I work with all kinds of people of all ages and abilities who are exploring movement as fundamental and integral to health, as well as people suffering with back pain, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, menopause, addiction and stress. To Book a one-on-one or group session, please email: amanda@ movingsoma.co.uk

Concessions are available for students, people on a low income or in complex financial situations. Sometimes friends come together if they feel nervous about a first session or to share the cost. Sometimes I run family sessions on request. 

​'The Centre for Embodiment & Somatic Movement Education & Therapy’  offers sessions for individuals and groups.  All sessions are dedicated to cultivating easeful being, self-reflection and slow-time gentle sensory-perceptual movement exercise. All sizes and abilities are welcome. This type of reflective movement therapy is ideal for those who want to explore mindful, embodied and easeful approaches to their body-mind health; and those interested in self-regulation and somatic agency. This sensitive approach to the moving body brings awareness to habituated movement, neuro-muscular tension and patterns of holding, in turn supporting skeletal-muscular release. Somatic approaches to movement are particularly supportive of those experiencing headaches, migraines, work-related stress, neuro-muscular tension, menopause, back and joint pain, and a general feeling of disembodiment and disengagement from their body. The work improves vitality and supports easeful states of being, develops embodied confidence and creative engagement with life journey. Practitioners support clients in cultivating conscious awareness of their moving body; they facilitate gentle, mindful and easeful sensory-perceptual processes, and an imaginative range of empirical investigations rooted in experiential anatomy.

International Scope of Practice: 
The purpose of Somatic Movement Education & Therapy is to enhance human function and body-mind integration through movement awareness. Somatic Movement Education & Therapy helps clients to:
·         focus on the body both as an objective physical process and as a subjective
process of lived consciousness
·         refine perceptual, kinesthetic, proprioceptive, and interoceptive sensitivity that supports homeostasis, co-regulation, and neuroplasticity
·         recognize habitual patterns of perceptual, postural and movement interaction with the environment
·         improve movement coordination that supports structural, functional and expressive integration
·         experience an embodied sense of vitality and create both meaning for and enjoyment of life
 
This mindful releasing movement therapy developed in response to the misuse, objectification and desensitisation of the body in Western societies.

See our Making space for the body’s lived and sensed experience: holistic movement therapy
The human body’s life-journey, stories, narratives, life-energy, sensations, feelings, perceptions, suffering and transformational potential is one of the most undervalued sites of healing, agency and self-discovery in the Western World. The body and earth sustains our life (body-earth is the ground of our being – of our consciousness, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, imagination, language and actions), and yet, both bare the socio-economic and historic wound of being demoted to a machine and commodity. The profession of Somatic Movement Dance Education & Therapy grew in response to the dualistic and disembodied enculturation of our bodies and earth in Western societies. Rather than perceiving the body as a machine or commodity, therapists support clients in experiencing the body as a living adaptive organism – full of vitality, imagination, agency and self-regulatory intelligence. They recognise the living body as central to life-journey. 
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​See our confidentiality policy here

Lee Harrison
​★★★★★ 3 weeks ago
I’ve found my time at the centre for embodiment so far enlightening. My life is fairly hectic. Being busy I constantly find myself physically stooping, tensing and generally feeling anxious and quite stressed. Going to Amanda’s therapy classes have made me feel empowered, relaxed and happy. The sessions are all about self expression and finding yourself, in a lovely calm relaxed environment. I truly would recommend these sessions to everyone, especially those caught up in a busy  life. I’ve been to many yoga classes and although these were great, somatic movement classes are about mind and body, and how they can work together in a more freeing way. To start the year on such a positive note is truly amazing. I couldn’t be feeling happier right now. The movements within the sessions are mostly done with eyes closed, so no matter what strange or unusual position you find yourself in, no-one will see you, which gave me a very freeing feeling. I would recommend this. If you are not sure try it, there will be nothing to loose, and a lot of positive thoughts and movements to gain. 

Samantha Young
​★★★★★ 2 weeks ago
Amanda’s somatic movement therapy classes have really helped me to find some calm in my hectic week and allowed me to clear my mind and listen to my body. If you’re looking for a movement class that is truly different to anything you may have experienced before, this is for you. The classes are friendly and allow you to express yourself in a non judgemental and supportive environment. All the movement is done with eyes closed, which allows you to really be free, without comparing yourself to others. I am so glad I discovered Moving Soma and would highly recommend it.

Rachel Lewis
★★★★★ 4 weeks ago
I am so happy I found Amanda at a time when I needed some real help in my life. I have been welcomed into the beautiful space at Normandy House and made to feel at ease, safe and supported. During our one to one sessions I am able to release feelings and emotions through movement and meditation that I have been holding inside me - in turn this has helped with reducing physical pain and anxiety, and with each week that passes these symptoms are becoming a lot less noticeable. I am discovering how to release my emotions in many different ways and have become more aware of the physical limitations my mind has been putting on my body. The work I have been doing with Amanda has given me pain free movement, which I have not experienced for a number of years. Amanda is incredibly supportive and has given me the confidence to take time out for myself for self care and to heal.. I am truly grateful to her.  
Would highly recommend!Rachel Lewis

Arran Stibbe
★★★★★19 hours ago
Dr Amanda Williamson is one of the top international scholars and practitioners of somatic movement education. It’s fantastic that she has opened a studio here in Cheltenham. The studio itself is an oasis of tranquillity, a perfect environment for a harmonious blend of relaxation and movement that is surprisingly rejuvenating and healing. As well as individual and group sessions, the Centre offers a superb professional accreditation course in bio-somatic education. I highly recommend everything about Moving Soma.