Free Guided Practices

Embodiment takes practice. This is why we developed these free resources, recordings of embodied guided practices to support practitioners in their own journey, as well as to share with their clients.

Here you will find guided practices led by Katarina Gadjanski and Tasha Colbert to help you ground yourself, regulate your nervous system, explore working with movement, connect to sensations and resourceful states through your body… and much more!

We hope you enjoy working experientially in an embodied way - in the comfort of your own homes.

Body Scan in Stillness & Movement - Finding a Safe Place in the Body

In this guided embodied practice, Katarina Gadjanski will take you through a full body scan, bringing mindful awareness to sensations in different parts of the body.

She guides this mindfulness of body practice first in stillness and then in movement. This will help you come into sensations and find a safe place in the body, which is important for self-regulation and stabilisation. Being anchored in this safe place in the body we can then start to explore more 'difficult' sensations that different body parts might be holding: like tension/pain/constriction and painful emotions.

We teach this practice during Module 1 of our Certificate in Integrative Embodied psychotherapy at IEP: This is a basic practice and part of the ‘ABC’ of working with the body in Psychotherapy.

Breathwork for Anxiety & Stress - Guided Meditation Practice

In this short 10min guided practice Katarina Gadjanski will take you through a simple breathwork exercise, a practice that in Embodied Psychotherapy we call ‘parasympathetic breathing’.

This type of breathing is known to calm down sympathetic arousal in the body - which happens when we are feeling anxious and stressed. Just a few rounds of this parasympathetic breathing will start to regulate your nervous system and calm your body and mind.

This practice can be done anywhere - sitting, lying down or walking (you can also try to synchronise your breathing/counting with your steps if you are walking).

Morning Movement Practice - Guided Movement Meditation

In this gentle movement exploration, facilitated by Tasha Colbert, you will be invited to slow down through connecting with your body

This guided journey will support you to ground, orientate to your environment, connect with your centre and embodied wellbeing.

It will help to regulate your nervous system if you are feeling disconnected, low in energy, ungrounded or overwhelmed.

Connecting to Self Energy - Guided Embodied Practice

In this 15 minute practice, facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski, you will be embodying the energy and qualifies of the ‘Authentic Self’, your most grounded, stable and centred 'Adult' (also known as ‘True Self’ or what in IFS they call Self - with a capital 'S').

You will be guided to evoke the qualities of the Authentic Self through embodiment, movement and different body postures that help you connect to these states of being.

You will then be encouraged to explore which of these 8 qualities did you connect with most. And you will be guided to return back to that particular state through embodiment/movement/posture.

Grounding Through the Body - Guided Embodied Practice

In this short video Tasha Colbert, the co-founder of the Institute of Embodied Psychotherapy, demonstrates some simple grounding exercises which can help clients to regulate their nervous system.

Grounding is an important part of establishing safety in trauma work, and can be introduced to support the client to come back into their ‘window of tolerance’.

Mindfulness of Movement Zen Meditation - Guided Movement Practice

In this 15 min guided movement practice Katarina Gadjanski will take you through mindfulness of body movement meditation. In this meditation we will be using awareness of the breath and moving body parts as an 'object' of the meditation.

The aim of this movement practice is to connect with the sensations in the body - to start releasing with the in-breath and out-breath and an intuitive movement of different body parts.... this is in order to help you find expression for anything that your body might be holding (any tension, constriction, emotional pain, etc)

This guided practice is accompanied by Mindfulness Bells from Plum Village and chanting by Vietnamese monk - Brother Phap Niem

Finding a way out of 'difficulty' through embodiment and movement

In this 30 minute embodied movement practice, facilitated by Tasha Colbert, you will be guided to connect with your body and tap into your body wisdom.

In this experiential session Tasha will first help you find grounding through your body and then connect to different body parts and realise any tension and constriction that you might be holding - through breath, movement and dance.

Finally she will guide you through finding expression for some difficulty/problem/challenge in your life - and finding an "antidote" and a way out of it - using the intuitive wisdom or the body and movement.

Embodying Resourceful Stares - Grounded, Peaceful, Joyful, Calm, etc

In this 30 minute embodied movement practice, facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski, you will be guided to connect with your body and find resourceful states of being - though the wisdom of your body and intuitive, spontaneous movement.

We will start with 'Grounding Into Your Heart' practice and 'Heart Coherence' Meditation - followed by embodiment of some of the resourceful states, such as:

GRATITUDE, ACCEPTANCE, PEACE/CALM, CONNECTION,

CLARITY, STABILITY, GROUNDED/CENTRED, FREEDOM,

ALIVENESS, COURAGE, CREATIVITY, PLAYFULNESS

Embodied Boundaries - Guided Practice

In this 5min video Tasha Colbert, the co-founder of the Institute of Embodied Psychotherapy, guides you through exploring an embodied sense of your own personal boundaries.

To do this practice you will need space to move easily in, paper and coloured crayons for drawing and a journal for reflection.

Mindfulness of Body in Movement (body-parts)

This is a guided movement meditation facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski.

This guided practice will help you ‘drop’ from being in your head and thoughts to being present in your body.

It will help you connect with the felt sense of your body and explore what your body is holding. The practice starts with some simple grounding and breath work and is followed by 20 mins of mindfulness of movement practice.

The invitation is to listen to your somatic self by becoming aware of the sensations in different body parts and to allow free-form movement and self-expression.

Resource Yourself Through Your Roots - Like a Tree

This two-part guided practice, facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski, will help you resource yourself through grounding and breathing and explore the resources you have in your life and how to use them for self-regulation and calming your body & mind.

In Part 1 we will do some grounding practices and circular breathing, also known as the earth breathing.

Part 2 will take you into creative imagination - visualising you are a tree and nourishing your tree body through your roots. You will then be encouraged to explore what are the 'roots' (practices) in your life that ground, centre and resource your body and soul. You will also be instructed on how to use these resourceful practices for self-care and re-wiring your nervous system

Gentle Movement and Regulating Self-Touch

in this guided movement practice, facilitated by Tasha Colbert, we will be exploring the support of the ground and supportive self-touch.

This resourcing guided practice is particularly useful for when feeling overwhelmed, with low energy or needing to direct care to self.

We start on the floor with connecting to the back body, sensing weight and gravity. Self support is guided through use of touch and gentle movement.

This embodied practice was recorded LIVE at Embodied Woman session

Circular Breathing and Grounding (Earth Breathing)

This guided practice, facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski, will help you regulate your nervous system through grounding and circular breathing (also known as earth breathing).

This embodied exercise can help you shift 'difficult' sensations in your body, such as constriction, tension and pain. It can also help you move the unpleasant and 'stuck' sensations that your body might be holding.

The result of doing this practice is feeling more grounded, self-regulated, more resourced and pain-free.

We teach this exercise on our IEP training on the Module 1: Foundations in Working with the Body.

Somatic Parts Work - Tending to the wounded place within us

In this 10 minute 'Somatic Parts Work’ practice, facilitated by Tasha Colbert, you will be guided to connect to the ‘felt sense’ as a gateway to making contact with a ‘part’ of you that is distressed, anxious or vulnerable, and tuning into the needs of this part.

This can be a healing practice that taps into our body wisdom. It is for those who have some experience of 'parts work’, or who are able to ‘be with’ difficult sensations and emotions without becoming overwhelmed.

Connecting to Sensations and Emotions Through Movement

This is a guided movement meditation facilitated by Tasha Colbert.

This guided practice will help you connect with your body through grounding, focusing on sensations and free form movement. It will also guide you to tune into your emotions and find expression through movement/ dance.

We often use this movement meditation at the beginning of our workshops in Embodied Psychotherapy as a starting exploration of our body, what it is holding and for gentle releasing.

This meditation was recorded LIVE at the BodySoul Movement session

Explore Your Inner Landscape and Weather (sensations & feelings)

This is a guided visualisation facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski.

This guided practice will help you connect with your body and your inner world through sensations, feelings and images.

We often use the 'Landscape and Weather' meditation at the beginning of all our workshops and trainings in Embodied Psychotherapy as a preliminary exploration of our body and how we are feeling in the present moment.

This meditation was recorded LIVE at the BodySoul Movement session.

Connect to a Resourceful State

In this 5 minutes guided practice, facilitated by Tasha Colbert, you will be able to connect to a resourceful state that you would like to experience more of in your life, such as confidence, joy, calm, grounded or something else.

You will be guided to find the embodiment for this resourceful state as well as the visual and auditory experience of this state. This is a guided practice that you can do on a regular basis. With practice it becomes easier and more accessible to embody this state when needed in your daily life AND it is only takes 5 minutes out of your day! '

Connecting to the Wisdom of Your Heart

This is a guided meditation, facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski, that will help you connect with your heart & it's innate wisdom.

The meditation starts with some 'parasympathetic' breathing to help us calm the nervous system, body and thoughts. Then it follows with 'Heart Coherence' guided practice: Evoking the wholesome qualities of the heart, feelings of gratitude, appreciation, love and care to help you establish heart -brain coherence.

We then enter the guided visualisation - seeing your heart as a garden... exploring what seeds (heart qualities) do you want to grow in your heart's garden? We complete this practice by journaling and reflection - writing out the seeds/qualities that you would like to grow in your garden/heart and reflecting on 'why is that important to me'