My Approach

Somatic therapeutic coaching for women in the hard moments

You already know what you "should" do. Stay calm when your child melts down. Speak up in the meeting. Hold your ground with your partner. Say no to your family without the guilt. Yet in the moment, something else takes over. What gets in the way lives in your body and in the stories you carry, and that's where we work, so change can actually hold.

Why I start with the body

A curt email from your manager. A comment from your mother-in-law. Your partner forgetting, again. Your child screaming “I hate you” at the school gate. In each of these moments, your reaction happens faster than thought. Your heart races, your jaw tightens or you go quiet and far away, and the steady woman you planned to be disappears. Insight helps you understand that moment afterwards. Building capacity in your nervous system changes what happens in the moment itself.

I came to this work as a mother of three sons. One of them is a highly sensitive, spirited child, who I now know to be neurodivergent. He tested me in ways nothing else ever had, and he brought up triggers in me I didn’t know I carried. I realised how much support parents need, and especially mothers, who so often hold everything together for everyone else. So I trained in the approaches below, and I weave them together in everything I offer through Self Directed Life.

Diagram showing three overlapping circles (Regulate, Reclaim, Redesign) with 'You' in the center, illustrating a coaching method.

Regulate, Reclaim, Redesign: my method, with you at the centre

Nervous system and somatic work

Have you ever tried to change a pattern, knowing exactly what you wanted to do differently, and found it just didn't land? The new way felt wrong, or unsafe, or you slipped straight back into the old one. That's usually because your body doesn't yet know the new way is safe. So this is where we start. When your nervous system feels safe, change stops being a fight.

Somatic therapeutic coach

Somatic therapeutic coaching

Together we notice what your body does when you feel triggered, overwhelmed or shut down, and gently widen what you can stay with. Over time, your nervous system builds a sense of safety and resilience, and the same moment stops tipping you over. Read Therapist, coach or counsellor? Where a somatic therapeutic coach fits

Licensed provider

Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)

SSP is a listening programme from Unyte, co-created by Dr Stephen Porges. Specially filtered music helps the nervous system feel safer and more open to connection. I am a licensed SSP provider and pace each listening journey to how your body responds. Read What is the Safe and Sound Protocol?

Licensed provider

Rest and Restore Protocol™ (RRP)

RRP is a clinical-grade listening therapy from Unyte Health, developed by Dr Stephen Porges and Anthony Gorry. Its soundscapes guide the nervous system back towards balance by restoring the body's internal rhythms, supporting the shift from stress and fatigue towards rest and recovery. I'm a licensed RRP provider. Read What is the Rest and Restore Protocol? and SSP vs RRP: what's the difference?

Practitioner in training

Somatic Experiencing®

My training in Dr Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing shapes how I pace our work. We touch a small piece of what feels hard, return to steadiness, and let your body settle, so you never get pushed past what you can handle. Read What is Somatic Experiencing?

Inquiry and relational work

Our reactions carry old stories. These approaches help us find them with curiosity, and heal them inside a safe relationship.

Practitioner in training

Compassionate Inquiry

Developed by Dr Gabor Maté, Compassionate Inquiry gently explores what sits beneath a reaction: the emotion, the body sensation, the belief and the childhood experience where it began. Read What is Compassionate Inquiry?

Certified practitioner

Trauma-informed Relational Somatics (TIRS)

Natalia Rachel's TIRS focuses on relational safety and the power of safe, consensual physical touch to support the body and remind it what it feels like to be safe. It reminds me that how we are together in a session matters as much as any technique. Read What is Trauma-informed Relational Somatics?

“

Read the child you have in front of you, not the
child you hope to have.

Sheryl Ang

Parenting approaches

Regulation gives you the steadiness. These approaches give you a map for what to do with your child once you have it.

Trained in, Intensive I

The Neufeld approach

Dr Gordon Neufeld's developmental model puts attachment at the centre. Children follow the adults they feel close to, so connection comes before direction. Read What is the Neufeld approach to attachment?

Trained in

Playful Parenting

Play therapists have long known that play is a child's first language. Children show with toys and games what they can't yet say in words, and they work through fear, anger and hurt as they play. Dr Lawrence Cohen's Playful Parenting brings those insights home, so laughter, pretend play and roughhousing become tools you use on purpose to connect and help your child heal. Read What is Playful Parenting?

Certified parenting coach

Peaceful Parenting

Dr Laura Markham's work rests on three big ideas: calm, connect and coach. It fits beautifully with nervous system work. Read What is Peaceful Parenting?

Coaching approaches

Change also needs direction. These approaches keep our work focused on your life as it really is.

Certified coach

RHI Laser Coaching

Regan Hillyer International's Laser Coaching Method™ goes straight to the belief and identity underneath a pattern. When the root belief shifts, the behaviour follows, so focused sessions can create real change quickly. Read What is RHI laser coaching?

Practitioner in training

Woman-Centered Coaching

Dr Claire Zammit's Woman-Centered Coaching looks at why capable women hold themselves back. Cultural barriers, from gender roles to taboos about ambition and money, leave behind inner beliefs like "who am I to want more?" Together we make those beliefs visible, so you can step into your potential. Read What is Woman-Centered Coaching?

How it all comes together

Every session draws on one integrated way of working. We start with your body and build safety. We get curious about the stories underneath your reactions. Then we bring that steadiness into real moments at work, in your relationships and with your children.

In Regulate: Capacity for the Hard Moments, my 6-week private coaching programme, we do this work one to one. In my parenting courses and community, the same approach shapes how I guide you and your children.

Curious whether this is right for you?

Let's talk about what's happening in your hard moments and what support would help.

I am a somatic therapeutic coach. My work can sit alongside ongoing medical or mental health care. If you are in crisis, please contact your doctor or local emergency services.

© 2026 Sheryl Ang