A 12 month commitment to healing trauma.

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There is an increasing need for eastern medicine practitioners to work consciously and effectively with trauma. Developments in neuroscience, polyvagal theory and developmental psychology have expanded understanding of trauma, its causes, effects and healing. To remain relevant and beneficial, practitioners must integrate these insights into their theory and application.

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The Nurturing Life programme is designed for practitioners and final year students of eastern medicine with a solid grounding in Traditional Chinese Medicine and some clinical experience. Delivered over one year, it supports both personal development and the integration of trauma-informed approaches into existing practice. It is suitable for acupuncturists, herbalists, tuina and shiatsu bodyworkers, and qigong practitioners working with the body in a healing capacity.

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Some of what you will learn in the programme:

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• Being able to identify when you are working with trauma, even when there is no apparent history or conscious awareness in the client or patient.
• Learning to observe trauma in the body, including where it is held, what it interrupts, and how to work with it safely and effectively at a somatic level.
• Understanding the difference between conscious and unconscious material and the importance of both in trauma work.
• Working safely and effectively with trauma, including the conditions that support healing, practitioner awareness, and session structure.
• Gauging pace, commitment, and likely treatment trajectory for individual cases.
• Knowing when and how to collaborate with other practitioners to support healing and ensure adequate resourcing.
• Using both Chinese medicine and Radix body psychotherapy frameworks to work with trauma and developmental interruptions safely and effectively.
• Applying concepts within clinical practice and bringing casework into the learning process.
• Understanding the necessity of personal development, including recognising dysregulation, lack of embodiment, and unresolved personal material in the practitioner.
• Deepening sessions to work beyond presenting conditions toward integration and wholeness.
• Exploring the role of eastern medicine alongside Radix psychotherapy in working with individuals and groups.
• Developing the capacity to work with embodied and felt experience, including the full range of emotions.
• Understanding early years development and its impact on trauma.
• Learning to work safely and effectively with emotional expression and felt experience.

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Trauma is present in the body whether or not it is consciously recognised. Practitioners cannot choose whether they encounter trauma, only whether they work with it consciously and safely. Research across disciplines shows that trauma healing is more effective when the body is included, rather than through verbal approaches alone. As body-based practitioners, we are already working with trauma held in our clients’ bodies.

Clients may present with awareness of trauma, such as PTSD, but trauma is often unconscious. Practitioners must learn to recognise trauma, developmental interruptions, layered trauma and to work with these safely and effectively.

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The programme teaches the importance of embodiment and presence in trauma healing, including regulation of the practitioner’s nervous system, awareness of personal patterns and defences and the impact of trauma on posture, movement, behaviour, thinking and feeling. It develops the ability to observe trauma across body segments and to pace work appropriately to avoid re-traumatisation. It also addresses the use of touch, consent and the broader therapeutic context, as well as assessing duration of treatment and required support systems.

 

body psychotherapy - body work - personal growth work-acupuncture and meridian, movement and breath work.

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Group work, individual sessions, and workshops.

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March 2027-March 2028

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With Tessa Fergusson MBAcC AAC Lic Ac Certified Radix Practitioner

 

The course emphasises the practitioner’s role in providing a relational healing environment. Trauma is experienced and healed relationally; therefore, practitioner presence and embodiment are essential.

This is a body-oriented, experiential programme combining group work, individual sessions and workshops. Learning is applied within clinical practice, and personal development is central. Completion is based on participation and hours, with guidance provided for further development where needed. The programme serves as an introduction to body-oriented trauma work and may lead into further advanced training.

The training integrates Chinese medicine with Radix body psychotherapy, a somatic, humanistic approach focused on trauma and developmental interruptions. It addresses psychobiological development, nervous system regulation, and relational capacity. Radix supports deep changes in the nervous system and the ability to remain present in relationship with self and others.

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Many clients present with trauma or developmental interruptions, often unconsciously. These underlie patterns seen in meridian imbalances and zang fu disharmonies. Developmental interruptions, particularly in early life, affect vital substances, meridian development, emotional regulation and relational capacity, and are central to long-term healing.

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The programme explores how trauma is held in the body through a segmental approach, including:

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• The ocular, feet and hands
• The oral
• The cervical
• The thoracic and arms
• The diaphragmatic
• The abdominal
• The pelvic and legs

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This approach supports understanding of how trauma is held and how it can be processed safely.

Participants develop embodiment, increasing tolerance for emotional and sensory experience, and working with breath, movement and sound. Trauma disrupts natural pulsation between inward awareness and outward expression; healing restores this flow, enabling regulation, responsiveness and choice.

Radix work emphasises self-contact, self-reference and relational capacity, integrating inner awareness with outward expression. It supports recognition of defensive patterns, emotional holding, and embodied experience, allowing for meaningful change through direct experience rather than intellectual understanding.

Participants develop awareness of their own character structure, embodied patterns and personal history, increasing their ability to remain present with others and reducing burnout. This enables deeper clinical work and more sustainable practice.

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The programme is delivered in a small group setting (maximum 10 participants) to support depth of work and individual attention. Learning is primarily experiential, as meaningful change arises through direct experience.

This training is designed to develop trauma-informed eastern medicine practitioners, integrating contemporary trauma theory with traditional practice, and supporting both personal and professional growth. It enables safe and effective work with trauma at the level of the body.

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This is a rare offering within the UK, combining eastern medicine with a comprehensive somatic psychotherapy framework, and is intended for practitioners committed to engaging deeply with trauma, embodiment and healing.

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It is deep and beautiful work that is important. Come and join me and a small group of other eastern medicine practitioners in changing how we work with trauma and in increasing our ability to be fully alive with the intensity of life and progressing eastern medicine into what is needed in current times and with information from other specialist fields.

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If you are interested in joining the Nurturing Life Programme for Eastern Practitioners, please feel you can contact me, Tessa Fergusson on 07717790944

or send me an email: info@tessafergusson.co.uk

 

I will send out an Autobiography of feeling, which is a number of questions that allow me to get a sense of you and your life, your past and your current, your upbringing and beliefs, and will be sent out in January 2027 and to be returned completed by the end of February 2027, before first individual sessions starts in March.

Individual sessions will start in March and the first group work/workshop in April, a commitment to the 12 months is needed and payment up front to be made at the beginning of the course. Payment plans are only possible if a commitment to the course in its entirety has been agreed.

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The commitment is varied each month, so do look at the times and dates over the year. The programme is a mixture of online and in person work, with the online group work and workshops being live and not recorded, so participation is expected on the day. The online group/workshops are held at the weekend to allow the course to be accessible to those working in the week. Individual sessions online to be agreed upon day and time on an individual basis and would be between 9-4pm Monday-Friday. Please check carefully the in person workshop dates, all workshops will be in person and are non-residential and held in West Cornwall at Roselidden/Helston.

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Timetable and prices for Nurturing life programme. March 2027-March 2028

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March 2027

Week beginning the 8th March 2027 1hr session, flexible time and day in that week online possible, in person for people in Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online)

Week commencing the 15th March 2027 1 hr, flexible time and day in that week, online possible, in person for people in Cornwall (Monday-Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online)

Total March 2027           £130.00

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Easter holidays 29th March-9th April 

 

April 2027

Week beginning 12th April individual session 1hr flexible time and day in that week, online possible, in person for people in Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online)

1 day workshop in person/non-residential, Saturday 24th April 2027 (9.30am-5pm approx.) £110.00 (Roselidden/Helston/Cornwall)

Total April 2027                    £175.00

 

May 2027

Week beginning 10th May 2027 individual session 1hr flexible time and day in that week, online possible, in person for people in Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Week beginning 17th May 2027 individual session 1hr flexible time and day in that week, online possible, in person for people in Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Online group- 4hrs, Saturday the 29th May 2027 (9.00am-1pm) £65

Total May 2027            £195.00

 

June 2027

Saturday and Sunday weekend 2 day workshop in person/non-residential 12th and 13th of June 2027 (14hrs over 2 days approx) 9.30am-5pm.(Roselidden/Helston/Cornwall). £220.00

Week beginning 21st June 2027 individual 1 hr session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible, in person for people in Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn)

Total June 2027             £285.00

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July and August off for summer holidays. Opportunity to join in person process groups, price not included, if running over the summer.

 

September 2027

Week beginning 6th of September 2027 1 hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible for those that live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online)

Online group- 4hrs, Saturday the 11th September 2027 9.00am-1pm £65

Week beginning 20th September 1 hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible for those that live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online)

Total September 2027             £195.00

 

October 2027

Saturday and Sunday weekend 2 day workshop in person, 9th and 10th of October 2027  (14hr approx. over two days) non- residential 9.30am-5pm.(Roselidden/Helston/Cornwall). £220.00

Week beginning 18th October 2027 1 hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Total October 2027                  £285.00

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Half term 25th-29th ) October 2027

 

November 2027

Week beginning 8th November 2027 1hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Online group- 4hrs, Saturday the 13th November 2027 9.00am-1pm £65

Week beginning 15th November 2027 1hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

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December 2027

Online group- 4hrs, Saturday the 11th December 2027 (9.00am-1pm) £65

Week beginning 13th December 2027 1hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Total December 2027             £130.00

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Winter break 20th December 2027-10th January 2028

 

January 2028

Week beginning 10th January 2028 1hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Saturday and Sunday weekend 2 day workshop in person, 15th and 16th of January 2028  (14hr approx. over two days) non- residential 9.30am-5pm.(Roselidden/Helston/Cornwall). £220.00

Total January 2028   £285.00

 

February 2028

Week beginning 7th February 2028 1hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Week beginning 21st February 2028 1hr individual session, flexible time and day in that week, online possible if you live outside of Cornwall (Monday -Friday 9am-4pm) £65 (Penryn or online).

Total February 2028                 £130.00

 

 

 

 

Total for Nurturing life programme for eastern medicine practitioners and students in their final year. Working with and healing trauma at the level of the body. Non-residential, accommodation will need to be sought by the participant.

 

Total    £2005.00

Mentoring/Supervision by arrangement and not included in the cost.

 

 

 

Tessa Fergusson

 

www.tessafergusson.co.uk

www.pulsationsupervision.co.uk

info@tessafergusson.co.uk

​Mobile: 07717 790944