Beyond Barriers CIC

21/11/2025

What a day.
I’ve just finished facilitating an away day for the Greater Manchester Public Protection Unit — our second year doing this together — and I genuinely feel humbled. I know that word gets overused, but I mean it from my core.

Today was all about exploring Quality through a Human lens: Values, Relationships and Wellbeing. And what struck me most was the willingness of the Public Protection staff — all 120 of them — to stay with the process, lean into the exercises, and really engage.

Together we moved through:
✨ 3 values exercises
✨ 7 Mentimeter reflections
✨ 4 Group discussions
✨ 2 Self-reflection spaces
✨ 1 Personal intention setting process to help them makes a small actionable commitment they will make to help them and their teams live and work more aligned to their values in 2026.
A lot in 2 1/2 hours!

They worked so hard, and I’m incredibly proud to be connected to the people who show up every day to keep our communities safe. Public protection staff often carry heavy loads, and it’s a privilege to create space for them to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters.

At Beyond Barriers, we’ve developed an approach that balances workshop-style depth with dynamic delivery — even for large groups. But today it was a team of one… from prep to delivery, so I’m grateful for the fantastic admin support (and the roaming mics!) from the GMPS team that made it all run smoothly.

Today was a good reminder that when we act in line with our values, we’re clearer and more grounded. When we focus on relationships, we create safety and trust. And when we protect our wellbeing, we maintain the capacity to do this challenging work well. Values give direction, relationships give connection, wellbeing gives sustainability. When these three align, the quality of our practice naturally rises — and the people we work with feel the difference

11/11/2025

We've been lucky enough to collaborate with Eirian Collinge at Cariad Yoga over the past few years, so am really excited to see her featured in this BBC News online post about working with our vagus nerve.

She's been a really valuable part of our commitment to bring body-based approaches to our clients at Beyond Barriers through her work offering
🧘 1:1 Yoga therapy for emotional health needs like anxiety, depression and burnout
😴Yoga for Sleep Recovery programmes and
🟣 Trauma-sensitive yoga sessions for our LifeBEAT Trauma group

Our clients felt safe enough to broaden their coping with breathwork and gentle movement - through her compassionate, playful and freeing approach.

We're all so pleased you been given opportunity to get your work recognised in the wider audience Eirian! And looking forward to bringing more body-work into our group sessions with you

You might not have heard of it, but can training your vagus nerve give you a moment or two of peace?

06/11/2025

To our dads, our husbands, and our male leaders..
🌊 You are our harbour walls — standing strong against the tides for their wives, daughters, families, and teams.

You weather storms. You hold back waves. You stand firm so we can feel safe.

But even harbour walls need time, care, and tending too. And even the strongest walls crack under constant pressure.
When us wives, daughters, staff members go to our girlfriends, our mothers, our teams for comfort, don’t think we don’t see you standing, sometimes alone. We see you keeping the harbour standing and our waves contained and safe. We see the pressure and expectations put on you. We see your emotional needs, and hope you can too.

This , we’re reminding every man:

🧱 Strength isn’t about silence.
💬 Talking isn’t weakness.
💙 Therapy is growth not failure

Check in with a mate. Take a break. Reach out. Maybe even be curious about support spaces or therapy. You don’t have to face the tide alone.

Harbour walls need tending too.

06/11/2025

Room Hire at Beyond Barriers – Altrincham

We don’t often have full-day availability, but one of our wonderful psychologists has recently accepted a new full-time role (we’re so proud, but very sad to see him go!) 💚 We now have a rare opportunity for a whole day of room hire at Beyond Barriers CIC therapy community, on top of our 1/2 day and hourly slots.

🏡 Our therapy rooms have been designed by therapists, for therapists — every detail created with clinical practice, comfort, and trauma-informed care in mind.
From soft lighting and calming art to our wellbeing library, therapeutic resources, and creative materials, everything is here to help you and your clients feel supported, safe, and inspired.

Suitable for:

Clinical, counselling & educational psychologists

Yoga Therapists & body-based therapists

Allied health professionals

Wellbeing practitioners & nutritionists

Counsellors & coaches

Alternative and holistic therapists

Or other proessionals looking for competitive rates

Whether you’re growing your practice or looking to relocate to a professional, welcoming, trauma-informed space, Beyond Barriers offers competitive rates and discounts for block bookings.

1:1, group & training rooms, waiting area, staff kitchen, WiFi

📍 Located in the heart of Altrincham, 4 mins from the station, surrounded by a welcoming community vibe next to the market

Our rooms provide a peaceful setting for meaningful work — with a supportive community of like-minded professionals.

As a not-for-profit, all surplus funds created by our room hire goes towards providing free trauma-care for disadvantaged local residents.

Message us here to arrange a viewing and learn more about availability or email enquiries@beyondbarriers.uk

24/10/2025

This is music to our ears… at Beyond Barriers we work hard to challenge the over medicalisation of distress within the mental health world . So reconsidering the ‘deficit’ and ‘disorder’ within the term ADHD is something we rumble with on a daily basis. What term would you use instead?

22/10/2025

Beyond Barriers Staff Support sessions always starts by mapping out how the team is functioning, but look at how your individual staff might feel by the end of the day… the post-it’s are a reflection of how they felt after todays session.

I’m always so grateful that commissioning managers invest in their teams health seriously in the knowledge that healthy teams naturally perform well. It takes a courageous manager/leader to allow their team to voice the challenges as well as the strengths of the business or organisation.

We have to name the reality that most employees don’t have much control over their working environment, but what they can control is how they manage the impact of their work. And that’s what we do in our sessions.

We address the blocks to maintaining boundaries, prioritising needs and generally being more sustainable in their working and personal lives.

This isn’t a wellbeing checklist that asks staff to do more to support their wellbeing when they’re already stretched. This is about understanding the mechanisms of burnout, looking at imbalances within team functioning, and using psychological models such as and approaches to get to the heart of staff needs.

Always happy to talk more about the work and how we might be able to support your team using trusted, evidence-based approaches 📞📧

16/10/2025

Walking into the Beyond Barriers office felt (and smelt) unusually momentous this morning. Not because we’ve redecorated, hired anyone, expanded. Nope, because we’ve got a cleaner. An actual cleaner.
I can’t tell you what a shift this represents.
Some of you will already be nodding 🙂‍↕️ and you’re likely to be founders, entrepreneurs or small business owners. Yes?

We’ve been bookkeeper, Marketing and personnel manager, Admin, decorator and Cleaner… amongst many other roles. Most founders and small business owners will relate to this, but if you’re a woman with childcare responsibilities you’ll be more vulnerable to absorbing XS roles because ‘that’s just what you do’. ‘Family comes first’ - and your business feels like another big hungry baby.
However, this isn’t a baby. It’s a business. And others can help take care of it too. It doesn’t all need to be us anymore. So to the female founders out there, I invite you to ask yourself:
🧐 Have you got enough of a village to raise this child?
❓ If you’re not delegating, can you lean into why? What are your blocks? Are you carrying an old belief that Your needs come behind other people’s? Whose voice is this?
💪🏻 And regardless when you started believing it, is it still valid for you in 2025? If not, can you ask that voice to be quiet for a while and let you make the decisions that serve you well, instead of keeping you stuck in old patterns?

Yes, ‘Leaders eat last’. But they still have to eat. And to do that we need to draw on our courage and take the risk to make changes in our business, and our well-being.

Get the bloody Cleaner 😉

10/10/2025

This year’s World Mental health Day feels more pertinent than ever...

We are holding you in mind if you are affected by the division and unrest in our world. We know that people are feeling insecure and unsafe in their own towns and their own workplace. Beyond Barriers sees you, and please know that we, and many other people, believe that everyone is entitled to feel secure in their own community regardless of their story. Whilst we alone can’t resolve this, we can offer something to support the way it makes you feel. So give yourself 2 minutes, and take a moment in this quick guided space to connect you with your own strength and courage. Please share this with anyone who needs it

10/10/2025

Today we are holding you in mind if you are affected by the division and unrest in our world. If you’re able to give yourself 2 minutes, please take a moment in a guided space to connect you with your own strength and courage. Please share this with anyone who needs it

09/10/2025

Another great opportunity from TCV - The Conservation Volunteers in Trafford