Susanna Alyce
Routes to Well-being
Mindfulness and compassion meditations and movement practices can help you feel easier in your body, mind and heart, just as they have helped millions before you.
Meeting one to one we can work together to structure a practice suited to your own individual needs.
I have been using these practices for more than 35 years and teaching since 2001. I am qualified and registered to teach Mindfulness Meditation, Yoga, and offer Trauma-informed care and listening.
Different Routes
Using different skills, practices and techniques we can work together to find your personal route to well being
see more detail here: therapies
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness Meditation is a well researched and widely used method which can loosen the grip of difficult mind states.
Every one of us has the ability to pay attention, and by using this capability with guidance from an experienced teacher we begin to be able to choose how to respond wisely to our difficulty and disengage from the spiralling and catastrophising that minds often adopt.
By noticing how our thoughts and actions have been making our feelings worse, and bringing kindness to these old habits, we start to cultivate more self compassion and kindness towards ourselves. This can then spill out into our dealings with other people.
Mindfulness is best practiced a little and often in guided formal practice and informally Engaging in a daily practice we can start to change the responses of our minds to our difficulty
Trauma Informed Care
Trauma leaves a physiological and psychological imprint in the survivors of inter-personal harm.
Trauma informed care respects the relationship of trust between the survivor and the professional by returning choice and control to the client. The client is always in charge of the speed and the direction the sessions take. Careful listening, enquiring and acting on client needs allows the client to become more confident in asking for what is needed, and breaking what can be a lifelong silences.
Trauma informed care places the client at the centre of treatment - makes no assumptions and creates a space where the client feels able to repair mistakes and ruptures in the working relationship.
Person-centred Listening and Counselling
When we are held in a safe space it becomes possible to speak about things that may have long been kept silent. When we talk, and feel deeply listened to, we may start to hear our self in a new way. We may discover thoughts and feelings that have been buried or on the edge of our awareness.
I have a certificate in person-centred skills, and I am working towards a diploma and registration as a person centred therapist.
Mindful Movement
Mindful Movement uses Yoga, Qi Gong, and walking to bring the body into focus.
By moving the body our mind is drawn away from repetitive thinking and difficult mind states. We start to find places in our body which feel more steady than others.
By building our ability to choose which parts of our body to pay attention to we can develop the steadiness. When life then conspires to unsettle us, when we are worried or anxious, we can use these steadying parts of the body to both ride out the difficulty, and restore balance to body and mind.
Mindfulness and Self Compassion Practices
Everyone has the ability to use awareness to notice but usually we are so swept up in repetitive thoughts and body states, like anxiety, that we lose the chance of seeing the bigger picture.
Mindfulness and compassion practices, when used correctly, bring a steadiness which facilitates clearer seeing.
By using this clear-seeing awareness, together we can come to understand what troubles you, and we can find ways to alleviate the difficulty by make wise choices for self care and well being. Self compassion can reverse the damaging effects of our internal landscapes of self-blame and self-alienation.
Central to my approach is the recognition that every client is unique, and deserves care and guidance shaped to their specific and particular needs.
I have a MSc in teaching mindfulness and have been teaching meditation for more than 20 years.
Mindful Movement: Yoga and Qi Gong
Yoga can be taught in many ways, sometimes it is demanding and achievement orientated, sometimes it is gentle and spiritually oriented. There is no right or wrong way to practice yoga - but there is a way that is best suited to YOU.
Together we can discover how traditional yoga postures can be practiced by you to give your body a feeling of easy and peacefulness.
Yoga works on many aspects of our health:
stretching out tension in muscles and soft tissue.
helping joint stay mobile and healthy
rebalancing nervous, circulatory, and endocrine systems.
developing helpful breathing patterns
calming and focusing the mind
balancing the emotions
bringing steadiness
opening awareness of the spiritual and mystical aspects of life
But what do you need? What aspects will help you?
I teach yoga as a joint exploration of your body, heart and mind and together we will discover which aspects are beneficial. I can teach you weekly or develop a home practice that meets your needs.
Trauma Informed Care
Trauma changes a person mentally and physically. It leaves imprints in terms of feeling scared, anxious, shakey, hyper-vigilant, angry, silent or dissociated - to name but a few. It can wake us up in the night with terrible nightmares and it can make us see the world and the people in it as potential threats.
Trauma can result from one off incidents such as a violent event, or witnessing a loved one in danger. It can also be as a result of childhood experiences of abuse (physical, emotional and/or sexual) of neglect.
You may know trauma as PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) or C-PTSD (complex post traumatic stress disorder).
Mindfulness, compassion and mindful movement can all help in recovery from trauma.
I am completing a PhD in trauma for survivors of childhood abuse. I train and lecture professionals on trauma-informed care, and I have a CPT certificate in trauma treatment modalities.
If you would like to book an appointment or discuss how my teaching style might help you please contact me.
Practices for Trauma recovery
is a website I designed and run which offers guided practices, resources and information for people who want to develop a self practice to address trauma. Feel free to take a look and use any of the resources.
My Professional Background
More than 20 years teaching
Yoga Teacher
Iyengar Yoga Diploma: 2001
British Wheel of Yoga Diploma: 2010
Birthlight (pregnancy and post natal) Diploma: 2003
YogaBugs (childrens) : 2001
Mindfulness Teacher
MSc Teaching Mindfulness Based Approaches:
Bangor University. 2009-2014
Self Compassion Training: 2020
Meditation Teacher Diploma (School of the Living Light): 2001
Trauma Informed Care
PhD Applied Psychology.
University of Essex
2023
Person-Centred Approach
Certificate. UEA. 2017
Diploma. Norwich Centre 2022-to date
