Hello

Welcome, I'm Alice. Here's a little bit more about me. If you're considering embarking on a journey with me, it's only fair to know a little bit more about me.

I’m a Chartered Physiotherapist, and a Registered Yoga Teacher and Continuing Education Provider with Yoga Alliance International. I am specially trained in Mindfulness Yin Yoga and hold my Level 2 Training in Mindfulness Based Interventions and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. Connecting all of these practices is Somatic Counselling, which bridges the body-mind gulf beautifully.

I’ve always had an interest in people, what motivates them, what makes them happy, how can they be well? I also love getting outside, climbing, biking, camping and travelling. So I completed my BA (Hons) in Outdoor Studies then my MSc in Psychology with a focus on how the natural environment can help people cope with stress and anxiety.

Fast forward to 2013, whilst cycling from the UK to New Zealand with my husband Pete (honeymoon!) I sustained a back injury in the middle of Tajikistan and realised that physical health doesn't exist without psychological heath and that the environment you're in helps a lot too.

So I took a break from cycling and trained to be a Yoga Teacher in the Himalayas. It solidified the idea that body and mind are inextricably linked, but I still didn’t yet understand enough about the body to know how to sort out my back pain (despite giving up my own bike to join Pete on a tandem for the last 10,000kms of the journey!).

So in the true spirit of ‘if you want a job doing, do it yourself’ I applied for an accelerated Masters in Physiotherapy. Had they known I was currently in the middle of cycling across Australia having not showered for weeks, I’m not sure if this would have helped or hindered my case. After 2 gruelling years (far harder than cycling across the world!) a strong foundation in evidence based practice and practical skills I achieved a Distinction in Physiotherapy, including a Distinction in my research on Mindfulness and Persistent Pain. But most importantly, I was finally pain free!

After graduation, I worked in the NHS in rotations and in a static MSK (musculoskeletal ) Outpatients Role. After a while I set up by myself, enabling a greater focus on Clinical Yoga, and teaching classes alongside running courses, workshops, lecturing. I even had a brief stint doing a PhD - about journeys by bike, wildness and wellbeing. But realised I'd much prefer to be actually in the landscapes I was writing about..

So in 2022, now with a couple of kids in tow, Pete and I decided to relocate to the magnificent Scottish Highlands. The wildness and the welcome of this place somehow reflects in my work, in what I believe in. In August 2023 we took on the lease of the Old RSPB Red Kite Centre at Lochussie, nr Dingwall. It's essentially a barn in a field, but it feels magical.

A Different Approach to Wellbeing

Well, it's not different, just a little bit forgotten in the modern medicinal model!

As a Physiotherapist, I've found that purely physical presentations are extremely rare. Once you take the time to investigate, the underlying root of an injury is often rooted in stress, not taking care of ourselves (not listening to our bodies), or due to a psychological resistance/habits of some kind (whether you are currently consciously aware of it or not).

We now know that our nervous system has a huge bearing on not only the physical body (how quickly we heal, how strong we are, how flexible we are, how often we get injured) but also how we respond to life, how stuck we feel, how anxious, depressed etc. If we have had, or witnessed, a physical trauma such as an accident, abuse or surgery, it can leave its imprint on the physical and psychological body long after the physical 'wounds' are healed.

But what I find the most interesting part is that when we reconnect to our body, and remember it's intuition, it's messages, when we learn how to feel and move again - that is when real change can happen. The mind affects the body and nervous system; the nervous system affects the body and mind; stressors effect the mind, body and nervous system; the body affects the nervous system and mind. They're inextricably linked. That's why to ONLY work with the body, or ONLY work with the mind the results can often be limited, particularly if the issue has been ongoing, or there has been physical or emotional trauma of some kind. The whole body is kept in view in this approach.

My mission is not only to treat the wonderful individuals that find their way into my practice, but to also train Physiotherapists and other Health Professionals to be able to practically apply a more integrated vision of health in their clinical practice, where the beautiful, interconnected and very much alive human treated . The shift is in some ways is subtle, but the ripple effect is colossal.

In my own professional practice my real joy is when the body and mind approaches are combined. As a society, I believe our minds are generally distanced from our bodies, and our bodies distance from the wild nature all around us. My Physiotherapy practice has evolved to be based around yoga and mindfulness based practices as this is what seems to empower people to take charge of their own wellbeing and results in sustainable change.

These ancient systems allow us to develop the skills to be able to listen to our body, and to our intuition. We learn to feel the body before we have an injury, and as it heals; we can use the body in both strong and subtle ways to deal with stress, with anxiety, trauma, depression. We just need the tools and sometimes somebody to hold that space and co-journey with.

Alongside my yoga classes, my main offerings are my Clinical Yoga Sessions; Somatic Counselling and Training in Clinical Yoga and Somatics for Health Professionals. My aim is to empower the individual, to know their bodies and minds again; but also the health professional. We need structured and practical ways to understand (and know) how to integrate the body-mind continuum within our professional practice, for the health of our clients, but also for ourselves. Luckily, there is also a wealth of literature to support this stance, contributing to evidence based practice.