When self-care starts to feel like another demand
When your system is already stretched thin, even small pressures can have a disproportionate impact - leaving you flat, reactive, overwhelmed or simply without much left to give.
At that point, more effort is rarely the answer.
What helps is a more intelligent kind of self-care - one that works with your physiology, rather than asking you to push through it.
For Parents, Allied Health Professionals and Healers
Originally delivered live over four weeks in early 2026, this program is now available to work through at your own pace.
It brings together practical A.R.T. principles, guided exercises, discussion and lived experience to help you better understand your own nervous system — particularly when you are someone who spends a great deal of time supporting other people.
The live program became something special. Alongside the teaching, there was honesty, humour and a strong sense of camaraderie between participants.
Most importantly, it gave people permission to stop trying to do self-care perfectly — and begin finding their way back to themselves.
PURCHASE NOW
WHAT PEOPLE SAID ABOUT THIS COURSE:
"It’s hard to even want to take a shower because I’m so done, a bubble bath becomes more pressure and failure. It feels impossible to do more sometimes, so even fitting in this course felt like a stretch that was impossible on some days... but even that was OK."
- Janette
"I had thought I would never experience joy again, and now I can and do - and share more jokes -and have a good laugh."
- Trish
Coming Down From The Tree
Like a kitten stuck up a tree your nervous system can get so high, it doesn't know how to get down. It gets to used to running around in a panic trying to keep you, and other people, safe - that it forgets the pathways to peace
Inversely, rest and reset can become the enemy of progress
Who we are, what we think, love and feel - ceases to matter - even to ourselves. And while we might keep up with relationships, pilates classes, or our studies, we've forgotten how to have a true relationship with the most important person - ourselves
Quite suddenly, we can find we are further and further down the road. We haven't thought to stop, and take stock: to re-negotiate with our old self - all the changes that have taken place
If we don't take time to unpack and unlearn - this can lead to all sorts of mental and health problems in the long term
The time is now
Repair, Renew, Re-Imagine
Over four weeks - with Holly Bridges - learn how to find a place of deep rest in the body. Understand the practice and gentle body-mind enquiry of A.R.T. and how it can positively influence sleep and stress.
Understand the integrated ways we can support the body, to realistically let go of the stranglehold the vagal system has on your life.
Find a new normal
Learn to find room for the body to safely, intelligently and realistically - at your own pace - and in your own good time, find some inner space - for you.
This is not forced practice. We are learning intelligent self-care.
What you'll get:
- Each week there is a focus, a practice, and a (recorded) live class.
- There are gentle audios, light things to read and instructions for an A.R.T. exercise, to practice at home.
- Live demonstrations with a participant volunteer, for you to better understand the nuance and subtlety of the work.
A sense of quiet -
is first a physiological state
Week 1. Stabilise Your System
Focus: Mapping where we are
- Creating a baseline
- Where am I now?
- Dynamics that demand self-erasure
- The cost of always being available
- Giving from a place of deficit
- What's been gained?
- Clearing a space
- A.R.T. home practice
- Workbook diary
- Live class (recorded)
Week 2. Repairing Care Patterns
Focus: Building relationship with the body
- Listening to the body
- Noticing patterns of brace, collapse and genuine release
- Respecting when the body says no
- The difference between 'holding it together' to 'being in relationship' with the nervous system
- Holding space without self-bullying
- A.R.T. home practice
- What works for me?
- Workbook diary
- Live class (recorded)
Week 3. Who Am I Now?
Focus: Underneath The Burnout
- Rebuilding capacity
- Recognising subtle strengths
- Finding your boundary - where you start and others begin
- Finding the quiet peace that resides in you
- Subtle shifts
- A steady rise in capacity
- A.R.T. home practice
- Workbook diary
- Live class (recorded)
Week 4. Real Life Sustainment
Focus: Making it workable in real life
- Mapping progress
- Building a sustainable way
- Regular repair and maintenance
- Managing expectations
- Where do I fit in my life?
- Looking forward
- Keeping things real
- A.R.T. home practice
- Workbook diary
- Live class (recorded)
4 Weeks of Intelligent Regeneration
7 x Live Call Recordings
4 x Workbooks / Personal Diary
Audio/ Visual/ Written Materials
$140 USD Full Price
(please message us if you need an invoice: support @zebr.co)
Based on Anxiety Reframe Technique® theory and practice.
Sign Up Here
Full Testimonial: 1
"Holly created a safe, reverent sense of belonging amongst the participants, no small thing over the internet.Even with kind neighbours and townsfolk, as a carer at home, I struggle with a sense of isolation.It was a great blessing to have the company of these people, with the wealth of experience now shared, and to hear their comments and questions.Their insights and queries were thoughtful, deeply felt and often profound.Holly responded with thoughtfulness, gentleness and grace. There were also moments of a good laugh.Return to Yourself was also an opportunity to refresh my memory and update my knowledge on aspects of the theoretical basis of her work and its application regarding my family, to ask more thoughtful questions I don't have the presence of mind to ask after a therapy session. I return to my notes for much needed consolation, refreshment, realigment and peace.Holly's work will help me to return to the deep peace I was able to find during her workshop (a minor miracle for me); to care for myself more effectively and profoundly, continuing the work started with Return to Yourself, in moving towards wholeness and fruitfulness.Return to Yourself also helps me to re-engage with my children, to discard what has become superfluous or otherwise unhelpful, and to be more present, patient, engaged and reverent with them.I had thought I would never experience joy again, and now I can and do. And share more jokes and have a good laugh."- Trish
Full Testimonial: 2
"Holly offers a unique and special take on taking care of ourselves as carers. As a health professional also living in the complexity of the sandwich generation, caring for both aging parents and kids, this short course with Holly was a generous moment for myself.I’ve heard that I need to do more self care, over and over. I've said it over and over. I should give myself a bubble bath every so often! I should... But frankly, when it’s hard to even want to take a shower because I’m so done, a bubble bath becomes more pressure and failure.It feels impossible to do more sometimes, so even fitting in this course felt like a stretch that was impossible on some days... but even that was OK.Holly holds a space to take a breath for a moment, to the extent that I can, and not have to fill it with a new technique or routine... though that was there and made available.Having to hold this caring load together for so long, I could feel the fear that letting go for even a bit will actually lead to unravelling. By helping me to make sense of this, in my nervous system, Holly gave me permission to feel the real weight of caring for others, and find a place of breath and softening.Holly took me on a more gentle and deeper journey into what it truly could mean to look after me when I have so little left. Beyond the bubbles and unattainable self care trappings, Holly invited me to look into what I truly needed, from a nervous system level, that I could begin to offer myself, in the small moments, that could start to turn around my weariness from the inside out.I am noticing I am being so much more gentle with me. I noticed how much I had stopped being that... And that is helping me be more gentle with those I love and care for. Truly a gift to me."- Janette
