Some people do not experience emotional overwhelm; they experience emotional absence. Instead of feeling too much, it becomes difficult to feel anything at all. You may move through life as if slightly behind glass, functioning on the outside while feeling flat, distant or strangely disconnected inside. You might know what you are supposed to feel, but the feeling doesn’t arrive. Or you may find yourself switching off in moments of stress, conflict, intimacy or pressure, without fully understanding why.

Emotional numbness is not a lack of feeling - it is a sign that your system has learned to survive by becoming still. Like deep ocean water where the currents slow to almost nothing, shutdown states emerge when emotional intensity was once too much to bear. Many sensitive, intuitive or neurodivergent people retreat into numbness not because they lack emotions, but because their system is protecting them from emotional overload they once had no tools to manage.

In our work together, we explore the quieter patterns beneath shutdown: the beliefs that silence you, the expectations that cause you to disappear, the moments when your system withdraws before you even realise it. We look at the early emotional landscapes that shaped this response - environments where it wasn’t safe to be seen, where feelings were unwelcome, or where you had to stay strong by staying quiet inside.

I support this work using Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, CBT, NLP, emotional mapping, mindful awareness, intuitive tuning-in and shadow exploration. These approaches help you recognise the internal switches that lead to disconnection and help uncover the emotional stories hidden beneath the numbness. Constitutional homeopathy and plant spirit medicine can be especially helpful here, offering gentle energetic support for thawing old patterns, softening emotional distance and reconnecting with parts of yourself that have been held in hibernation.

We move slowly and respectfully. Shutdown is not something to be forced open; it unwinds when safety, trust and inner permission return. Over time, you begin to feel small sparks of emotional life again - quiet at first, then clearer. You become able to sense yourself more reliably, to stay present in moments that once caused you to disappear, and to reconnect with your inner world at a pace your system can genuinely hold.

Emotional numbness is not the absence of feeling; it is feeling waiting for safety. Together, we create the conditions for that safety to return.