Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner · PhD in Nursing Studies · Registered Nurse · Honorary Teaching Fellow University of Edinburgh
Your body already knows where it wants to go.
The question is whether you’re giving it any space to get there.
I work with healthcare professionals and people under sustained pressure — using Somatic Experiencing® and nervous system science to help the body do what the mind alone can’t manage.
10+ years across intensive care, emergency departments, academic research and neuro-somatic practice
The mind has understood.
The body is still catching up.
You’ve probably already tried to sort this out. You know what the problem is. You may have talked about it at length, read about it, maybe even worked with someone. And in many ways it’s helped.
But something remains.
A tension that doesn’t fully release.
A tiredness that sleep doesn’t fix.
A version of yourself at home that you don’t quite recognise from the person you’re trying to be.
This is what happens when stress becomes chronic. It stops being a response to specific events and starts being the baseline — held in the body, running quietly underneath everything else.
Talking helps. Understanding helps. But the nervous system keeps its own record, and it needs something more direct to change it.
That’s what this work is.
Three things that
rarely come together
Most practitioners in this space have one, sometimes two. The combination of all three is what makes this work different.
Clinical experience — from the inside
I spent ten years in intensive care units and emergency departments, in Italy and in Scotland. I know what those environments do to a body over time. Not as a theory. As body memory.
Neuro-somatic practice
I am a certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, trained in nervous system regulation. This work is not therapy, not coaching, not mindfulness. It is a precise, body-based process grounded in the physiology of stress and trauma.
Academic research
I hold a PhD in Nursing Studies from the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on trauma, emotional regulation and mind-body experience in clinical settings. Every tool I use has roots in neuroscience and peer-reviewed research.
“You don’t need to understand more.
You need to learn to read — and regulate — what your body has been holding all along.”— Anna Bovo
Does any of this
sound familiar?
Healthcare professionals
Nurses, doctors, paramedics, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists. People who spend their working lives regulating for others — and have very little left for themselves by the end of it.
- “I finish my shift but my body won’t switch off.”
- “I feel flat in my emotions as if I do not really want to connect with others/patients.”
- “I feel constantly on edge, even at home.”
- “I’ve tried mindfulness but it doesn’t touch it when I’m really activated.”
People carrying something that talking hasn’t shifted
Those who have done real work on themselves — therapy, self-development, reflection — and found it genuinely useful, but incomplete. The body stayed behind somewhere.
- “I’ve done years of therapy but the tension in my body never left.”
- “I understand it all perfectly. I just can’t seem to change it.”
- “I want something concrete, not another conversation about it.”
Organisations and teams
NHS trusts, hospitals, nursing schools, healthcare training bodies. Workshops and programmes on nervous system regulation, stress in clinical settings, and sustainable staff wellbeing — built around the reality of the environments your people actually work in.
- CPD-accredited training
- Tailored to your ward, team or organisation
- Grounded in research, not generic wellness
People who want rigour
Those who have been let down by the vague end of the wellness world and are looking for something with a scientific foundation. Who want to understand what is happening in their nervous system — in language that doesn’t require them to leave their critical thinking at the door.
- “I trust people with a serious background.”
- “I want to understand why my body reacts this way.”
- “I’m not interested in crystals or energy. I want something real.”
The person behind this work
From an intuition at nineteen — in the corridors of my first hospital placement, already knowing that what mattered most was what wasn’t being taught — to ten years of clinical practice, doctoral research on trauma, and advanced training in Somatic Experiencing®.
I didn’t plan this path in a straight line. I followed what I kept needing to understand: why the body won’t calm down, what happens to the nervous system after years of intense work, and whether anything can actually change it.
The answer, it turns out, is yes.
Working with me
The programme is eight weeks of individual Somatic Experiencing® sessions — structured around your life, your schedule and where your nervous system actually is right now.
It includes an initial mapping session, short practices for high-pressure days, an evening audio for sleep and recovery, and support between sessions.
It’s designed for people with real constraints. Sessions adapt to shift patterns. The practices work in five minutes. The work goes deep.
Find out moreWhat people say,
in their own words
ICU Nurse“By the end of the few weeks, people were almost levitating a little bit — just feeling lighter in themselves. I definitely did.”
A&E Nurse“This has been really important for my personal life, my professional life. Somatic experiencing can be a real gift.”
ICU Nurse“A lot of big takeaways that I think will influence how I deal with stress of any sort. In life. This has exceeded my expectations.”
A&E Nurse“I felt safe to do it. I knew you would hold the space.”
Start with a conversation.
A free 30-minute call to talk about where you are and whether this work makes sense for you right now.
No commitment. If it’s not the right fit, I’ll tell you that.