'Mental Health' Wellness Coaching Sessions for Experiencers

Coaching for Experiencers

I have been offering one to one sessions with people experiencing extreme emotional and mental states for the past seven years.

I work in two ways:

• Online: We share a combination of therapeutic conversation and embodied mindfulness practices to regulate our emotions and nervous system.
  I work through energetic resonance which works amazingly well online.
• In-person: Depending on the length of the session, we share a combination of therapeutic conversation, embodied mindfulness practices and a Sei Ki HeartTouch 'emotional bodywork' session.

I'm finding both ways effective for working with people.

Online Coaching

Online is great because it allows me to see people anywhere in the world and in their home environments where they feel safe.

I love it because I can see how much benefit people get from our exchanges.

As I've shared more and more of these therapeutic conversations, what I found is that there are several areas in which they seem helpful to people:

Normalising the experiences so people don't feel alone in them.

I know exactly what it feels like to be in a non-ordinary state that does not end.

The world 'outside' interacting with my mind like we are 'one', almost cartoon like.

With no sense of whether I am alive or dead or in another universe.

With emotions spiking into extreme panic attacks, paranoia rising naturally in response to the behaviour of others, revelations pouring into my mind as if I am talking with God, 'extra' objects and beings manifesting around me, voices both friendly and unfriendly appearing in my mind, helping me or suggesting I kill myself.

This is all normalised for me, and over a ten year period I got used to facing it and not going into fear too much. When you have walked the territory enough times, you can navigate it without too much fuss for oneself or others.

One client was sectioned immediately after an experience similar to this, because he was afraid of the state, but with increased knowledge he might have been able to hold the experience and come back from it.

Another person tried to commit suicide and entered the psychiatric system because of the 'cartoon' state - but after a short conversation where we affirmed that she wasn't mad and that it was a natural human experience, she was able to look at it differently and consider whether she needs to train as a clairvoyant or at least learn to relax when it happens to her.

As she experienced herself, you cannot 'helpfully' discuss this with 'most' people as they just say you are mad! They go into fear.

Sharing my self-acceptance of who I am, which is contagious.

If you can't accept yourself, you judge yourself and you are likely ashamed of 'who you are' and this puts you at war with yourself, creating serious difficulty inside. I have had to deal with relating to the 'dark side of God' within me. When you can love the 'dark' as well as the 'light', things get a lot easier.

I have also had to deal with 'being a failure' and having a 'wasted life'. It is actually nonsense and just a mental judgement but it doesn't seem like that when you are experiencing it. Everyone around you tends to think it's a wasted life as well. And this can cause terrible suffering. I nearly commited suicide partly because of this, partly because of my medication.

Sharing my cognitive understanding of the experiences and how to navigate them safely.

When you grow up in a normal family and go to school you learn how to relate to the world around you. Unfortunately the current understanding of the universe shared in most families and schools does not prepare you for encounters with the unconscious or non-ordinary states and if this is your regular experience, there is much to learn.

Sharing my enthusiasm and enjoyment of life, giving hope to people.

I am a happy person. Life will still have its ups and downs and many things may not be as I might have dreamt them, but the basic life is good, 'NOW'!.

Just experiencing someone who has been through similar situations to yourself, come through them, and recovered offers more conviction than anything else that you yourself will get through. In my experience medical professionals tell you the opposite, that you will not get through and will need medication for the rest of your life.

I can go on... there are many things we can share including energy practices I use to balance my emotional state.

Embodied Mindfulness Practices for Emotional & Nervous Regulation

Therapeutic conversations on their own can be great when there is real empathy and connection. I once called them 'straitjacket conversations'. There is a kind of connection between two people with similar extreme experiences, especially when one is further down the road of recovery which is really powerful.

At the same time, I am dissatisfied with talking alone. Very often there is much to much 'head' present and what everyone needs is to drop into the body and then allow the body to enter the process of unwinding the tensions that have built up inside.

Once the body starts to feel safe, we can dive deeper and deeper into a positive spiral in which the mind and the body both start to relax and open up.

I have quite a diverse collection of practices to work with people, which have evolved from my own need to find practices to help myself. They come from Japanese Hara & Ki Therapy training, Tai Chi & Qi Gong, Zen & Mindfulness & Dance Therapy.

I am receiving amazing feedback from people, both online and in-person. Aggressive inner voices will stop when a person enters into 'embodied presence'. Inner agitation will fade and the body feels calm. The person will simply feel more embodied and present in the hear and now. A nice feeling!

Most of all what I notice is that the stream of 'thinking mind' dissociated chatter tends to ease and there is space for really reflecting deeply on what has been causing distress.

On doing this, I am confident, some people will no longer need psychiatric attention.

Real change takes time and plenty of daily effort but its worth it, because you really heal and grow as a person.

My Way of Working

My way of working with people is to arrange a single introductory coaching session to allow us to get to know each other, clear up any confusions about what is going on, and be clear on 'health & safety' aspects before encouraging you to start your journey of recovery.

We can then arrange a series of 4 one-hour-long online practice coaching sessions in which I help you to develop a routine you can do on a daily basis to move your journey forwards.

I will then encourage you to practise by yourself on a regular basis with further coaching support sessions every few weeks or each month as required.

For regular students, I will be open to small amounts of communication by text msg outside of classes if necessary. What is important is that you don't feel alone in your process.

Depending on numbers, I may be able to offer weekly Hara Conditioning support classes for students who have completed the basic coaching sessions with me.

Any subsequent coaching sessions will be because 1) There is a crisis to resolve 2) Questions have come up which need further support. I do not encourage therapy dependency patterns.

My belief is that each individual needs to follow their own recovery journey. My role is to help ignite the fire for this process if its needs a bit of help and then support is along the way, whether that is over a few weeks intensively or adhoc over many years.

Depending on location, it may also be possible to join one of my in-person events. See easternpeace.com for more on these.

In-person Coaching & Emotional Bodywork

At the moment this is happening on an adhoc basis at a variety of locations. I will write more when I establish a formal therapy practice.

Important Notes:

Wellness Coaching: I am offering 'wellness / life coaching' sessions as an 'expert by experience'. I am not a regulated psychotherapist or counsellor. I have professional training and up to date insurance to work with individuals as a Mindfulness teacher, a Bodywork therapist and as a Tai Chi teacher.

This is a legal disclaimer: What you take from a session and put into action in your life is your personal responsibility. By engaging my services, I will assume you understand and accept this.

Personal Responsibility: I expect individuals to take responsibility for themselves. I cannot take this on myself, though I will support people as best I can. If the individual cannot do this then family members need to take responsibility. If there is a situation in which no one is able to take responsibility, then sadly this is where the mental health services play an important role in our society.

Psychiatry: In my experience the psychiatric profession plays an important health and safety role for the society. I must acknowledge that for some people the use of some form of anti-psychotic medication may be appropriate despite the side-effects. When something better is available the treatments should be updated.

But I also believe that there are individuals with more sensitivity who could be helped in other more gentle ways and right now these options are not available to them. Treatment with anti-psychotic medications may prevent them from living out their full potential in life and this is very, very sad. Most people will prefer to look away unless it is their own life being ruined or that of someone they love but this cannot be ignored and needs to change in our society and mental health systems.

So while the pharmacology path may be the only option for some people, as a kindly psychiatrist once told me, if you can find any other path, take it...

Dangers - I am not naive as to the dangers inherent in non-ordinary experiences, but am not afraid of them in the way perhaps the majority of humanity are, including psychiatric professionals. We will discuss this, and if in the end you need 24hr support (which I did the first time), then the options will include psychiatric care, hopefully for a short time.

Trauma & Suffering - In my experience, people experience mental health difficulties for a reason, not because of a random 'act of God'. Whether anyone wants to face the 'reason' is another matter. A benefit from having been 'cruxified' in my own journey is that I have a capacity to be with suffering in others. We may even be able to make light of it...

Practical Details & Fees

I would suggest people make an initial contact with me through this website.

We can then arrange a first paid session if you are clear you want to work with me.

Session Fee: £80 / hour, £120 / 1 1/2 hrs.

My intention for working with experiencers is to offer a 5 session recovery course.

You pay the first session upfront £80. And then afterwards if we agree to continue together, a further £320 for 4 practice sessions over an agreed period of a month or two.

For small groups, I will charge £40 / hour each for two people, £30 / hour each for three, £25 / hour each for four people.

Please contact me for large scale events in person or online.

I charge £90 for Sei Ki Touch and coaching sessions combined in person usually lasting 1 1/4 hours though this may vary with the venue fees.

Payment can be made by bank transfer or credit card via Wise or Paypal. I will send details. I request payment to be made before the agreed session.

Contact Me...

Nb. I am not able to offer 'free' one to one sessions and I am well aware many interested people will be living on social benefits. Much of my activity in this field is unpaid or underpaid and this is where I choose to charge for my time. If we cannot meet in this way, please review the material I have already put online on my websites. I intend to create much more. Hopefully we will be able to meet in a group session in person sometime.