Unity Physiotherapy & Wellbeing

Unity Physiotherapy & Wellbeing Providing trauma informed fatigue & pain specialist physiotherapy & integrative somatic wellbeing.

Specialist Physiotherapist & Integrative Somatic Practitioner. The services offered are tailored to each person and integrate life coaching, NLP, compassionate mind training & other compassion practices, principles of acceptance and commitment therapy, somatics and yoga into physiotherapy and all of my work. I offer an 8 week online workshop series for people with any condition associated with pain/fatigue/anxiety and a variety of other workshops. I can also offer support for people in the workplace, both to help employers understand how to support people with persistent pain, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, long covid, and PoTS, and to create a trauma-informed compassionate workplace culture, as well as offering packages of care to help people manage the condition they are living with and to be able to thrive in the workplace.

It’s been such a wonderful springlike day and Ive noticed many glimmers (things that connect to nervous system regulatio...
24/02/2026

It’s been such a wonderful springlike day and Ive noticed many glimmers (things that connect to nervous system regulation). This has included seeing my first bumblebee this year whilst eating my lunch, noticing a mini and normal daffodil had bloomed this morning, the blue sky and sunshine, and listening to the birds whilst putting the washing on the line before work.

I also noticed some dysregulation around lunchtime, which most likely was menopause related!

I also much appreciated how mild it was still by the late afternoon and spent a little joyous time outside pruning a few acers and a rose.

What have been your glimmers today? Moments of calmness, grounding, joy, awe — anything that’s been regulating for you.

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22/02/2026

✨ A Reflective Poetry Pause — Vitality Moving in Steadying Presence

The fire-horse energy is rising — alive, embodied, and calling. Yet there is a call for steadiness too, it moves best when grounded, heart-led and wise.

This poem emerged from my meditations, somatic practices, and the subtle, subtle flowing shifts of energy within the body. It reflects the experience of vitality that is powerful yet gentle, wild yet steady, rising, pausing, and softening in alignment with wisdom, care, and the hearts guidance.

Through the rhythm of movement, breath, and inner awareness, it invites noticing the aliveness within, how energy can find its form, and how a powerful presence can be held without force. It’s a reflection on embodied power, gentle power and stamina, and the quiet confidence of moving with life in a grounded, heart-led way

🔥 Listen, feel, and let the words and energy move with you — notice how your body responds to the words.

It feels deeply connected to my upcoming poetry book “Living Wholeness “ and is a taste of the embodied poetry and themes I explore — including embodied presence, aliveness, and the balance of fire and grounding. Some of my poems on YouTube will be in the book, I’m adding this one to my channel too.

💭 I’d love to hear how this poem lands for you.

🌿 I’m excited to share that my poetry book, Living Wholeness, will be publishing soon. I’m awaiting the final review th...
21/02/2026

🌿 I’m excited to share that my poetry book, Living Wholeness, will be publishing soon. I’m awaiting the final review then I’ll be ordering a proof copy.

These poems emerged through a year of deep integration, connection with nature and the daily practices that supported me: meditation, yoga, somatic work, and embodied inquiry. These are long-standing practices woven through my life, which have deepened and evolved over time.

The poems reflect a fuller settling into a way of being that had already been unfolding and embodied. This was shaped by the profound changes, grief, and loss that came with living with chronic illness. Over time, mind, body, and spirit began to reorganise; the whole system found its coherence again.

These poems speak to the quiet intelligence of the body, the tenderness of being human, and the possibility of resting more fully in what is already here.

This book isn’t something to analyse — it’s an invitation to pause, feel, listen, and soften into what’s already here.

If you’re in the UK and would like a copy directly from me (for a signed copy, or if you’d prefer not to order via Amazon), let me know by 6th March. I’ll be ordering a small number of copies. Sorry I can’t post outside of the UK due to postage costs.

Shame is one of our protective strategies —it pulls us into hiding and can make asking for help feel unsafe.It’s not onl...
21/02/2026

Shame is one of our protective strategies —it pulls us into hiding and can make asking for help feel unsafe.

It’s not only held as beliefs, but in the nervous system and body.

There are gentle ways to work with this, including EMDR, that support the nervous system to soften old patterns.

This post by Psychological Therapeutic Solutions Ltd is a thoughtful reflection on this.

🌈 Did you see a rainbow today?I was doing some writing and heard a heavy rain shower, I paused and looked out of the win...
20/02/2026

🌈 Did you see a rainbow today?

I was doing some writing and heard a heavy rain shower, I paused and looked out of the window and thought there will be a rainbow soon. I listened to the rain as I typed and as it slowed nearly to a stop I went to the back garden and there was a full rainbow and a start of another 😊

I love seeing rainbows 🌈 For me they always connect to joy and awe, as well as a sense of groudnedness and spaciousness.

What do you notice in your body when you see a rainbow?

🌿 Compassionate Leadership & Teams I recently caught up on a talk from the The Compassionate Mind Foundation conference ...
20/02/2026

🌿 Compassionate Leadership & Teams

I recently caught up on a talk from the The Compassionate Mind Foundation conference by Michael West called Hope in the Dark: Compassionate Leadership & Team Working for High Quality Care. Compassionate working, especially in healthcare, is something I’m deeply passionate about — and this talk landed.

There was a lot of evidence shared (decades of it). What stayed with me is how simple and human the foundations are:
* Compassion
* Listening
* Being involved in decisions
* Real team-working
* Leaders who are present, curious & willing to help remove obstacles
* Reducing command-and-control hierarchies
* The courage to stay with difficulty rather than avoiding it

One line still echos:
“Compassion is a single most important intervention we have in healthcare.”

This isn’t about “being nice” or avoiding hard conversations. It’s about leaning into suffering and difficulty — with presence, curiosity, empathy, and taking wise action.

This felt really important:
* Every interaction matters
* How we each show up ripples outwards — irritability & compassion both spread

Culture isn’t just in policies and strategies — it’s shaped moment by moment in how we meet ourselves and each other.

It starts with how we meet ourselves. Self-compassion supports us in meeting others with honesty, steadiness and care. Michael highlighted how essential it is for leaders to understand this.

Compassionate leadership isn’t soft — it takes great courage. Part of it is being willing to name what’s not working and stay with the discomfort long enough for something new to emerge.

This talk mirrored so much of what I care about in trauma-informed and compassionate ways of working, including:
* Being present with distress (in ourselves and others)
* Listening with curiosity
* Self-awareness & self-compassion
* Creating conditions of safety, choice & collaboration
* Honouring our nervous systems & our limits
* Remembering we’re relational beings — and we heal together

This also resonated:

“We have created pathological organisations where everyone is so busy and driven by targets and imperatives that we’ve stopped working intelligently and compassionately”

If you’re a leader, practitioner or part of a team feeling the strain, you’re not broken — the system is asking too much of human nervous systems. And there are compassionate and more effective ways of working.

This is at the heart of the work I’m offering more of this year: compassionate, trauma-informed spaces for individuals and teams. As part of this, I use my own framework developed over many years of study and lived experience — understanding this work from the inside out.

We don’t change cultures alone — we do it together with collective, courageous compassionate action.

🌿 I’d love to hear your thoughts. And If you’re curious about exploring compassionate, more effective ways of working in your team or organisation, I’d love to hear from you.



18/02/2026

🌿 Compassionate, trauma-informed working

I have studied and embodied compassionate, trauma informed working for over a decade — probably nearly two! I’ve been increasingly drawn to using my experience in this, physiotherapy, coaching, nervous system regulation, somatics and embodiment — and lived experience — to support workplace wellbeing and help shift cultures and systems.

This isn’t about another wellbeing initiative or asking individuals to be more resilient in harmful systems.

This work goes beyond sticking plasters and individual stress management. It’s:
* about how work is led, organised and lived — in ways that support people, outcomes, and sustainability
* about the cultures and systems that shape how people experience work
* about leadership and teams that can meet pressure, uncertainty, and complexity without defaulting to threat-based ways of working

This approach brings together:
* compassion as a lived, embodied practice (not just a value or intention)
* trauma-informed principles that support safety, trust, choice, and collaboration
* nervous system awareness and regulation
* leadership and ways of working that support effective team working, reduce burnout risks, and improve workplace outcomes

This year, I’m focusing on further developing and offering compassionate, trauma-informed work across health and social care and beyond. This includes:
* one-off talks and workshops
* longer programmes supporting compassionate leadership, teams, and workplace culture
* integrative compassion-focused coaching and mentoring for health & social care professionals

This work is about supporting both individual and collective wellbeing — and creating environments where people can work sustainably, ethically, and with care for themselves and others over time.

📌 I’ve linked some information in the comments.

🌱 If you would like to explore how compassion and trauma-informed principles might support your role, team, or organisation you’re welcome to get in touch.

✨ If you know anyone who this work may be of interest please share this with them — this would be really appreciated.

🌿 Trauma-Informed, Compassionate Working I’m really passionate about supporting the development of compassionate trauma-...
17/02/2026

🌿 Trauma-Informed, Compassionate Working

I’m really passionate about supporting the development of compassionate trauma-informed ways of working — particularly in health and social care — as part of cultivating a more trauma-informed and compassionate society.

I’ve studied and embodied this way of working for over 10 years, and I offer support for workplaces, leaders, teams, and individuals. I’ll share more about these offerings in this area another day.

One part of this work is offering workshops for health and social care professionals.

A few people have recently asked me about learning more about trauma-informed and compassionate ways of working, so I’m exploring whether to offer a small group workshop series on this. Before I spend time planning, it would be helpful to know what interest there might be.

I’m thinking of starting with an introductory session:
“What is Trauma-Informed, Compassionate Working — and Why Does it Matter?”

This would explore:
* What trauma is (and common misunderstandings)
* What compassion is (and common myths)
* Core principles of trauma informed working
* What compassionate working/care looks like in practice
* Why this matters for healthcare systems, leaders, teams, clients/patients, and for our own wellbeing and sustainability

If there’s interest, I’d follow this with a short series exploring what supports this way of working such as:
* Awareness
* Nervous system regulation
* Embodying compassion
* Compassionate, trauma-informed leadership and workplace cultures
* Integrating this approach into everyday practice in sustainable ways
* Holding boundaries, ethical care, and working with challenges
* Cultivating this a way of being, not something extra to do

If this is something you’d be interested in please comment or message me — this will help me decide whether to move forwards with planning dates and details. You’re also very welcome to get in touch to ask any questions.

If you know someone in health or social care who might find this helpful, please share this with them — it would be much appreciated.

🌿 Noticing & Taking in What’s Nurturing My word for this month is nurture. This weekend I’ve been noticing what’s nurtu...
15/02/2026

🌿 Noticing & Taking in What’s Nurturing

My word for this month is nurture. This weekend I’ve been noticing what’s nurturing, and also intentionally choosing some nurturing activities.

This morning I noticed the smell of the daffodils on my kitchen window and paused, noticing the reaction of my body. Everytime I was in the kitchen I smelt their gentle scent and noticed how my body responded.

I also spent some time reading Wise Effort by Diana Hill, and journaling alongside it. One of the prompts invited reflecting on, and drawing, how it feels in the body when we’re doing something aligned with our values — when life feels ‘most lifey’: alive, connected and meaningful. One of the images with this post is my reflection from that.

I also spent some time with family, mainly entertaining my youngest niece so my sister could catch up on some things.

There were other nurturing elements today and yesterday too. Many things can be nurturing for us, including awe, wonder, joy and playfulness — and things that are values aligned.

These moments were linked to different values — with some crossover and different contexts — and they called on different kinds of energy. Each was nurturing in its own way, there was joy and playfulness, and other things too.

We get a kind of double nourishment: from being fully present at the time, and from remembering and resting in those moments later.

🌿 What have you noticed as nurturing for you today, or this weekend?

🌿 Compassion and nervous system awareness are essential for sustainable health and wellbeing, healthy, supportive connec...
13/02/2026

🌿 Compassion and nervous system awareness are essential for sustainable health and wellbeing, healthy, supportive connection with others, and compassionate workplaces

Hello everyone,

I’ve noticed some new followers here recently, so I thought I would (re)introduce myself and share a little about the work I’m passionate about.

I’m Ann Parkinson. I work as a Pain & Fatigue Specialist Physiotherapist and Integrative Somatic Therapist. I’m also the author of Dancing Through Life: A Guide to Living Well, a practical wellbeing guide, and I’ll be publishing a poetry collection soon.

All of my work is trauma-informed and grounded in compassion. I’m passionate about supporting people to cultivate compassion, nurture their wellbeing, and reconnect with their innate wholeness and inner wisdom. I’m committed to contributing to a more trauma-informed and compassionate society.

I work with individuals, groups, and organisations through:
✨ 1:1 sessions — supporting people living with persistent pain, fatigue-related conditions, trauma, or chronic stress, as well as those simply wanting to reconnect with compassion and embodied wellbeing.

✨ Group workshops exploring nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, embodiment, values, mindfulness-based and compassion-focused practices.

✨ Compassion focused coaching and mentoring for health and social care professionals — supporting reflective space, self-compassion, integrative and sustainable practice, and nervous system informed resilience.

✨ Compassionate, trauma-informed workplace development — partnering with leaders and organisations (particularly in health and social care) to cultivate compassionate trauma-informed cultures that support psychological safety, regulation, effective team working, wellbeing and sustainability. I’ll be sharing more about this aspect of my work in another post soon.

My approach integrates specialist physiotherapy, nervous system regulation and the cultivation of capacity, somatic and embodiment practices, mindfulness-based practices and meditation, functional breathwork, coaching, values-based work and compassion-focused approaches. All offerings are tailored to the person, group, team, or organisation I’m working with.

If this resonates, you’re welcome to follow here (if you don’t already), or send a message/email. More information is available on my website (link in comments).



A lovely short meditation from Michael Lee at Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy It’s perfect for a pause in the day, to slow d...
11/02/2026

A lovely short meditation from Michael Lee at Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy It’s perfect for a pause in the day, to slow down and rest in gentle presence.

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