Biological Gym
Be Water, My Friend - Bruce Lee
Why go to the Biological Gym?
When we’re under stress, our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is activated, flooding our body with cortisol and adrenaline — survival hormones meant for life-or-death threats. Today, everyday stressors like work or relationships trigger the same response in which blood is diverted to muscles, reducing our ability to think clearly, digest properly, and maintain a strong immune system. Ideally, the stressful situation ends, and our hormones return to balance, which is regulated by our para-sympathetic nervous system (PNS). However, if the stress endures, cortisol levels remain high, and we become perpetually disconnected, overwhelmed, reactive, and less creative or fulfilled. Chronic stress not only affects our mood, productivity and relationships but also contributes to serious health issues like heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and poor mental health.
Yet, the human body is a wonderous, incredible thing. It is always looking to harmonise and thrive, and will, if given the opportunity. When we spend more time in our PNS, we have access to clearer thinking, creativity, more robust immune functioning, better digestion, improved sleep, reduced muscle tension, overall better health, better relationships and more joy! The Biological Gym supports you to live in better balance.
-
Regulate and Resource
It is not necessary to destroy ourselves to achieve, it is possible to succeed with ease and play – if biology comes with us. Just as we go the regular gym to build our muscle strength, we can strategically attend to the fitness of our whole biology by learning to regulate and resource. When you resource and develop your biological system you increase your capacity to manage overwhelm and stress.
-
Resilience
We build resilience through expanding our capacity for joy - not discomfort. We have an evolutionary bias to the negative. In these session we build in strategic practices that re-wire us for more joy. Developing the ‘muscle’ to move away from the unhelpful, “what’s wrong” attention and spend more time in a positive state improves resilience.
-
Space and Sparkle
We waste so much energy holding unnecessary tension. By inviting ease and mindfully creating space in our body and environment we become more efficient. Whilst inviting ease can feel counter intuitive, with it we welcome renewed resource, energy, play and productivity.
Take your team to the Biological Gym
-
We all experience stress and burnout differently, and yet, the elegance and intelligence of our biology gives us a great place to collectively make a start at addressing our baseline stress levels. These sessions offer better a place to help you understand the nervous system and ways to regulate it.
Opening up the conversation to the whole self, encourages alignment in the individual, which creates better flow with whole team.
Interactive team training session for groups to:
o Learn about biological systems
o Increase awareness of signs and impact of stress and burnout
o Gain understanding of strategies to build resilience
o Develop the innate resources of the bodymind
o Increase capacity to manage overwhelm and stress. Spend more time in joy
For continuity and embedding these practices, this session is ideally followed up with at least one Consolidation Session, if not a Regular Biological Gym Group Session.
-
Follow up session to Whole Team Training. This work is fresh to the neurobiology and as with anything that we learn, repetition is the key. In this session:
o Recap the main learning from The Biological Gym Team Training
o Create space to consider how people have been able to implement the exercises and offer consultation
o Deepen practise and learn more skills
-
Just like going to the normal gym, the key to success is to continue to go. Following the Whole Team Training, practice is important if we want to sustain strengthen in our biological muscle, to build resilience and enjoyment on the biological level. This not only helps build agency over the ‘in the moment states’, so that you can feel better and live better, but also expands your capacity on the neurobiological level. The laying of new neural pathways and re-training our tension patterns requires repetition and practise. During a free pre-consultation the frequency would be recommend and reviewed regularly. It is usual for these to be monthly, 6 weekly or quarterly. For up to 10 Participants.
These sessions will:
o Be tailored to the teams’ needs – can be run with specific learning themes/aims
o Help prevent overwhelm and burnout – rather than having to manage it
o Give regular opportunity to gather as a team in a facilitated, supportive environment
o Continue to resource with easily applicable exercises
o Build and embed positive team culture
o Develop a resilient, productive and creative team
-
It might be that individuals would benefit from one-to-one sessions. Perhaps in times of high stress and demand. Like all of these sessions, we work together to become better at tracking their system to help manage overwhelm and stress. Offering the opportunity to be happier, healthier, more productive and creative.
Please see Somatic Body Oriented Coaching for more details.
Somatic coaching facilitates connection with, and development of, the richly resourced whole self in this nurturing, non-judgemental environment gives new insights and possibilities. This supports a person to thrive, not just survive, by building organic ways to be happier and healthier. Forward movement is created, through integration of these insights in and out of sessions. Connecting to these innate resources moves us beyond.
-
Training in how to lead with whole bodymind wellbeing approach. Session would be tailored to needs of group during consultation. As this is a smaller group of up to 6, the session offers space for a much more individualised attention to how one relates. Generally, there will be a focus on:
o How to better support yourself and staff - including training on Listening
o Create an environment that is inclusive and happy
o Nurture what you are building and work against toxicity
o Reducing sickness, retain talent, increase productivity, creativity and a joyful team spirit
-
Special attention giving to nurturing new life, the person growing it and the partners supporting the process. Please contact me directly for more details.
A Note on Referral Structure
It is important that there is a clear system in place for Individual Somatic Coaching referral and contracting. Together we can set up a structure so that people can feel safe to engage and get the most out of the work. It is to be understood that these sessions are confidential (unless there is safeguarding issue). If management and/or the employee feel that more rounded support is needed in the form of facilitated meetings, I can offer this service.
Note on Price, Duration and Group size in Team sessions
My work is tailored to the need of the client and/or company. I offer free pre-consultation for all the options above. This is a vital part of the process to provide a personalised service and ensure the success of the work we will do together.
The price and duration of any team sessions will be adapted in line with your requirements. These are naturally dictated by group numbers and appropriate session length. In larger group sessions, it would be necessary to bring in a co-facilitator and as such the price would reflect this. All costs quoted on basis of online sessions. In person costs can be discussed.
These sessions are based in the present moment, however should anyone touch into something that needs extra nurture and support, as a psychotherapist and somatic body oriented coach, I am able to contain and support this.