Exhausted by Anxiety, Self-Criticism and That 'Never Good Enough' Feeling?
Integrative Psychotherapy & Nervous System Regulation in Southend-on-Sea
Hi, I'm Mike Hanna, a qualified Integrative Psychotherapist and founder of mikehannatherapy.com. With over 20 years' experience supporting people through stress, burnout and life transitions, I specialise in helping adults who feel overwhelmed by anxiety, guilt, perfectionism and the relentless inner critic. Using Transactional Analysis, somatic work and gentle nervous system regulation (including AVNT), I offer a warm, practical approach to help you feel calmer, clearer and more at ease with yourself.
The Core Philosophy
Regulate First. Rewrite Your Story. Reconnect With What Matters.
Regulate
Calm the nervous system from the bottom up — so your body stops running on threat and your mind can finally think clearly.
Rewrite
Uncover the unconscious life scripts and old patterns keeping you stuck — and gently, powerfully begin to author a new story.
Reconnect
Return to your values, your needs, and the relationships and meaning that make life feel genuinely worth living.
At StressDown, the work moves in two directions at once: bottom-up (body to brain — calming the physiology that keeps you locked in fight, flight, or freeze) and top-down (mind to life — reshaping the stories, beliefs, and choices that shape your world). Real, lasting change happens when both are working together.
About Mike Hanna
My Journey — From Holistic Roots to Integrative Psychotherapy
I'm Mike Hanna — NCPS Registered Integrative Psychotherapist, somatic practitioner, and founder of StressDown.
My path into this work has been anything but straight. It started with over 20 years working on aircraft in the aviation industry, followed by a high-pressure corporate IT career where I directed large teams and multi-million-pound budgets. That experience taught me first-hand what chronic stress, high performance, and burnout really feel like.
Eventually I moved into business coaching, helping leaders navigate pressure and change. But I knew there was more. So I immersed myself in holistic healing — training as a yoga teacher, energy worker, and massage therapist, while qualifying in NLP and life coaching. Over time I expanded into somatic practices, health and nutrition, and became a partner with Cytoplan supplements. I also published four books on wellbeing to share what I was learning.
Today I bring all of this together as a fully qualified Integrative Psychotherapist. My practice combines the depth of clinical psychotherapy with somatic and nervous system approaches — creating a genuinely whole-person path to change.
Neuromodulation — A Natural Fit
Think of neuromodulation like a "reset button" for the nervous system. It gently stimulates specific nerves — most often the vagus nerve — to reduce overactivity in the stress system (sympathetic) and boost the calming system (parasympathetic). This can help with symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, inflammation, pain, and autonomic issues.
AVNT (Auricular Vagal Neuromodulation Therapy) is a non-invasive form of neuromodulation that stimulates the vagus nerve through the ear to help regulate heart rate, inflammation, and stress responses. When the nervous system is regulated, the therapeutic work goes deeper — and results come faster. I use the Nurosym vagus nerve stimulator personally and have found it a powerful complement to the therapeutic process.
My integrative approach draws on a range of therapeutic orientations including Transactional Analysis (life scripts and ego states), Existential therapy (Yalom’s four givens), the Human Givens framework (emotional needs, innate resources and guided imagery), Person-Centred therapy (unconditional positive regard), and somatic and nervous system regulation approaches.
This lived experience — from the cockpit to the boardroom to the therapy room — means I truly understand what it feels like to sit in uncertainty, feel the pull of old patterns, and choose, again and again, to grow.
Credentials
My Training & Credentials
I bring over 20 years of continuous professional development across nervous system regulation, somatic practices, and integrative psychotherapy. My qualifications blend scientific understanding with holistic wisdom — creating a truly whole-person approach to change.
HeartMath Practitioner (2020)
Certified in the Foundations of Heart Rate Variability for nervous system coherence.
Wim Hof Method Fundamentals
Expertise in breathwork and cold exposure for resilience and vitality.
Cytoplan Nutritional Practitioner (2020)
Understanding the foundational role of nutrition in mental and physical health.
500-Hour Yoga Teacher & Yoga Therapy Training
In-depth knowledge of movement, mindfulness, and body awareness.
240-Hour ITM Thai Massage & Chi Nei Tsang
Specialised somatic bodywork for deep release and energetic balance.
NLP & Hypnotherapy Practitioner
Advanced tools for mindset shifts and unconscious pattern change.
NCPS Registered Integrative Psychotherapist
Fully qualified and registered with the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society — committed to the highest standards of ethical, evidence-informed practice.
Additional training in advanced breathwork (Isha Yoga), business & performance coaching, and holistic bodywork underpins my integrative approach.
Additional HRV Certifications: Foundations of Heart Rate Variability with EliteHRV Academy and CPD Certification with Parasym in understanding and applying Auricular Vagal Neuromodulation Therapy (AVNT) in Clinical Practice.
I am a fully qualified and NCPS Registered Integrative Psychotherapist, practising in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK.
My Integrative Approach
Four Powerful Traditions. One Coherent Path Forward.
My work is grounded in an integrative approach that draws from several powerful therapeutic traditions to help you understand yourself more deeply and create lasting, meaningful change. At its core is the belief that we are not trapped by our past — we have the capacity to become aware, make conscious choices, and build a life that feels authentic and fulfilling.
Transactional Analysis
We explore your life script — the unconscious story begun in childhood, shaped by drivers ("be perfect," "please others") and injunctions ("don't succeed," "don't feel"). Once aware, you can gently rewrite it.
Existential Perspective
Drawing on Irvin Yalom's four givens — death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness — we learn to face life's realities with courage, using them as a springboard for a more purposeful, intentional existence.
Human Givens
The nine essential emotional needs — security, autonomy, intimacy, meaning, and more — alongside your innate resources. When needs are met and resources used well, distress dissolves and resilience grows.
Person-Centred Foundation
Your unique subjective experience is the most important guide. I offer a safe, non-judgmental relationship — empathy, unconditional positive regard, genuine presence — allowing you to explore at your own pace.
Integrative Approach — Continued
Empowerment Is the Goal
Ultimately, my integrative approach is about empowerment: increasing awareness of old patterns, facing life's realities with compassion, meeting your core needs more effectively, and creating the freedom to live according to your own values and aspirations.
Whether you are struggling with anxiety, relationship difficulties, low self-worth, or simply seeking greater fulfilment — these four traditions work together seamlessly. Transactional Analysis gives you language for your patterns. Existential thinking gives you permission to choose meaning. Human Givens gives you a practical map of what you need to thrive. And the Person-Centred relationship gives you the safety to do the real work.
I am here to walk alongside you as you rewrite your story and step into a more authentic, meaningful way of being. The same qualities of authentic connection that develop in our sessions ripple outward — helping you build healthier relationships and reinforce your new life script in everything you do.
Nervous System Regulation
Why Your Body Holds the Key to Change
Before the mind can rewrite its story, the body must first feel safe. Stress isn't just a feeling — it's a physiological state driven by ancient survival systems that were never designed for modern life. Understanding how your nervous system works is the first and most transformative step.
When the brain perceives threat — real or imagined — it triggers a cascade of responses that hijack thinking, feeling, and relating. Chronic stress keeps this system on high alert, eroding health, relationships, and quality of life. The good news? The nervous system is plastic. It can be retrained, regulated, and restored.
The Science of Stress
Fight, Flight & Freeze — Your Brain's Survival Wiring
The Threat Response
When you encounter a perceived danger, your amygdala — the brain's alarm centre — fires instantly, bypassing rational thought. Within milliseconds, your body mobilises for survival: heart rate surges, muscles tense, digestion halts, and stress hormones flood the bloodstream.
This is the fight-or-flight response, orchestrated by the sympathetic nervous system. In genuine danger, it saves lives. But when triggered repeatedly by work pressure, relationship conflict, financial worry, or even negative thoughts, it becomes the source of chronic suffering.
A third state — freeze — occurs when the threat feels inescapable. The system collapses inward: numbness, disconnection, fatigue, and shutdown. Many people living with trauma, depression, or burnout recognise this state well.
The Three Survival States
- Fight — aggression, irritability, urgency, conflict
- Flight — anxiety, avoidance, overthinking, restlessness
- Freeze — numbness, shutdown, dissociation, fatigue
Common Triggers in Modern Life
- Chronic work pressure and overload
- Relationship and attachment stress
- Financial uncertainty and insecurity
- Rumination and negative self-talk
- Poor sleep and physical depletion
The HPA Axis
The Stress Highway: Hypothalamus → Pituitary → Adrenal
The HPA axis (Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis) is your body's central stress-response system — a chemical highway that determines how much cortisol floods your system in times of threat. The hypothalamus detects stress and signals the pituitary gland, which in turn triggers the adrenal glands to release cortisol — the primary stress hormone.
What Cortisol Does
- Raises blood sugar for immediate energy
- Suppresses the immune system
- Impairs memory consolidation and learning
- Disrupts sleep architecture and quality
- Narrows thinking to threat-focused patterns
Chronic Cortisol Elevation
- Anxiety and persistent low mood
- Weight gain, particularly around the abdomen
- Inflammation and immune dysfunction
- Cardiovascular strain over time
- Burnout, exhaustion, and emotional blunting
The Vagus Nerve
Your Built-In Pathway to Calm
The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body — a two-way information superhighway running from your brainstem through your heart and lungs all the way to your gut. It is the primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system: your body's rest, digest, and restore system.
Crucially, around 80% of vagal fibres run upward — from body to brain — which means the fastest way to calm an activated nervous system is through the body, not through thinking alone. This is the scientific foundation of all bottom-up regulation work.
Vagal Tone
High vagal tone = greater capacity to recover from stress quickly, regulate emotions, and feel socially connected. Low vagal tone is associated with anxiety, depression, and inflammation.
Polyvagal Theory
Stephen Porges' landmark theory explains how the vagus nerve governs three states: safe and social, fight/flight mobilisation, and freeze/shutdown — and how to move between them intentionally.
What Activates the Vagus
Slow diaphragmatic breathing, cold exposure, humming, singing, social connection, gentle movement, and mindful body awareness all stimulate vagal activity and restore calm.
Practical Regulation Tools
Proven Techniques to Calm Your Nervous System
Regulation isn't something that happens to you — it's a skill you can develop. These evidence-based tools directly activate the parasympathetic nervous system, lower cortisol, and build long-term vagal tone. With practice, they become your first line of response rather than your last resort.
Extended Exhale Breathing
Breathe in for 4 counts, out for 6–8. The extended exhale activates the vagus nerve directly. Practice 5 minutes daily to build baseline calm and resilience.
Cold Exposure
Cold showers, cold water face immersion, or ice baths trigger a powerful vagal response. Even 30 seconds of cold water on the face activates the dive reflex and rapidly downregulates arousal.
Somatic Grounding
Feel your feet on the floor. Name five things you can see, four you can touch. Body-based grounding interrupts the amygdala's threat narrative and returns attention to the present moment.
Humming & Toning
The vagus nerve runs through the vocal cords. Humming, chanting, or even gargling creates vibration that directly stimulates vagal activity — a simple, accessible tool available anywhere.
Rhythmic Movement
Walking, gentle yoga, swimming, or dancing — rhythmic bilateral movement regulates the nervous system, integrates left and right brain hemispheres, and naturally reduces cortisol.
Safe Social Connection
Co-regulation — the calming effect of being with a safe, regulated person — is the most powerful nervous system tool of all. Humans are social mammals wired for connection above all else.
The Stress Cycle
From Chronic Stress to Genuine Wellbeing
Understanding your nervous system is only the beginning. The real work is building the capacity to complete the stress cycle — to move through activation and return to a regulated baseline with skill and self-compassion. Over time, this capacity becomes your new normal: a more resilient, resourced, and present version of yourself.
The body keeps the score — but the body also holds the solution. Regulation is not weakness; it is the bravest, most intelligent thing you can do for your health, your relationships, and your future.
Services
How We Work Together
Whether you're struggling with anxiety, burnout, people-pleasing, or patterns that keep repeating — there is a path forward. Sessions are available in person in Southend-on-Sea and online across the UK. All new clients begin with a free 30-minute discovery call.
Integrative Psychotherapy
A deeply personalised, whole-person approach that works on two levels at once. We use top-down therapeutic methods — drawing on Transactional Analysis, Human Givens, Existential therapy, and Person-Centred approaches — to explore the life scripts, unmet needs, and patterns shaping your experience. Alongside this, we work bottom-up with the body: using somatic tools, breathwork, and nervous system regulation techniques to calm the stress response and create the physiological conditions for real change. This is not just talking about your problems — it's understanding them, feeling them shift, and building a life that actually fits who you are.
30
Mins
Free discovery call — no obligation, just a conversation
50
Min Sessions
Standard session length, weekly or fortnightly
100%
Online UK-Wide
All sessions available via secure video call across the UK
Pricing & Investment
My Fees – Southend-on-Sea / Online
I believe therapy should feel both supportive and accessible. My fees reflect over 20 years of holistic experience and my full qualification as an NCPS Registered Integrative Psychotherapist. To keep things simple, there is one service: Integrative Psychotherapy.
Single Sessions (50–60 minutes)
- Integrative Psychotherapy – £95 per session
I offer two package options — both include exclusive extras to support your wider wellbeing. All sessions combine Integrative Psychotherapy and Nervous System Regulation, tailored to your needs.
✨ Integrated Balance — 6 Sessions
£499 (£83 per session — save £71 vs. single sessions)
The perfect starting point for meaningful, lasting change.
- 🌿 50% off Cytoplan supplements for the duration of your programme
- 📖 A free book from Mike's personal collection, chosen for your journey
- 💡 10% off a Nurosym vagus nerve modulator
🔥 Deep Dive — 10 Sessions
£750 (£75 per session — save £200 vs. single sessions)
For those ready to go further — deeper work, greater transformation.
- 🌿 50% off Cytoplan supplements for the duration of your programme
- 📖 A free book from Mike's personal collection, chosen for your journey
- 💡 10% off a Nurosym vagus nerve modulator
All packages are paid in advance and can be used flexibly within 5 months. You can pause or reschedule sessions with 48 hours' notice.
Low-Cost / Concession Sessions
I also offer a limited number of lower-cost sessions through the Counselling-on-Sea scheme. These sessions are charged at £40 to the client (I receive £25) and include the use of a professional therapy room and full administrative support. These places are strictly limited each month and are designed to make therapy more accessible for clients who find full private fees difficult at this time. Availability depends on my current caseload as a venue and placement manager for the agency.
If you have any questions about fees, 6-session blocks, or concession availability, please feel free to contact me. I'm happy to discuss what would work best for your situation.
Resources
My Self-Published Books
While training as an integrative psychotherapist, I wrote these three books to explore more deeply the themes that frequently emerge in my client work — the mind-body connection, the search for meaning, and the path toward greater emotional resilience and self-compassion.
Each one offers practical insights and gentle tools drawn from my clinical practice: nervous system regulation and longevity in Mind-Body Wellness for Longevity, existential questions and Vedic wisdom in Her Existential Odyssey, and empowering cognitive approaches in Cognitive Therapy for Women.
I hope they spark curiosity, invite reflection, and serve as helpful companions on your own journey toward wellbeing.
Human Givens
Your Nine Essential Emotional Needs
The Human Givens framework identifies nine core emotional needs that, when consistently met, form the foundation of genuine wellbeing and mental health. When needs go unmet — through circumstance, relationship, or old patterns — distress is the natural result. The work of therapy and coaching is, in large part, the work of identifying and meeting these needs more effectively.
Alongside these needs, we each possess powerful innate resources — imagination, rational thinking, empathy, the ability to learn, a self-observing 'meta-awareness', and more. When these resources are used skilfully, we meet our needs with ease. When they turn against us — imagination fuelling anxiety, attention consumed by rumination — suffering arises. Together, we restore the balance.
Life Scripts & TA
The Unconscious Story Driving Your Life
In Transactional Analysis, a life script is the unconscious story you began writing in early childhood — shaped by your experiences, the messages you received, and the decisions you made about yourself, others, and the world in order to survive and belong. These scripts operate silently beneath awareness, yet they drive much of what happens in your relationships, your self-esteem, and your sense of possibility.
Common Drivers
Compulsive rules that feel essential to being loved or safe:
- "Be perfect"
- "Please others"
- "Try hard" (but never quite succeed)
- "Be strong" (never show vulnerability)
- "Hurry up" (rest is dangerous)
Common Injunctions
Deeper prohibitions absorbed from early experience:
- "Don't succeed"
- "Don't feel"
- "Don't belong"
- "Don't be important"
- "Don't be close"
The empowering truth of TA is this: the script was written by a child making sense of the world with limited information. As an adult, with awareness and support, you can write a new one — choosing your own drivers, permissions, and ways of being that reflect who you truly are and who you want to become.
Existential Therapy
Yalom's Four Givens — And Why They're Liberating
Existential therapy, particularly as developed by Irvin Yalom, invites us to face four fundamental realities of human existence not with dread, but with courage and curiosity. These are not problems to be solved — they are the conditions within which a meaningful life must be lived.
Death
Awareness of our mortality, when held consciously rather than avoided, can liberate us to live more fully — choosing what truly matters rather than sleepwalking through life.
Freedom & Responsibility
There is no pre-written script for your life. This is frightening — and profoundly freeing. You are the author of your choices, your values, and your meaning. And that authorship is non-negotiable.
Existential Isolation
No one can fully inhabit another's inner world. Accepting this aloneness — rather than fleeing it through compulsive connection or self-abandonment — paradoxically deepens authentic relating.
Meaninglessness
Life has no inherent, pre-given meaning. Yet within this openness lies the greatest human creative act: choosing to create meaning through your values, relationships, actions, and commitments.
Rather than offering easy answers, existential thinking reminds us that facing life's realities with honesty and courage is itself the foundation of a deeply purposeful existence.
Book a Discovery Call
Ready to Begin? Let's Have a Conversation.
The first step is the simplest one: a free, no-obligation 30-minute discovery call with Mike. This is your opportunity to share what's brought you here, ask any questions about the work, and get a sense of whether this is the right fit. There is no pressure, no sales pitch — just a genuine human conversation.
Sessions are available online across the UK via secure video call, and in person in the local area. Whether you're navigating burnout, anxiety, relationship difficulties, low self-worth, or simply a sense that life could be more — you're in the right place.
Email Mike
Reach out directly with any questions or to request a discovery call booking.
Visit Stress Down Online
Explore all services, resources, and workshop dates at www.stressdown.co.uk
Free Resources
Download your free vagus nerve toolkit and grounding guides — no sign-up required.
Workshops
Helping Clients With Stress — Live & Online Workshops
Based on the acclaimed presentation Helping Clients with Stress: Understanding the Nervous System & Practical Tools, these workshops are designed for individuals, teams, and helping professionals who want to understand the science of stress — and leave with real, usable tools.
Workshop Content
What You'll Learn
01
The Neuroscience of Stress
Understand the amygdala, the HPA axis, and why your body responds to modern stressors as if they were predators. Demystify the science so you can work with your biology, not against it.
02
Fight, Flight, Freeze & The Window of Tolerance
Learn to identify which state you or your clients are in, and understand the concept of the window of tolerance — the zone within which we can think, feel, and relate effectively.
03
The Vagus Nerve & Polyvagal Theory
Explore Stephen Porges' groundbreaking framework and understand why social connection and body-based tools are the most powerful regulation resources we have.
04
Practical Regulation Toolkit
Experience and practise breathwork, grounding techniques, cold exposure principles, movement, and co-regulation strategies — tools you can use immediately and share with others.
05
Creating a Personal Regulation Plan
Leave with a bespoke, written plan integrating your chosen tools into daily life — so the learning doesn't stay in the room, it becomes your new baseline.
Live Workshop
Full-day or half-day in-person format. Ideal for teams, organisations, and therapy/coaching groups. Interactive, experiential, and deeply practical. Includes workbook and follow-up resources.
Online Workshop
Self-paced or live-streamed online format, accessible UK-wide and internationally. Includes video content, downloadable resources, and optional group Q&A sessions with Mike.
Free Resources
Tools You Can Start Using Today
Regulation doesn't require a session — it requires knowledge and practice. These free resources are designed to give you immediate, practical support wherever you are on your journey. Download, use, and share them freely.
🌿 Free Vagus Nerve Activation Toolkit
A beautifully designed PDF guide covering the top seven vagal toning techniques — with step-by-step instructions, the science behind each, and a daily practice log to track your progress.
🌱 Grounding Techniques Guide
Five somatic grounding practices you can use anywhere — from the 5-4-3-2-1 sensory technique to physiological sigh breathing — explained clearly with a pocket-sized reference card.
🌙 Sleep & Nervous System Reset Guide
Chronic stress devastates sleep — and poor sleep amplifies stress. This guide covers the neuroscience of sleep and provides a practical, evidence-based evening protocol to restore deep, restorative rest.
📋 Stress & Needs Self-Assessment
A reflective questionnaire based on the Human Givens emotional needs model — helping you identify which of your nine core needs may be unmet and where to focus your energy for maximum wellbeing impact.
Regulate First. Rewrite Your Story. Reconnect With What Matters.
You don't have to keep running on empty. You don't have to keep repeating the same patterns. You don't have to settle for a life that feels half-lived. The nervous system can be regulated. The script can be rewritten. The life you actually want is not out of reach.
Nervous System Regulation
Bottom-up tools to calm the physiology and restore your body's natural capacity for rest, connection, and clear thinking.
Integrative Psychotherapy
Top-down therapeutic change — exploring life scripts, meaning, emotional needs, and the relational patterns shaping your experience.
Holistic Wellbeing
Body and mind working together — because lasting change requires both the wisdom of the nervous system and the power of conscious choice.
Mike Hanna | Stress Down | www.stressdown.co.uk | Integrative Psychotherapy | Nervous System Regulation | Stress Coaching UK | Keywords: nervous system regulation, HPA axis, vagus nerve, Transactional Analysis, life scripts, stress coaching, psychotherapist UK