HI, I'M SIMONE
Science teacher.
Mum of two.
Burnout survivor.
I spent years teaching others how the body works — while completely ignoring what mine was trying to tell me. Burnout didn't arrive loudly. It arrived as exhaustion I couldn't explain, tension I couldn't release, and a growing sense that no amount of rest was actually restoring me. That experience became my greatest teacher — and eventually, the foundation of everything I do.
21+
as a science teacher
6+
years as a yoga teacher
4
core modalities — all certified
2
boys who made healing non-negotiable
MY STORY
I knew the science.
I just couldn't
feel it.
For over two decades I stood in front of classrooms explaining how the human body works — the nervous system, the stress response, the biology of fight and flight. I knew it all on paper. What I didn't know was that my own body was living proof of everything I was teaching.
Juggling teaching, raising two boys and the relentless pace of a full life, I was running on adrenaline and calling it coping. My nervous system was permanently switched on — and I didn't even realise it. The tension, the broken sleep, the short fuse, the exhaustion that a weekend couldn't touch — I thought that was just life with young children and a demanding career.
It wasn't. It was burnout. And no amount of knowing about it was enough to fix it.
What changed everything was discovering that healing required something I'd never actually given my body: genuine rest. Not lying down. Not a quiet evening. Real, deep, nervous-system-level rest — the kind where your body finally gets the signal that it's safe to stop bracing and start restoring.
"Knowing about the nervous system didn't heal me. Learning to actually listen to my body did."
THE FOUNDATION
Science Teacher & Mum of Two
A decade of teaching biology and human physiology. Knowing exactly how the nervous system works — while running mine completely ragged juggling teaching, motherhood and everything else.
THE TURNING POINT
Burnout that no textbook prepared me for
The exhaustion became impossible to push through. Chronic tension, disrupted sleep, a nervous system stuck in fight or flight. I knew what was happening biologically — but knowing wasn't healing me.
THE TRAINING
Certifications in Yoga, breathwork, mindfulness & Spinal flow
I threw myself into learning everything that had helped me — training formally in each modality, and bringing my science background to understanding exactly why they work at a nervous system level.
THE DISCOVERY
Finding Spinal flow and whole body healing
My first Spinal Flow session gave my nervous system something it hadn't experienced in years — genuine rest. Not sleep. Not relaxation. Deep, cellular-level rest. Everything shifted from there
NOW
Embody Zen - the intersection of science, ancient wisdom & soul
100+ sessions. Hundreds of the quietly depleted who finally understand what their nervous system has been trying to tell them — and how to actually let their body heal.
THE EMBODY ZEN PHILOSOPHY
Healing can only happen when your nervous system is in rest and digest — not fight or flight. To heal, you need to allow your body to rest. Truly rest. Not just tell it to.
This is the foundation of everything I do. Not managing stress better. Not pushing through more mindfully. Actually creating the conditions — in your body, not just your mind — for your nervous system to finally feel safe enough to let go.
MY APPROACH
Where science,
ancient wisdom
and soul meet
My science background means I'm always asking why. Why does this practice work? What is happening in the nervous system when the breath slows? What shifts in the body during a Spinal Flow session that makes years of tension release in minutes?
But I'm also a mum, a human being, and someone who has lived through the profound mystery of a body that knows far more than the mind gives it credit for. The ancient wisdom traditions understood this long before neuroscience had words for it. My approach honours both.
The nervous system is the gateway
Everything I do works at the level of the autonomic nervous system — because that is where stress lives, where healing happens, and where lasting change becomes possible. The body cannot heal in fight or flight. Full stop.
NERVOUS SYSTEM HEALTH · SOMATIC HEALING
The body already knows how to heal
I am not the healer. I create the conditions. Every ancient healing tradition and every branch of modern neuroscience agrees on this: the body has a profound innate capacity to restore itself — when it feels safe enough to do so.
INNATE INTELLIGENCE · SOUL-LED HEALING
Rest is not passive — it's the work
High-achievers are conditioned to believe that doing more is always the answer. But the nervous system heals in stillness, not in effort. Teaching your body to genuinely rest — not just pause — is one of the most active, courageous things you can do.
ANCIENT WISDOM · PARASYMPATHETIC ACTIVATION
Understanding accelerates healing
My science teacher instinct never left. When clients understand what is happening in their nervous system — why they can't switch off, why rest doesn't restore them, why they react the way they do — something profound shifts. Insight is medicine.
SCIENCE EDUCATION · NERVOUS SYSTEM LITERACY
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT
Why you can't just
"relax" your way
to healing
Your autonomic nervous system has two primary states. Sympathetic — fight or flight — designed for short-term survival. And parasympathetic — rest and digest — where all healing, repair and restoration actually happen.
The problem for most high-achievers is that chronic stress keeps the nervous system locked in sympathetic dominance. The body stays on high alert even when the actual threat has long passed. And here's the thing: you can't think, breathe deeply or positive-affirmation your way out of a nervous system that doesn't feel safe.
That's why my work goes beyond advice and into the body itself — creating the physiological conditions for the nervous system to finally drop into the state where healing is actually possible.
SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Fight or flight
Your system is on high alert. Stress hormones are elevated. Digestion slows. Sleep is disrupted. The body is bracing — not healing.
ExhaustionTension Anxiety Poor sleep Reactivity Inflammation
PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Rest and digest — where healing lives
The body feels safe. Stress hormones reduce. Digestion restores. Deep sleep becomes possible. Repair, renewal and healing all happen here.
Deep rest Tension release Clarity Restored energy Emotional ease Healing
THE MODALITIES
Four tools.
One nervous system.
Each modality I work with creates nervous system safety in a different way — together they form a complete approach to healing that works at every level of the body.
ANCIENT TRADITION · MODERN SCIENCE
Spinal Flow Technique
A gentle, non-manipulative bodywork modality working directly with the nervous system through precise light touch along the spine. No force, no cracking — just the body's own innate intelligence being invited to release what it no longer needs to hold.
Certified practitioner In-person
PRANAYAMA · NEUROSCIENCE
Breathwork
Your breath is the only autonomic function you can consciously control — making it your most powerful and accessible tool for nervous system regulation. Ancient pranayama and modern breath science, brought together in practical, usable techniques.
Certified facilitator Usable anywhere
5,000 years of body wisdom
Somatic Yoga
Not yoga as fitness. Yoga as nervous system medicine — the way it was originally intended. Gentle, intentional movement that works with the body's stress patterns, releasing what is held in the muscles, joints and connective tissue.
480hr certified Trauma-informed
CONTEMPLATIVE TRADITION · NEUROSCIENCE
Mindfulness & Meditation
Not about emptying the mind. About training your nervous system to tolerate stillness — so that rest becomes genuinely restorative rather than just another task on the list. Built for overthinkers who have "tried meditation" and found it impossible.
Certified Science-backed
WHAT I BELIEVE
The principles behind
Embody Zen
You are not broken
Your nervous system adapted brilliantly to the demands placed on it. That adaptation just needs updating. You are not a problem to be fixed — you are a person whose body learned to survive instead of thrive.
Healing is not another achievement
High-achievers often try to perform their way through healing — to do it right, do it fast, do it perfectly. Real healing asks for the opposite: presence, patience and a willingness to feel rather than fix.
Slow is the fastest way
The nervous system cannot be bullied into healing. Every high-achiever wants the efficient path — and it is this: slow, consistent, body-level work. It compounds faster than anything else I know.
Ancient wisdom already knew
Yoga, pranayama and meditation were always nervous system medicine — long before neuroscience had words for it. I honour that lineage deeply, and bring it into conversation with modern science.
Understanding is medicine
When you understand what is happening in your nervous system — not just that you're stressed, but why your body responds the way it does — you stop fighting yourself. That shift alone changes everything.
This work ripples outward
When your nervous system regulates, everything changes — your relationships, your presence, your creativity, your patience with your children. You cannot heal in isolation. The people around you feel it too.
TRAINING & CREDENTIALS
Held by
expertise
Spinal Flow Technique
Certified practitioner
Yoga Teacher Training
350hr certified · BHYS
NeuroChange Practitioner
Neurochange Institute
A science background, formal training in four modalities, and the lived experience of healing my own nervous system — all in service of yours.
Mindfulness & Meditation
50hr certified· BHYS
Science Teacher
Biology & Chemistry· 20+ years
6 Years in Practice
200+ sessions · Sydney