The body’s intelligence is always responding

I chose this photograph for the new My approach page on my website because, for me, it captures something very simple and very profound.

Nobody has taught that newborn baby how to breathe, how to respond to touch, how to settle into support, how to grow or how to organise itself. Its intelligence is already there.

And look at the hands surrounding it. They aren’t trying to correct or change the baby. They are simply offering support.

For me, it is a beautiful expression of something that has increasingly come to sit at the heart of my work:

The body’s intelligence is always responding.

Even as you sit here reading this, your body is responding – to gravity, to the support beneath you, to your breath, your thoughts, your surroundings and where you place your attention.

You don’t have to tell it to do this. It is happening all the time.

From doing to the body to working with it

I originally trained as a physiotherapist more than 40 years ago.

Like most healthcare practitioners, I learned anatomy and physiology, how to assess what was happening, identify problems and decide what treatment might help.

Over the years I have continued to learn – through physiotherapy, yoga, therapeutic bodywork, movement, health coaching and, of course, developing the Buttafly Technique.

But perhaps one of the most important things those decades have taught me isn’t how much more I can do to the body.

It is how much there is to discover when we become curious about what the body is already doing.

This doesn’t mean that professional knowledge or hands-on treatment no longer have a place. They absolutely do.

But I have become increasingly interested in what happens when we don’t always rush to correct what we see, but become curious about it first.

What becomes possible when we give the body the right support?

That question has become fundamental to the way I work.

Awareness is key

If the body is always responding, can we begin to notice some of those responses?

Where are you holding tension without realising it?

What happens to your breathing when you are concentrating?

Where does your weight settle when you sit or stand?

What happens when you feel properly supported?

Awareness isn’t about constantly monitoring the body or trying to get everything right.

It is about becoming more familiar with yourself.

When we begin to recognise what the body is already doing, we open up the possibility of working with that response.

Symptoms don’t happen in isolation

As a physiotherapist, asking people when their symptoms began is a fundamental part of taking a clinical history.

Traditionally, we’re often looking for a physical explanation. Had you been digging the garden? Lifting something heavy? Spent the weekend pruning roses? Started a new exercise programme?

I’m still interested in those things. But now I’m interested in the wider timeline too.

What was happening in your life when your symptoms began?

Not simply what you were doing physically, but what was happening around you and for you. What had changed? What were you dealing with? What was demanding more of you? What else was going on in the weeks and months around that time?

And what has happened since? When have the symptoms changed, settled or returned – and what was happening in your life then?

We often notice that symptoms have arrived at a bad time. We are less likely to wonder whether the timing itself might be relevant.

This isn’t about deciding that one event caused another. It’s about putting the symptom back into the context of the person experiencing it and seeing whether the timeline reveals anything worth exploring.

For more about the thinking behind my one-to-one work, you may like to read My approach page.