Hi I’m Clay!
I am a trauma-informed somatic bodyworker and counsellor. I use sensation, touch, gesture, breath, emotions, mindfulness based awareness, imagination, memory and conversation to help you understand and [re]connect to your present body and expand your access to choice, resilience and power. Clients have come to my practice to focus on a variety of questions, from held trauma (individual, collective and generational), pain management, shifting patterns in the body, recovery/ harm reduction support and to emotional and/or physiological integration, and more. I use both top down (cognitive/brain) and bottom up (somatic/body) approaches. I welcome any who are curious to come to a session to see if it's for them; I am also available to have a short phone call if you have any questions before booking. I give sessions in-person and online.
I am a body positive, queer, trans, polyamorous, BDSM, and sex worker friendly practitioner.
Beliefs:
The root of the word somatics is soma — which is an attempt to name the entire being, body, awareness, thoughts, beliefs, actions etc. It is living awareness.
I believe our experiences shape our somas, and thus our lives, beliefs and health. Throughout this work I have encountered the magnitude of ways our lived experiences, especially trauma, impacts bodies long-term, from incidents within a life or generationally, structurally and historically, spanning over time. I believe trauma creates disconnection, and when we move towards healing we move towards connection, with ourselves, our relationships, community, our histories and the land.
A Session:
This work benefits from time and practice, thus I prefer to work with people long term (meeting once a week, every other week, once a month etc), however I am happy to offer one off sessions or to work on a topic in a container a few sessions.
A session begins with a check-in and finding an intention for the session together, followed by practice and/or touch based bodywork. We will finish with a checkout and often I will suggest practices to try at home between sessions.
Sessions are between an hour and 75 minutes and are clothed, thus I suggest to wear loose fitting clothing. I work on a sliding scale of £35-80 pounds per session. Sliding scale pricing means that you decide how much you can afford to pay. People with disposable income paying the upper end of the scale allows that people on a lower income can pay the bottom end of the scale and I still make a living. I have a limited number of clients who pay below the sliding scale. Please write if you're interested, if I'm full for these slots I can put you on a wait list.
Somatics, workshops and creative practice:
Because of my background as an artist I am comfortable and enjoy bringing my somatics work and creative practice together -- usually in the form of workshops. I have facilitated somatic workshops on the topics of gender dysphoria, meditating with the gut, science fiction writing and climate grief. I enjoy creating bespoke workshops, embodiment activities and meditations for events and gatherings.
I also have experience providing advice for care support and structures for groups, projects and institutions. My most recent work in this capacity is within the framework of a feminist film shoot, in which I advise on structural aspects of care and provide somatic sessions to the cast, crew and production throughout the process.
If you’d like to work with me in either of these capacities please get in touch!
About me:
I am a white, transgender [he/him/they/them] and chronically ill person originally from the US. I have lived in Glasgow since 2021 and am grateful to call this beautiful land home. I am also an artist, occasional facilitator and full time freak.
I have been in improvisational dance spaces since 2015 which laid the foundation of my interest in embodied knowledge. From my time spent dancing and through various other healing experiences I became interested in somatics. I completed my initial training with the Pantarei Approach school, a psychosomatic bodywork program in 2020. Since then I have trained in Internal Family Systems, Embodied Counseling and Myofascial release massage and integrated these techniques into my practice. I am currently obtaining a Trauma Awareness certificate (the teaching informed by Somatic Experiencing) from the Holistic School in Edinburgh and will complete that training in January 2024. I love this work and am excited to meet you!
Client feedback:
“Working with Clay is an absolute dream. Their skill, sensitivity and kindness shine through every session and I always feel very safe and supported. Clay is very responsive to my needs and able to adapt the pace and depth of the session to whatever is appropriate for me that day. And they are not afraid to gently challenge me when needed, which I really appreciate! I would not hesitate to recommend working with them.”
“I contacted Clay because I am struggling with anxiety and low mood and my previous counsellor recommended trying somatic experiencing as a way to explore my body’s responses to certain emotions. I had never done any kind of body work before and felt very nervous before coming to the session but Clay immediately made me feel safe and comfortable. Their gentle way of approaching difficult topics and their humour made it easy to want to keep going with the sessions even when difficult things came up – something that I haven’t found in many other therapeutic settings! I often left sessions feeling like a huge weight had been taken off my shoulders. The sessions with Clay helped me hugely to get to know myself and my own body better, to be kinder to myself and to even make friends with certain parts of myself that I previously did not feel I could be friends with!”
“I’m new to body therapy and it’s been a very challenging journey for me. Clay has been extremely patient with me and respectful of my pace and boundaries. Their presence is always kind and calm, which helps me feel safe and grounded. I’ve never felt under pressure with them, either during sessions or with booking and organizing. I’m deeply grateful for their gentleness and steadiness, otherwise I know I would have given up already. Thanks to them, I’m discovering a whole new way to relate to myself and my emotions.”
“I had myofascial massage from Clay while I’ve been really unwell and the experience did amazing things for me. Clay has such a gentle and caring energy; they checked in and explained all the details. Don’t miss out on your chance to try. My body felt groovy and loose in a way that I’ve never experienced before, it was good!”
studio photos by Jess Holdengarde and illustrations by Clay