The Breath Body Mind Method

The Breath Body Mind Method is my integrated approach to working with anxiety, chronic pain and trauma.

Anxiety, chronic pain and other symptoms reflect patterns in the nervous system, subconscious learning, stress physiology and lived experience.

This method brings together cognitive, somatic and subconscious work in a way that is responsive to you as an individual.

The focus is nervous system flexibility. This brings greater adaptability, increased capacity and a deeper trust in your body.

If you are struggling with your thoughts, finding it hard to relax, or feeling as though your body isn’t your friend, it can begin to feel as though you are stuck that way.

When you feel supported to address the root causes of your suffering, your capacity can increase naturally. My aim is to support you to restore your confidence and agency.

The Core Principles

Nervous System Flexibility

When your nervous system has greater flexibility, it can move between activation and rest without becoming stuck in protection. Building that flexibility increases your capacity to respond to life with steadiness and adaptability.

Subconscious Pattern Updating

Many protective responses operate below conscious awareness. When we work directly with these patterns, change happens at the level where those responses were learned.

Structured Somatic Integration

The body can hold tension and incomplete stress responses long after an event has passed. Structured, repeatable somatic practices help your body complete those responses and restore regulation in a steady way.

Education Increases Agency

When we expand your knowledge of how symptoms develop and perpetuate, you can begin to apply those insights to yourself. This often leads to greater clarity, reduced fear and a stronger sense of understanding.

How The Method Is Applied

The Breath Body Mind Method draws from several evidence-based approaches. Some are integrated within 1:1 sessions. Others are delivered as structured, standalone practices that complement the work.

Cognitive Hypnotherapy

Cognitive Hypnotherapy forms the core of my 1:1 work. It allows us to work directly with subconscious patterns, predictive responses and long-standing beliefs that influence how your nervous system responds.

It creates focused space to update outdated protective responses and build new internal resources.

Structured Somatic Integration

Somatic work is woven throughout 1:1 sessions in the form of structured impulse completion practices and body-based regulation exercises informed by Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Qi Gong principles.

These practices are structured, repeatable and grounded in nervous system science. They support the body in restoring flexibility and building capacity for regulation.

Silhouette of a woman moving freely with a sunrise in the background

Trauma Release Exercises (TRE)

TRE is offered as a complementary standalone practice.

Facilitated over 2 dedicated sessions, TRE supports the body in releasing deeply held tension patterns and restoring autonomic balance.

Many clients choose to integrate TRE alongside Cognitive Hypnotherapy as part of their broader nervous system work.

Breath Re-Education

Breath patterns influence nervous system stability.

Using the Buteyko Method, we improve carbon dioxide tolerance and restore functional breathing patterns. This supports autonomic balance and increases resilience under stress.

Pain & Nervous System Education

Expanding your understanding of how symptoms develop increases clarity and agency.

Pain Neuroscience Education forms an essential layer of this method, supporting you to apply insights between sessions and build long-term change.

How this works in practice

In 1:1 work, each session draws from this integrated method in a way that responds to you as an individual.

In Membership, these principles are reinforced weekly through structured practice and reflection, creating continuity and steady momentum.

Ella Matthews - West London Cognitive Hypnotherapist and Nervous System Specialist