand.
If you want to know how the wind is blowing you can look at the sand.”
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Somatic therapies work with body and mind together in gently uncovering the roots of a person's difficulty. They attend to the deeper layers of memory held in the body and communicated in the body’s own language, as well as to the words that are spoken. This way of working can bring not just intellectual understanding but insights that sink in at the level of embodied experience. This can enable a person to loosen the grip of habitual behaviours or ways of being that are limiting or no longer useful.
Working somatically offers us the possibility of recovering the sense of our body as friend and constant companion–it's a way of finding our way home.
I bring to my relationships with clients and students an openness and curiosity that allows me to be present in a compassionate and non-judging way and which is–I hope–infectious.
I have found that curiosity–together with a bit of courage–is key to any healing or learning process. It allows a certain lightness even when difficult feelings or emotions appear.
What I Offer
I work with Feldenkrais Method® and with Hakomi, Mindfulness-Based, Body-Centered Psychotherapy.
I feel these two approaches inform each other and complement each other well. Both approaches are grounded in the understanding that the impulse to heal and learn is powerful and is present in every person. My work as practitioner is to follow that impulse as it appears. I love the collaborative nature of this process, how it emerges in the present moment and the sometimes surprising turns it can take.
My work is somatic. It engages with the body as a lived experience, not as a series of mechanical components and with the mind as a presence that speaks through the body.
I charge on a sliding scale and hope my work can be affordable to as wide a range of people as possible.
Please contact me for a preliminary chat if you would like to know more or are interested in having a session.
What I Do
One to One Sessions
The Hakomi Method- Mindfulness-Based Self-Discovery
Feldenkrais Method® Functional Integration
Group Sessions
Feldenkrais Method® Awareness Through Movement
Upcoming
5 Weekly Classes
Embodying Change: Ordinary Movement As Know-How For Life.
Sundays 11.00am - 12.30pm
25th February, 3rd March, 10th March, 17th March, 24th March
At Water Lilies Community Hub, Kingsweston, Bristol BS11 OGJ
contact me to book or for more info
Anastasia Nikoleva, Craniosacral Therapist/massage therapist
I have tried different therapies and therapists over the years and nothing came close to Hakomi sessions with Andy. It is truly transforming, compassionate and healing. Getting in touch with my unconscious drives, not just through understanding it, but with all my being, healing old patterns and releasing myself from being captured by limiting believes and programming accumulated through years of stress and dysfunctional parenting, that's how I describe Hakomi work. It is nourishing, gentle, compassionate and honestly quite magical...Andy is an excellent therapist and teacher and I would whole heartedly recommend him to anybody who is looking for healing or just a better connection with themselves and the world around...
Adrienne Hodges, Retired Probation Officer/Buddhist Practitioner
Andy is a sensitive, skilled and experienced practitioner of both Feldenkrais and Hakomi. I have had several experiences of working with him in relation to issues both physical and spiritual. During one particular session I experienced a profound energetic shift of trauma that my body had been hanging on to for decades. He has a gentle and compassionate way of working that is both collaborative and synergistic. As a practising Buddhist for over 20 years I recognise that intention, stillness and acceptance is at the core of his work.
Jessica Lerner, Yoga Teacher/Dance Artist
Andy successfully managed to help me with a back problem through Feldenkrais when I had tried other physical therapies like cranial sacral therapy, acupuncture and osteopathy. He also helped me when I'd broken my ankle to regain a sense of connection after not walking for several months. This was a very emotional moment for me as losing my confidence to walk on the leg was profoundly disorienting and shocking and I felt this was attended to in the Feldenkrais treatment. I would say it significantly helped in my journey to recovering from my injury.
I also attended a series of Feldenkrais workshops with him that I found very helpful and enjoyed his teaching style.
Andy has a caring, alert and meditative presence which feels very spacious
Evelyn Aston-Rhodes, Somatic Movement Practitioner
Andy is an extremely skilled practitioner who holds a safe and supportive space for deep explorations into body and feeling states. He offers a clear, warm presence that enabled me to explore new pathways of movement, expression and how I relate to myself and others. I would wholeheartedly recommend working with Andy to experience a deeper connection between body and mind.
Jason Wood
My sessions with Andy were an invaluable part of a process of change in my life. I had sold the house I inherited from my mother and was looking for a new home. The grief that emerged and my understanding of it in the context of this transformational time, was extremely valuable in the reclaiming of my life.
Angie Polkey, Permaculture Teacher
I always found the sessions with you healing and restorative. I learnt how to relax into my body and move more easily, without the added tension and drivenness that can creep in when I'm trying to 'get things done'. A lesson in how to 'be' and get into the flow of life.
"Release from unnecessary suffering is release from an identity that includes habits and ideas that are not only old and outworn but fundamentally flawed as descriptions of reality." Ron Kurtz