Inner Vision Therapies
About me
About Salima
Hello! I am a Certified UZAZU Embodied Intelligence Facilitator, Somatic EMDR Practitioner and Woman-Centred Coach. I use a range of skills and adapt my guidance and support between coaching or deeper therapeutic techniques, dependant on what is needed in the moment. So no need to swap between a coach and an therapist.
My insights from Zen Buddhist teachings enrich my mindful approach, whilst tai chi and kundalini yoga inform my holistic view of the body-mind system. My love of nature and creating beauty led me to work in stunning gardens. I cherish the connection to the earth and the creative process. However, I often struggle with the notion of shaping nature to fit our ideals, preferring instead to let it flourish in it’s own unique way.
Having personally experienced transformative healing through years of therapy, I hold deep gratitude for the challenges that have shaped my growth. I know every individual has the capacity to overcome their difficulties with the right support, compassion and guidance. I believe self-empowerment is the most effective way to make sustained progress and enables you to continue on your own journey of healing and growth. My passion is to help you reconnect with your truest, most heartfelt self, empowering you to ‘be yourself’.
Together, we can make meaningful change.
Latest Series: In The Moment
I recently embarked on an adventure into the mystical Wudang Mountains in China with my fellow Daoshu martial artists, to delve into the world of tai chi and kung fu. Guided by the esteemed 15th Generation Daoist Priest & Master, XueChao Zhong, known to us a Shifu Bing, our days were a rhythmic blend of discipline and discovery.
The mornings kicked off with a serene meditation at 06:30, paving the way for 7-8 hours of rigorous training sessions throughout the day, interspersed with the most delicious meals and rest. We immersed ourselves in intricacies of Xuanwu Quan, a captivating Kung Fu Form that became our daily dance of skill and precision.
The evenings brought the clash of jians (swords) in spirited sparring sessions, an opportunity to put our shiney, new swords to the test. By 21:00 we’d lay down our swords for the end of the day; our fatigue was a testament to our dedication.
Explorations led us through many ancient temples, some over 600 years old. Fascinated locals turned paparazzi, capturing our moves as we practised our Forms in the sacred grounds – celebrity martial artists in a foreign land!
The ascent of Jinjian, The Golden Summit, demanded conquering over 20,000 steps, an achievement that sent our heads into the clouds… literally! Our group formed strong and meaningful bonds as we supported each other through our individual challenges along the way.
Returning to the familiar embrace of Old Blighty, the spirit of Wudang lingers within me, these majestic mountains now serve as a compass, grounding me. The inspiration and awe cultivated in their shadow are enduring companions, a reminder of what is real and vital amid the humdrum of everyday life. The echoes of Wudang resonate, offering a sanctuary that transcends space and time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Embodiment?
Embodiment is how we show up through our bodies – everything we do is an act through our body. Ones ‘shape’ is ones’ current embodiment of beliefs, resilience, survival strategies, emotions, attitudes, habits and actions, which are developed in interaction with our experiences and environments. We think and act, relate and imagine from a certain embodiment. This opens some choices and reduces others. Therefore, the body is an essential place of change, learning and transformation.
Once something is embodied it is mostly unconscious and automatic, familiar and feels normal, and can seem ‘just the way we are’. Most of our practises are inherited or modelled through our families, culture, communities and social systems. Because of the way we are built we can’t not practise something, be it the pattern of our breathing or our response to new love.
When we are less embodied, we are not fully present with ourselves, our minds tend to be preoccupied with the future or the past. We can also be in the present moment, but be too much in ‘our heads’, not allowing us to feel the full flavour of what is happening and what is needed for the best outcome in that moment. We all know that feeling of being in auto-pilot – where have we gone? But it can also be more subtle, a feeling of disconnection with ourselves, a flakiness or unsureness, a feeling of unsafeness. How are our choices, decisions and actions affected when we are operating from this less embodied, unrooted place.
When we are fully embodied we can take intentional and purposeful action, have presence; feel possibility, belonging, intimacy, compassion, love. It is easier to set limits and boundaries with self and others; feel and engage a wide range of feelings and emotions; feel mutual connection with self and others simultaneously; lead, impact and influence others; surrender appropriately; trust the self and others; give and receive love and appreciation; appreciate self, others and the world; apologise, forgive and repair.
To be embodied is to experience a moment with all of yourself.
What is Somatics?
The word ‘somatics’ comes from the Greek root ‘Soma’, which means the living organism in its wholeness.
So somatic therapy works with the human being as a whole, it engages our thinking, feelings, sensing and actions. This helps us understand human beings as integrated mind, body, spirit and socially relational beings.
Somatics asks, what are you practising? And is what you’re practising most aligned with what you most care about?
The good news is we have incredible capacity for change. Through embodied practises we can learn about ourselves and grow a greater capacity for living fully. It helps us to develop depth and the capacity to feel ourselves, each other and the life around us. It builds in us the ability to act from strategy and empathy, it teaches us to be able to assess conditions and ‘what is’ clearly. It can move us towards liberation.
In therapy, we pay attention to sensations and feelings in the body, learn what they are communicating, then we can understand how to make the shifts we need to be able to live a more easeful life.
Some shifts can be made by:
- simply recognising and acknowledging a particular aspect or need
- realising a self-belief we are holding about ourselves or others and updating it
- moving our body-mind state to one that is more helpful in the situation
- grounding in the body and feeling a deeper sense of your own presence
Why work with the body?
In your body, each and every occurrence of thought, feeling, emotion, memory, action and belief involves changes in patterns of movement, shifts in awareness in the body, and countless transformative processes within your bodies’ systems.
How you experience painful feeling states depends upon how you relate to these states. As you learn to expand your awareness to include patterns of micromovements in the body, in order to work directly with your feeling states, you alleviate suffering at the site of the experiencing body.
You can change your relationship to pain, as you learn to safely attend and respond to what your system is communicating at a body-level, cultivating greater ease and vitality, even in the face of pain or discomfort.
We can also experiment, using embodiment practises, to find the ‘right fit shape’, embodying ways of being that are useful to our life’s in different contexts, and feels safe to our system. The body can repattern, and learn how to act from this new, more beneficial place even under pressure.
How does UZAZU Embodied Intelligence work?
Uzazu Embodied Intelligence offers a comprehensive model and method for facilitating deep transformation through body-mind integration. Simple movements, combined with phrases, bring the body and mind into coherence, re-pattern how your nervous system functions whilst relating to yourself, others and your environment.
This model helps you understand more precisely how your various embodied states are activated in different areas of your life. How easefully and confidently do you connect, interact and collaborate, when relating to yourself or others at work, home, socially or in intimate relationships? Can you shift into a motivated state easily, to achieve your desired outcomes, however big or small? Uzazu gives a concrete and clear map of what’s present and what’s wanting to change.
The more you practise and re-condition your system with each of Uzazu’s distinct ways of using your body, mind and awareness to support each core pattern, the more automatic it becomes for you to activate that response when the situation calls for it.
For example, when it’s time for you to be more assertive, you naturally know how to do this in an embodied way through micro shifts in your body and therefore self-activate accordingly. When the moment calls for you to let things go and relax, it’s way easier.
If you really listen, you can hear each moment quietly inviting you to show up in a way that allows you to be most fully in service of what’s wanting to happen. This is empowerment – having the capacity to naturally answer the call of each moment, with skill, ease and joy that comes from coherently activating your full embodied intelligence.
See https://www.uzazu.org/ for more information about this modality, watch a free webinar, or contact me if you’d like to do a free self-assessment.
What is integration?
What is integration?
Integration is the linking of different parts of us so we can come from a place of congruence, for example, body and mind, implicit and explicit memory, impulses and actions. Once integrated we are coherent, flexible, adaptive and stable, without it our minds tend to move towards rigidity and chaos. Integration of our experience is necessary through thoughts, feelings, sensations and emotions, to function as a whole.
Some examples of when integration is needed?
- Your words and body language don’t match up
- Feeling one thing and saying another
- Not being able to fulfil your needs or goals
- Depression, dissociation, anxiety, stress
- Fixed and stubborn thinking patterns – ‘my way only’
What is transformation?
Transformation is an intentional change process that shows in our actions, ways of being, relation and perceiving. We are often looking to transform and heal from the broader forces, but it needs to sustains over time.
To me transformation means the way we are, relate and act becomes aligned with our visions and values, even under pressure. We are able to see what is needed in a situation, taking all those involved into account. Remembering we are connected to a much wider fabric of life, we are able to respond and interact with clear, unhindered view. Opening to our senses, and aliveness allows us to develop and remember our empathy and interdependence.
How is Somatic Therapy different to Traditional Cognitive Therapies?
During traditional therapy, talking about our problems and goals can leave us with a good theory of what we want, but by remodelling the desired changes through the body, embodying them, give us a directly experience of them, allowing us to feel the difference. Initially, this gives a glimpse into what’s possible, then with further practise it allows us to:
- experience how that feels as an internal felt sense in the body
- bring awareness to what the body is telling us through physical sensations
- combine words with our felt sense to recognise what is underlying our patterns and behaviours
- process any unresolved emotions
- embody new way of being that the body-mind feels safe with – to act from this place even under stress
- control our current ‘state’ through micro-shifts in the body at any given moment.
Begin Your Journey
I invite you to explore website to learn more about the power of Embodiment Therapy and how it can support you on your path towards a more empowered, authentic, and fulfilling life. Take the first step by scheduling a complimentary consultation with me. Together, we can embark on a journey of meaningful change.