Anxiety management is much more effective when your body actually knows what “calm enough” feels like – and has a clear route back there, again and again. It isn’t about never feeling anxious; it’s about your nervous system having a familiar landing place, rather than spinning higher and higher with no exit. In my Weybridge practice, I use somatic work and EMDR to help your body relearn that pathway so regulation becomes practical, not theoretical.
We begin with very small, portable anchors you can use in real life, not just on good days. Together we experiment with cues that are easy to reach for when your mind is busy: letting your gaze widen so you see more of the room instead of just the trigger; feeling your feet more fully supported by the floor; lengthening your out-breath by a second or two; resting a hand lightly over your heart or on your chest so your system can feel contact and weight.
These are not magic tricks. What they do is give your body repeated experiences of “a little more space than my anxiety is telling me I have.” Practised often – in sessions and between them – they become recognisable signals. Your nervous system starts to associate them with a gentle downshift rather than needing a crisis to finally switch off.
As those anchors bed in, we deepen somatic awareness of how anxiety actually rises in you. Most people are used to noticing the later stages – full racing thoughts, tight chest, nausea, looping worries – and by that point it can feel as if choice has already vanished. In somatic anxiety management in Weybridge, we slow things down and get curious about the first 5–10% of the climb.
You might discover that before your heart races, your ribs start to flutter; before you feel dizzy, your vision subtly narrows; before your mind sprints, your jaw locks or your shoulders creep towards your ears. We map these early signals together, without judgement, as your system’s way of saying, “Something here feels too much.”
The power of this mapping is choice. If you can feel the beginning of the rise, you have a window to respond differently. That might mean stepping back from a screen for thirty seconds, dropping your gaze to something steady, placing your feet more firmly on the floor, or using one of your practiced breaths. Over time, your body learns that anxiety doesn’t have to run to full volume every time it starts; there are off-ramps available earlier in the journey.
Alongside this body-based work, EMDR helps address the deeper roots that keep anxiety so persistent. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) uses bilateral stimulation – gentle left/right eye movements, taps, or alternating sounds – to help the nervous system reprocess key experiences and beliefs that still fuel today’s alarm responses.
We might focus on:
early experiences of unpredictability or criticism
medical events or accidents that left your body on long-term alert
times when you felt trapped, helpless or responsible for keeping others safe
beliefs such as “I must always be vigilant,” “If I relax, something bad will happen,” or “I can’t cope”
In my Weybridge EMDR work we keep sets short and carefully paced. Before each round of bilateral stimulation we return to your anchors – breath, gaze, feet, contact with the room – so your system has a clear sense of the present. During sets, you simply notice what comes: images, sensations, thoughts, emotions. We pause often to check your comfort and capacity, adjusting distance and speed so we stay within your window of tolerance. The aim is not to flood you, but to let your system gently update old patterns so they stop driving such intense anxiety in the present.
Between sessions, we translate everything into small, realistic routines that support you at the times anxiety tends to bite hardest: mornings, transitions, social situations, performance moments, bedtime. Together we design micro-routines that respect your actual life, not an idealised version of it. That might include:
a one-minute grounding sequence before you open email or social media
a simple breath or orienting practice you use before meetings, appointments or phone calls
a short “decompression” ritual when you come home, so the day doesn’t bleed straight into your evening
an evening staircase that gradually lowers stimulation and cues your system towards sleep
These routines are intentionally light. They are meant to hold you up, not become another perfectionist project. We review what genuinely helps and adjust anything that feels too heavy or unrealistic.
Over time, many people notice several quiet but important shifts:
anxiety spikes still happen, but they peak more quickly and settle sooner
the middle of the day feels less like a constant battle to “hold it together”
self-talk softens – less internal criticism, more acknowledgement of how hard your system has been working
there is more ability to choose: to stay, to step back, to rest, or to say no
Anxiety management in this somatic EMDR way is not about becoming a perfectly calm person. It’s about your nervous system having more routes to safety, your mind having fewer reasons to panic, and your day-to-day life feeling less dictated by fear.
If you’re in or near Weybridge and you’d like support with anxiety that takes your body seriously as part of the solution, you’re welcome to reach out. To ask questions or arrange an initial session, please use the contact page: https://www.cherie-james.com/contact
— you can outline how anxiety currently shows up for you, what you’ve already tried, and what “a bit more ease” would realistically look like in your life. From there, we can explore whether this somatic and EMDR-informed approach is a good fit.
FAQ
Q1. How does this approach manage anxiety day to day?
We pair quick body anchors with bilateral processing so spikes shorten and calm returns more reliably.
Q2. Will I get tools for mornings, events and sleep?
Yes—one‑minute settles, pre‑event resets and evening staircases that protect rest.
Q3. Are online sessions as effective as local?
They can be when structured clearly and paced with consent.