About me and about sophrology

My story

I spent 20 busy years building teams and products in a range of digital leadership roles – at eBay, the BBC and the Government Digital Service – and then spent a few more years as a consultant and coach helping public sector teams to build their digital confidence. (There’s more detail on all of this on LinkedIn). 

All of this work life was exciting and rewarding, but it was also all-consuming… and it took its toll.

Since university I’d experienced periods of chronic fatigue, usually following some kind of virus. I’d take some time out and then just leap back in. However, after a particularly demanding year at work, I became properly “burnt out”. Even just speaking took a huge effort, I was sensitive to light, unable to sleep, I had to completely retreat. My usual tactic of taking it easy for a while and bouncing back didn’t work. I took further steps – I left London, went freelance, worked part time and got well enough to get married and have a baby. But then I got Covid and that really knocked me back. 

The things that had helped in the past – yoga, mindfulness, eating well – weren’t enough to pick me up this time (and also somehow felt less accessible now that I was a parent). 

I was feeling pretty hopeless, and then a friend in France mentioned sophrology.

Sophrology is a very well known method in France and elsewhere, and you can read more about it below. What appealed to me personally was that it seemed to blend aspects of things I’d tried before: mindfulness, yoga, NLP, meditation – but it did it in a very pragmatic and accessible way. I found a sophrologist to work with online over a 12 week programme and really started to feel the benefits. I was also excited about its further potential – for me personally but also more widely.

I signed up for a two year training programme with the UK Sophrology Academy, which gave me an opportunity to learn and experience sophrology more deeply for myself, but also will lead to my accreditation as a professional sophrologist. As part of that training I’m now starting to work with clients, and you can read more about this on my Services page and across my blog posts.

If we were in France or Spain or Switzerland then this question might not need answering. In these countries sophrology is as commonplace as yoga or mindfulness. It’s been used by Olympic gold medal winners and contestants on The Voice, it’s in schools and doctors’ surgeries, and it’s used by politicians and business leaders. Here in the UK it’s not so well known – but I’m hoping we can change that!

Sophrology is a set of tools and techniques that help people to manage and improve their wellbeing, their sleep, their confidence, their performance… Its applications are broad and one of its strengths is that it can be adapted to meet the needs of every individual. It’s practical and accessible – you don’t need any special kit, or hours of time, or a belief in a higher power. You just need yourself: your body, your mind, and initially someone to show you the ropes.

Sophrology was developed over many years by a neuropsychiatrist called Professor Alphonso Caycedo, beginning in the late 1960s. He wanted to find a way to treat the mental health of his hospitalised patients that was more humane and effective than the rather brutal treatments of the day. He applied himself to studying not only techniques from “Western” medicine, but also techniques from the East – yoga, Buddhist meditation, and Japanese Zen. His approach was methodical and rigourous- working to understand what it was in these approaches that really helped people, and then developing and testing a method of his own that drew on what he’d learnt. The method he developed is brilliantly flexible, providing a wide range of techniques incorporating breath work, simple movement and elements of visualisation.

Although Caycedo’s initial initial work was with mental health patients it soon became clear that the method he was developing could have much wider application. It was taken up by doctors in other fields, including one working with the Swiss winter Olympic team who achieved extraordinary results.

Since then sophrology has moved beyond the medical world and is now used in a wide range of fields – from performance to politics. It can be adapted and tailored to meet individual needs and can be used in a focused session with a sophrologist but also out and about in daily life.