What Is Intuitive Guidance?
What is Intuitive Guidance? At its heart, Intuitive Guidance is a transformative process that invites you to release old wounds, reintegrate lost parts, and reconnect with your true self.
It holds to the premise that the body keeps the score. Simply put, what we don't or can't process manifests over time as illness, injury, psychological blocks, and stress. The good news is that by turning our attention inward, calming the nervous system, connecting with the body, and allowing it to express what has been held, release and healing naturally begin.
Intuitive Guidance is is a step by step journey. We start by settling the nervous system, scanning for points of physical, emotional, or spiritual tension, and then gently exploring the parts of you that are calling to be worked with. Once found, we begin to approach these parts with compassionate curiosity and calm confidence, listening to the messages they hold and offering them the space they need to release, reintegrate, and heal.
Intuitive Guidance is a trauma-informed, eclectic practice. It draws from mindfulness, somatic awareness, Internal Family Systems, shadow and inner child work, Person Centered and Narrative therapies, Vipassana, and energetic healing. It holds that you are always in control of the process, and that your own inner wisdom ultimately knows best.
As a facilitator, my role is to guide you through this process with care and presence. Intuitive Guidance blends the structure of counseling theory with the openness of intuitive exploration, creating a path that is both grounded and expansive.
In this post we will go deep into the Intuitive Guidance process. You will learn what to expect in a typical session, explore the theories and modalities it draws from, and discover how to practice Intuitive Guidance on your own. You will also see why the deepest breakthroughs often occur during live group work and one-to-one sessions.
Topics Explored In This Post:
If you would prefer to get straight into the practice, you can start with this 46 minute track, Intuitive Guidance for Deep Healing, or if you would like to explore more deeply, you can take my free 5 part deep dive course: Intuitive Guidance for Self Healing.
The Intuitive Guidance Process
Intuitive Guidance is a meditative, therapeutic process of tuning inwards with compassion, curiosity, and presence. Blending somatic awareness, mindfulness, shadow work, IFS, and energetic healing, it helps you to gently explore the parts of you that are asking to be seen.
It begins with a grounding meditation to calm your nervous system and open your awareness. From there, we follow what arises, listening to your body, your parts, your energy, and your deepest self, without judgment or pressure to fix. This is a space to release what’s no longer serving you and reconnect with your inner wisdom.
You’ll leave feeling lighter, clearer, and more aligned.
What Happens In An Intuitive Guidance Session?
Every session is trauma informed and client led, so delivery often looks different each time, but in general what happens in an Intuitive Guidance session can be read below.
Session duration: 90 minutes.
1: Set Up
Ensure that the space is safe, with potential disturbances kept to a minimum: phones turned off and in a private room. Also that you have an opportunity for grounding and self-care after the session if needed.
Intention:
“To approach and accept everything that arises with an attitude of compassionate curiosity and calm confidence.”
2: Settle The Nervous System
We close the eyes, and slow down the breathing, to settle the nervous system. You can use any form of calming breathwork you are comfortable with, for example box breathing, or 478, etc. But the principle is to simply slow down the breath. This is most easily done by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth at a slower pace than usual.
You may notice surface level tensions releasing. Allow this to happen.
Tip: the mnemonic ‘Nose, low, and slow’ is an easy way to remember how to use basic breathwork to calm the nervous system.
3: Body Scan
Once settled and calm, we begin a body scan from head to toe: part by part, piece by piece, looking for points of blockage, pain, darkness, blackness, energetic tension, or numbness.
Just pay attention to tension.
This process is intuitive, so you will feel which part is calling you to work with it. The part you work with may be different each session, or a part might require many sessions.
We hold to the premises that the body keeps the score and that all emotions/feelings are messages we need to hear.
4. Get Curious About The Part
Take some time and simply get curious about the part and the feelings that are arising. Notice the size, shape, color, movement, edges, and location. Are there sounds, visualizations, memories, or other mental phenomena attached?
Remember, there is no good or bad here, just sensations and other things to observe.
5: Deep Questioning
Once we have spent some time getting the feel of the part of the body we are working with, we then can begin to ask some questions. As before, we are not judging or pushing for any answer. We are just opening up a dialogue with the part of the body and listening, observing, and accepting what comes back. It may be in the form of words, but also could be nonverbal.
Be open to a visualization coming: a scene, a picture, a movie, or imagery. The meaning could be obvious or abstract and symbolic. Accept whatever arises as the truth of the energy held in the part of the body. It may not make sense to anyone but you. Indeed, you may not understand it. But just be there for it to arise.
We ask the following multiple times, waiting for a response, whist maintaining attention on the physical sensations.
What do you need me to know?
What do you need me to see?
What do you need me to feel?
What do you need me to understand?
You know you are on the right path when:
You feel a profound sense of inner quiet.
You feel a physical/emotional/spiritual release.
You receive deep insights or connection.
You feel shivers running all over your body.
Spend as much time here as you need to. We’re not trying to change or command or demand, just Connect just listen just accept just see.
After sitting with the above questions for a while, you may also wish to ask the following. These questions can provide you with deep insights into the nature of the part you are working with, and can often cause the part to release:
How old do you think I am?
What would you rather be doing?
6: Return With The Breath
On the in breath we add a visualization of loving kindness and compassion. I like to visualize a radiant golden healing energy from the universe flowing into me and into the part and infusing any visualizations that I am working with. I also add the words ‘may you be free of ill will, free of suffering, full of loving kindness, may you be happy’. If you have a spiritual or religious practice, you may also wish to add in a prayer here.
On the out breath we add in an offer for the part to release, to put down the burden and to let go.
Both of these are not commands, just offers. Sometimes the part accepts them, and sometimes not. Either way is an opportunity to get to know them better and connect deeper.
7: Commitment
This part is like a neglected child that we are trying to reconnect with. We may never have known that it existed and that it was hurting. Trust takes time and so does reconnection and healing. This part of yours has been holding onto this pain for quite some time and now you are here to help - but it may not instantly believe you… so let it know that you are committed to the practice and will return to it as many times as needed.
Also, the part may ask for something (like self-care) - if it is in your capacity to provide it, do so!
Finally, remember to thank the part!
8: Return
After the session ends, remember to ground yourself back in the present moment. We need to make sure we can go deep, but then safely return. Take some time and focus on the information coming in from your senses.
What can you see right now? What can you feel? What can you hear? What can you taste? What can you smell?
Facing the Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn Response
When faced with extreme and overwhelming situations we do whatever we can to survive. Typically this involves one of four responses: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn.
If this approach to stress works, we survive. It is useful in the moment, but often that survival comes at a cost. Unless we are able to appropriately process the event, mentally, spiritually, physically, and socially, we may begin to generalize our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses into a way of approaching all aspects of life.
This is not ideal because these survival mechanisms are not always appropriate for what is arising in the present. But because they worked in the past, because they kept us alive, we default into using them again and again, even when they have become maladaptive and cause more harm than good.
These responses can manifest differently for each person, but can show up in behavior and body in ways like the following:
Fight is the instinct to confront a threat directly. This might mean yelling, arguing, pushing back, or even becoming physically aggressive. In a traumatic event, this instinct can save your life. But if it becomes a default mode, it may show up later as constant defensiveness, anger outbursts, or a tendency to escalate conflict unnecessarily. Physically, fight can feel like tension in the jaw, a clenched fist, tight shoulders, or heat rising in the chest.
Flight is the instinct to escape. In danger, running away can be life-saving. But when it generalizes, it can show up as avoiding difficult conversations, distracting yourself endlessly, or running from commitments and responsibilities the moment they feel uncomfortable. In the body, flight often feels like butterflies in the stomach, restlessness in the legs, shallow breathing, or an urgent need to move or get away.
Freeze is the instinct to shut down and become immobile. In overwhelming situations, freezing can prevent detection or buy time to think. But when carried into everyday life, it can look like procrastination, emotional numbness, dissociation, or feeling paralyzed in the face of decisions or stress. In the body, freeze can feel like heaviness in the limbs, a foggy head, numbness in the chest, or holding the breath without realizing it.
Fawn is the instinct to appease in order to reduce threat. In a traumatic moment, pleasing an abuser or pacifying conflict can help you survive. But over time, this response may show up as people pleasing, codependency, or suppressing your own needs to keep others happy, often at the cost of your own wellbeing. Physically, fawn might feel like a lump in the throat, a forced smile, a tight stomach, or tension across the heart space when saying yes when you mean no.
Through the process of Intuitive Guidance, we gain direct access to these parts. They communicate through physical sensations, as well as connected memories, feelings, thoughts, and symbols. Often these responses can be generalized into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.
When these survival responses are successfully processed and released, their healthy essence remains. Fight becomes healthy assertiveness and the ability to stand up for your needs without aggression. Flight turns into discernment and the capacity to walk away from what no longer serves you. Freeze becomes stillness, reflection, and the wisdom to pause before acting. Fawn transforms into empathy and compassion expressed alongside firm boundaries. Each survival instinct, once healed, reveals a gift that supports resilience, balance, and authentic connection.
This is where Intuitive Guidance supports the healing process, creating a safe space to meet these parts, understand what they are holding onto, and offer them the space needed to unburden and release.
Profound Insights
The process of Intuitive Guidance can lead to profound insights. As parts begin the process of expressing and unburdening they begin to share with us some of the things they are holding onto. These are often points of deep pain, blockages, and inner barriers that are likely to be impacting our life in significant ways. But once we know of their existence, their spell is broken and we are no longer limited by these long held beliefs.
The following profound insights were revealed to me over the course of multiple Intuitive Guidance sessions. I was working with deep and old feelings inside my belly that are connected to tensions in the jaw.
Session 1:
‘I saw my fear as a blinding sun, too bright to face, too vast to fully comprehend. At first, I was a single planet orbiting it, caught in its pull, repeating the cycle.Then I took a breath, and the vision expanded. I was no longer just that planet, but an entire universe. Countless stars, countless worlds, countless inner stories, each with their own cycles and connections.
I left knowing I must honor the fear within me, without getting lost in the belief that it is all I am.’
As I worked with this part over multiple longer sessions (and many daily check ins) it began to trust me, a little at least. The following interaction occurred when I began to offer this part (and the vision of the universe it was sharing) love and the offer to release.
Session 3:
‘How can I release when I am you?’I responded to this part, ‘if you are me, then who are you talking to?’ This question had the immediate effect of release and bodily shivers, a very good sign!
There is still a lot of work to be done with this part, and I will continue to go deep and check in regularly, but these insights have allowed me to see a greater truth of my own existence and in turn extrapolate wisdom: I am not my parts. I am not those feelings. I am something much more. I am the observer. I am the Self, and from that place I am able to heal and reintegrate.
I have witnessed many more profound insights, both for myself and for clients and live workshop participants. I will not share their stories here, as it is not my place, but please know that these insights and unlocks are available to you. The parts that hold our fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses often carry deep wounds. They are almost like the coding that determines how we operate in this world. Yet once exposed to that code, we are able to work with it, update it, and create new ways of being.
What You Will Get From an Intuitive Guidance Session
An Intuitive Guidance session offers deep insight into yourself, your past, your body, and what it has been holding onto. You will begin to see the connections between past and present. You will start to see how actions, events, meanings, and outcomes intertwine. This awareness naturally supports healing, release, and evolution into a calmer, more aligned, and integrated way of being.
You may notice chronic pain and tension begin to ease, along with psychological manifestations such as stress, anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Emotional volatility reduces, triggers lessen, and as you release what no longer serves you, your relationships and outlook on life naturally improve.
This process brings with it a profound sense of self. This is not a return to who you were in the past, but a gradual and gentle stepping into who you are meant to be now. With repeated practice (such as weekly long-form sessions and daily check ins), your parts become more open to reconnection and release. You are able to go deeper, meeting both pronounced and subtle expressions of the self, and over time these releases can begin happening spontaneously in safe and calm ways.
At its core, this work leads to resonance, peace, and a strengthened sense of self. Confidence grows as you learn to act from a place of authentic, self-accepting truth.
Exploring The Tools and Techniques of Intuitive Guidance
The tools and techniques of Intuitive Guidance are eclectic. It draws from a wide range of therapeutic and spiritual practices, taking the essence of each and weaving them into a dynamic, client-centered process. No two sessions are the same, because each unfolds depending on what arises in the moment and what your inner world is ready to explore.
The ultimate aim of these practices is always the same: to release old wounds, reintegrate lost parts, and reconnect with your true self. By working with the body, the breath, and the mind, we create the conditions for unprocessed experiences to surface, be witnessed, and gently let go.
The following tools and techniques are often woven into this work, each one supporting that deeper goal of release, integration, and reconnection.
Mindfulness:
I help clients learn to embrace reality as it is, for what it is, right now, without resistance or expectation; helping them develop the essential skills of focus and acceptance.
Mindfulness allows us to gain deeper insights and clarity about ourselves, our patterns, and our place in the world.
We also cultivate a sense of connection with the present moment, we nurture true inner calm, grounded in the understanding that each moment holds its own value and purpose.
Visualization
A powerful tool for inner transformation.
I help clients enhance this skill to deepen self-discovery and manifestation, and inner healing.
By painting our internal canvas we are able to discover and begin shifting limiting beliefs, rewriting internal narratives, and creating a vivid mental picture of the pathway to our goals.
Visualization strengthens your ability to bring intentions into reality.
By refining this skill, you learn to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Breathwork
The mind and body are deeply interconnected. A calm body leads to a calm mind, and a calm mind leads to a calm body.
Breathwork practice uses conscious breathing techniques to release emotional blockages, calm the nervous system, and create a deeper connection between mind and body.
There are many different techniques and approaches to breathwork, but the principle is simple: slowing the breath down calms the mind and heals the soul.
Somatic Awareness
I guide clients in mindfully tuning into physical sensations arising in their body. This is a powerful tool to uncover and release stored emotions, trauma, blocks, or energetic stagnation.
By fostering a deeper connection to their physical experience, I help them identify areas of tension, discomfort, or numbness that may be holding unresolved energy.
This process allows clients to heal past wounds and restore a natural flow of vitality, empowering them to move forward with greater emotional freedom and balance.
Shadow Work & Inner Child Work
I support clients in exploring and integrating hidden or suppressed aspects of themselves, guiding them through the process of shadow work and inner child work.
This involves gently bringing into awareness the parts of themselves that have been neglected or buried, often due to fear, shame, or past trauma.
By holding space for these aspects, I help clients begin to understand the root causes of their limiting beliefs and unresolved emotions.
As they uncover and embrace these shadows, they can transform these patterns into sources of empowerment.
This process helps them release old baggage, shifting their perspective and reclaiming their personal power. By doing so, they can step into a fuller, more authentic version of themselves, ready to face life with greater confidence, clarity, and resilience.
Unconditional Positive Regard
I encourage clients to shift perspectives (perhaps through letter writing, visualization, roleplay, or other creative methods) into the mindset of someone who sees and accepts them unconditionally.
This practice allows them to step outside of their usual thought patterns and experience themselves from a place of deep compassion and understanding.
By doing so, clients begin to cultivate a stronger sense of self-compassion, which helps to soften self-judgment and heal past wounds.
This shift not only fosters personal worth but also reinforces a deep sense of acceptance and love for themselves, helping them recognize their inherent value.
As they integrate this perspective, they are better able to navigate life with a stronger foundation of self-respect and authenticity.
Writing Therapy
A collection of interwoven techniques that help clients process emotions, gain clarity, and foster self-awareness through expressive writing.
These practices leverage the therapeutic benefits of writing to support personal development and emotional healing.
Writing therapy may include aspects of journaling, free association, fiction, and poetry.
When you write without filtering or censoring thoughts, you allow unconscious material to surface for reflection, discussion, processing, and ultimately integration.
Rituals and Intention Setting
I guide clients in creating personal rituals, affirmations, or intentional practices to anchor transformation and reinforce energetic and psychological shifts.
This process helps clients to identify a part of themselves carrying a heavy emotional burden (e.g., shame, fear) and create a symbolic ritual (e.g., writing and burning a letter) to release its weight.
Purpose & Value Discovery
I guide clients in discovering their life purpose by intuitively identifying passions and callings hidden beneath surface level goals.
By reconnecting with their authentic desires and recognizing patterns that align with their soul’s purpose, they gain clarity on their values and dreams.
This empowers my clients to create a life that is more fulfilling and aligned with their true passions and strengths.
Radical Self Acceptance Practice
I help my clients reflect on a situation they struggle to accept, allowing themselves to fully feel any resistance or discomfort.
Then, through mindfulness and self-compassion exercises, I help them practice gently releasing that resistance, acknowledging their feelings without judgment, and cultivating a sense of peace with the reality of the situation.
This process helps my clients shift their perspective, creating space for greater acceptance and inner calm.
By embracing the present moment with kindness, they can let go of the need for things to be different, fostering emotional freedom and resilience.
Witnessing and Healing
I help my clients identify a past emotional wound or trauma connected to an internal part of themselves, (inner child, shadow, or part), and allow space for it to be seen and heard.
Through this process, I guide my clients in engaging with a healing practice, such as visualizing their present self comforting, reassuring, and protecting this vulnerable part.
By offering love and safety to their inner child, clients begin to nurture and heal old wounds.
This process helps them integrate this part of themselves with compassion and understanding, empowering them to move forward with greater emotional resilience and a deeper sense of self-worth.
Metta (Loving-kindness) & Gratitude
What if we gave thanks in advance for the wonderful things that are going to happen?
What is we could truly live as if we actually love ourselves and others?
I help clients to practice sending loving-kindness first to themselves and then to others. They silently repeat phrases like, “May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be free of ill will. May I be free of suffering,” gradually extending these wishes to others. This helps foster compassion and reduce inner conflict.
My Role as Your Intuitive Guide
My role as your Intuitive Guide is to facilitate the process. I help set the stage for your inner work, guiding you toward a mental and physical intention that supports somatic introspection, connection, and release.
I often say that my words are just a finger pointing to the moon. The moon is always there, representing the path to reintegration and release. My words, my practices, and my suggestions simply point in that direction. But it is you who must look up and walk the path. What this means is that while I will guide you through the process, my words and instructions are always just an offer. They are not commands or requirements, but gentle pointers to help you discover what is already within you.
I call this practice Intuitive Guidance because I use intuition, informed by years of personal practice, group facilitation, one-to-one sessions, and formal study, to lead the work. At the same time, I encourage you to use your own intuition, your deepest sense of self, inner silence, and truth, to decide what is needed to reconnect and heal. Intuitive Guidance holds that within each of us lies a deeply compassionate Self, one that knows what the body, mind, and soul need.
If I can help you access and stay in that state of Self, then the Self will do the work. My role as a guide is to be the wise mirror, to offer, to show, to point the way. I hold the space and allow you to fill it however it needs to manifest. This is a trauma-informed practice, which means everything is based on choice, safety, collaboration, and empowerment. You remain in control of your process and are encouraged to speak up at any time if you feel the need.
Ending With Presence and Gratitude
Intuitive Guidance sessions always end with a returning to the present moment, along with a commitment to the part that at some later stage you will return to the practice and be open to them speaking out and sharing more.
I guide this ending with a grounding practice, focusing on what you can see, feel, hear, touch, taste, and smell, as well as gentle movement to bring awareness back to the here and now. This serves two functions. Firstly, it creates a clear ending to the session. It puts Intuitive Guidance into a defined container of self-work with a clear beginning and conclusion. This helps your parts know that they will not overwhelm the system. Remember, these parts are often holding onto things that once felt too overwhelming to process. They may fear that releasing now will again lead to catastrophe or breakdown. With repeated practice, they begin to see that we can end the session, return safely to the moment, and continue life intact. Over time, this builds trust and safety, allowing deeper release and unburdening.
Grounding also ensures safety in general. Inner work can be intense, triggering, or confronting. Returning to the senses, to the breath, and to the present moment provides a stabilizing anchor that allows us to go deep without becoming lost.
Sometimes a part may express a need at the end of the session. This might be self-care, movement, a massage, a heat or cold pack, a bath, journaling, or making a change in behavior. If it is within our capacity, we honor that need. By doing so, we show the part that we are committed to them and to the healing process as a whole.
Finally, we end each session with gratitude. We thank the parts we have worked with and ourselves as a whole for the courage and commitment shown in doing this deep work. Intuitive Guidance is a powerful and vulnerable practice, and it is important to acknowledge the bravery and care it requires.
Begin Your Intuitive Guidance Journey
The work of Intuitive Guidance is not just theory, it is lived practice. The same way I have witnessed parts release their burdens in myself, my clients, and workshop participants, this process is available to you. Your body, your mind, and your soul are always speaking. The question is, will you listen?
If you would like to experience this work directly, you have two ways to begin:
Join the Free 5 Day Intuitive Guidance For Self Healing Course, a transformative course that invites you to release old wounds, reintegrate lost parts, and reconnect with your true self.
Book a 1:1 Intuitive Guidance Session, a 90 minute space devoted entirely to you, where I guide you through the process in real time, helping you meet your parts, uncover insights, and move toward release and reintegration.
Whichever path you choose, you will be supported to step into deeper self-connection, clarity, and healing. The journey begins the moment you decide to take it.
