MIKE GUEST
Movement. Bodywork. Unwinding
Whether it's chronic pain, burnout, feeling disconnected or just a persistent sense of being stuck, I work with people who are ready to try a different approach. Through movement and bodywork I help people begin to unwind what's keeping them there.
You can see where I've learned these things and who is and has guided me along the way on my teachers and mentors page.
About Me
My name is Mike Guest. I came to this work the way many people come to it, through my own body breaking down and my own experience of feeling completely stuck in life. I've broken my back, lived with chronic pain, and spent years fighting against my own body before I began to understand that the physical and the emotional weren't separate things at all. The fascial system, the continuous web of connective tissue running through the entire body, carries both. It holds our movement and our history, our tension and our unresolved experiences together in the same web.
Working with it changed everything for me.
Over the years I've been slowly unwinding myself, physically and emotionally, and along the way I trained in the practices that made the biggest difference to me. These aren't things I arrived at through a curriculum. They're the things that helped me most when I needed it.
I don't have all the answers and I'm not here to pretend otherwise. But I've been in it, I know what stuck feels like, and if sharing what I've learned helps someone begin to unwind, that's enough for me.
Methods & Practices
Different approaches, one intention. To unwind what's stuck in the body and life, because the two are rarely as separate as we think.
A movement practice designed to counteract the damage that modern life does to our bodies. It works by decompressing the spine, rebalancing the muscular system and teaching you to move the way your body was designed to. I came to this through chronic back pain and it changed everything about how I inhabit my body.
A gentle hands-on practice where I hold the arms, legs or head with the lightest traction while you lie fully clothed and at rest. There's no pressure or manipulation. When the body isn't met with force it tends to stop bracing against it, and patterns of tension that have been there for years can begin to soften and unwind. It's particularly useful for people carrying stress or trauma in their body, whether that shows up as chronic pain, poor sleep, anxiety or just a persistent sense of feeling stuck or disconnected.
A focused hands-on practice that works with the body's energetic and emotional systems together. You lie fully clothed on a treatment tabel while I place my hands above and beneath different areas of the body, listening to what's present rather than imposing on it. It draws on an understanding of how our organs and emotional patterns are connected, rooted in principles from Traditional Chinese Medicine. It can be particularly effective for people who have found other approaches, especially talking therapies, haven't quite reached what they're carrying.
As someone who is ADHD and dyslexic myself, I spent years struggling before I began to understand how my brain actually works. Through my own coaching and training I've developed tools and strategies that have made a real difference to how I function and how I feel about myself. I work one to one with people who want to understand their own neurodivergent brain better, find what works for them and stop spending their energy fighting against the grain of who they are. This isn't a clinical service but it comes from genuine lived experience and a deep passion for helping others find their way through it.
I assist Mora McGovern on her retreats across Scotland, Spain and France. These are small group experiences built around Foundation Training, movement and giving people real time and space away from everyday life to reconnect with their bodies. If you're interested in joining a future retreat get in touch and I can point you toward the next one.
COMMON
THREADS
Working with these lines rather than isolated symptoms is at the heart of everything I do, whether that's through movement, hands-on bodywork or understanding the nervous system. My understanding of this has been shaped over the years by Mora McGovern, who's teaching brought the fascial system to life for me in a way no book could, and by Gathering Essence,whose Qigong practice has deepened my felt sense of how the body moves and holds energy. I'm constantly learning from it all. Every session teaches me something new. These practices look different from the outside, but for me, they all lead back to the same spool.
A lot of approaches to pain and tension treat the body in parts. A sore knee, a tight shoulder, a stiff lower back. But the fascial system doesn't work in parts. It runs continuously through the entire body in what Tom Myers mapped as myofascial meridians, lines of connection that link muscles, organs and tissues from foot to skull. Tension in your hamstrings might be pulling on your lower back. Tightness across your chest might be connected to how you hold your jaw. The body compensates, braces and holds, and often the place that hurts isn't where the story started.
You can see where I've learned these things and who is and has guided me along the way on my teachers and mentors page.
Testimonials.
How to Schedule with Mike?
A short informal phone call to hear what's going on for you and see if working together feels like the right fit. No charge, no obligation, just a conversation