Now I know and anyone who’s seen me try knows that I cannot dance. Dance however is a fantastic route to health and well being and English National Ballet, The Ballet Boyz and Roehampton University are behind a piece of significant research on its benefits.

For those interested, the link is here.

The Ballet Boyz studio in Kingston runs classes.  Check them out​.

I was asked to write a blog piece for the forthcoming CamExpo in London, where I’m speaking.  They posed a question for us to respond to thus; “In 2015 the top five causes of stress internationally, are said to be; money, self-pressure, lack of sleep, work-load and health. What do you think is the best treatment that practitioners can offer their clients suffering with stress?”

Having pondered the question, I wondered if we are approaching stress from the wrong angle, so I wrote….

Stress is so often treated as a problem, as though it’s an illness that we can treat. It’s a natural response, it’s part of us and how we work. Without it, no species can compete and Darwin’s theory falls flat on its face. Without it, no Olympic Golds, no iPhone, no ‘better’ anything.

Watch here and be inspired.

As therapists, we usually find ourselves repeating the instruction to move more.  We know it makes sense, we know it works.  It works biomechanically, it produces endorphins, it enables and empowers and that is hugely healing in itself.
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We sometimes struggle to carry ‘weight’ in our conviction (in the absence of medical ‘evidence’).  Our clients are often given pain killers and told to rest, by their GPs.  How can we get past this ‘clinical’ advice and get our message across?