One-to-One Sessions That Meet You Where You Are

In today’s fast-paced world many of us are navigating the challenges of stress, fatigue, anxiety, or the lingering effects of trauma. Finding a way back to balance can feel almost impossible sometimes. That is where Therapeutic Tai Chi comes in. This practice is all about gently bringing you home to yourself. It is not about pushing or striving, just moving with awareness, breathing deeply, and letting your body remember what ease feels like.

Although group classes provide many benefits, individual sessions offer something quite different. Here the focus is entirely on you, your experience, your needs and how you are feeling right now. Rather than asking you to follow a predetermined sequence of movements, we will shape the practice to match your circumstances, whether you are healing after illness, managing chronic pain, dealing with stress and tiredness, or just wanting to feel more at home in your own body. Each session evolves with you, allowing progress at a pace that feels supportive and sustainable.

Living under constant stress can leave your whole system on high alert. Tai Chi offers a gentle reset. With slow, mindful movements, relaxed breathing, and deep unwinding, you will give your body the space to soften and settle. People often notice improvements like deeper breathing, better balance, less tension, and a renewed sense of inner steadiness. It is not about forcing anything, it’s about learning how to listen to your body, responding with kindness, and slowly opening to what feels possible.

Tai Chi is often described as a slow form of exercise, but it’s so much more than that. It is an embodied mindfulness practice that invites curiosity, presence, and kindness. As you move, you will probably start noticing old patterns, tight shoulders, bracing breath, ways of holding yourself you didn’t even realise were there. This awareness itself becomes a powerful part of the healing process. Most people feel grateful for the chance to slow down, stop forcing things, and let their bodies rediscover natural balance and ease.

My teaching is based on the Huang Sheng Shyan system of Tai Chi, a tradition that emphasises relaxation, balance, structural alignment, and effortless movement. Rather than relying on muscular force, we learn to release tension and allow the body to organise itself naturally. Each session integrates relaxing and loosening exercises, mindful movement, and breathing awareness, inviting the Tai Chi principles to be experienced not only during class, but also in everyday life.

Having spent over 25 years supporting people in their healing journeys, I understand that each person’s needs are unique. My job is to listen, guide, and provide a safe, welcoming space for you to explore movement, awareness and healing in your own way. Therapeutic Tai Chi can work alongside other care, medical treatment, psychological therapy, physiotherapy, and other forms of support, helping your body integrate what you are learning and become more resilient.

If cost is a concern, reduced fees are available for those on low incomes, and I’m always happy to talk about making sessions accessible.

At its core, Therapeutic Tai Chi is about finding your way back to yourself. It invites you to move with awareness, soften unnecessary effort, and trust your body’s innate wisdom. When you create a sense of safety, trust, and presence within, you start to notice real shifts in how you feel and respond to life.

No matter your age, practising embodied mindfulness like Tai Chi gives you a lifelong path for learning, healing, and growth. It continues to enrich my own life, and over the years I’ve been touched by the lasting impact it’s had on the people I’ve had the privilege to work with. It keeps reminding me, and us, that real well-being starts right here, by coming home to ourselves.

Two Simple Practices

Here are a couple of gentle practices to get you started. Both invite you to pause, reconnect, and settle into the present. Rooted in the principles of Tai Chi, they cultivate embodied awareness through mindful attention to the breath, body, and the natural flow of movement. There is no need to strive or achieve anything. Simply approach each practice with curiosity and kindness, allowing yourself to notice what you experience from moment to moment.

Even a few minutes of regular practice can help foster a greater sense of grounding, ease, and inner balance.

Grounding in Standing: An Embodied Awareness Practice 

Start by standing with your feet about hip-width apart, allowing your knees to soften. Let your arms rest comfortably by your sides and imagine the crown of your head gently lifting towards the sky while your feet settle into the earth.

Take a slow, easy breath in through your nose, and breathe out without forcing. Allow your breathing to find its own natural rhythm.

Bring your attention to the sensations of standing. Feeling the contact of your feet with the floor, the gentle sway of your body, and the support of the ground beneath you. There is no need to stand perfectly still, simply notice what is present.

As you breathe, allowing your awareness to move through your body. Noticing any areas of tension and inviting them to soften with each out-breath. Sense the spaciousness inside your body and the quiet movement of your breath.

Whenever your mind wanders, gently return your attention to your breathing and the feeling of your feet resting on the earth.

Remain here for a couple of minutes, allowing yourself to arrive fully in the present moment.

Embodied Spinal Breathing: The Crane Spreads its Wings

Stand comfortably with your feet hip-width apart, your knees soft, and your weight evenly balanced. Allow your body to settle and become aware of the simple experience of standing. Feel the contact of your feet with the ground and notice the natural rhythm of your breathing.

There is nothing to change or control. Simply allow the breath to flow in its own time and become curious about how it naturally moves the body.

As you breathe out, notice how the pelvis naturally begins to roll forwards. Sense how this gentle movement flows upwards through the spine, allowing the shoulder blades to soften and widen across the back, and the chin to gently incline towards the chest. There is no need to create the movement or make it larger. Simply allow the body to follow the out-breath with ease.

As you breathe in, notice how the pelvis gently moves backwards, inviting a wave of movement to travel upwards through the spine. Feel the front of the vertebrae softly lengthening as the heart space opens naturally. Allow the shoulders, arms, and hands to respond to this opening, floating forwards and slightly upwards without effort, as though carried by the rising breath. The shoulder blades gently draw towards one another, as a natural expression of the expanding spine.

Continue in this way, allowing each breath to initiate the movement and each movement to arise from the breath. Rather than trying to create the wave, allow it to emerge naturally, flowing through the pelvis, spine, shoulders, arms, and hands as one continuous, connected whole.

The movement may be very small, perhaps almost imperceptible at first. Trust what you feel rather than how the movement appears. With patient awareness, you may begin to sense a greater spaciousness through the front of the body, ease across the upper back, and a quiet vitality flowing through the spine.

If your attention wanders, gently acknowledge where it has gone and kindly return to the felt experience of breathing. Allow each breath to guide the unfolding practice.

When you are ready to finish, come back to stillness. Take a few quiet breaths and notice the sensations throughout your whole body. Allow yourself to appreciate the time you have taken to pause, connect, and practise in this way.