Reflections on 2025, more than actor training

Last week, I asked the Both Feet community if they would share a reflection on how Both Feet or Bod had impacted their 2025.

Not testimonials or outcomes. Just what they’d noticed.

I was curious.

On the surface, what I do is offer actor training. But what happens here doesn't live neatly inside the "craft” box.

People often arrive thinking their acting life sits over here, and the rest of their life sits somewhere else. And over time, they start to see that the way they breathe, relate, hold tension, set boundaries, prepare, show up, recover, affects all of it. 

Here are a few small snapshots from texts, voicenotes and emails I received from some of the delicious humans in the Both Feet community.

Catherine...

“I approached auditions just openly, wholeheartedly, turned up fully, and got the jobs. I had no, genuinely had no nerves in the rehearsal room, was just present, used them as a time to play, felt myself as an equal. I did my prep, turned up, showed up, and just enjoyed every minute. My partner is in the job that I'm in at the moment, and he thinks I've got so much more energy. I don't feel like I've got more energy, but maybe I'm accessing it in the right ways, and as opposed to it being energy filling up my head and draining me that way, I'm just putting it out there, into the work, and playing, and having fun.

Rhia...

“This year has had big, life-overhauling stuff in it. And if I hadn’t done the work, especially this year, I would have collapsed or gone back to old habits. The biggest change is that I asked for help - for the first time ever. I’ve always believed that if I didn’t do it all by myself, it didn’t count. And that’s shifted. I’ve learnt how brilliant community is, how generous people are, and that people actually care... It isn’t about being good or bad. It’s about how open I am to being changed. I got into rep, I got my arts council funding. There was a point at one of the retreats where I just remember thinking "why not me?" but really meaning it, really feeling it fully in my body, "why not? why not me?!" and that has been something that stuck with me throughout this entire year. Thank you for an amazing 2025, it feels like I've turned a corner, for sure. Things are very different now, and it's never felt more realistic to be having a career as an actor. I know it's going to be possible. I know I'm going to book a job. I know I'm going to be working. Yeah. It's a good feeling.”

Ginny...

"You talk about neuroplasticity and that is something that I think I'm experiencing. I'm experiencing deep change, which is to do with breathing. It's so simple, isn't it? And that space, it's like you've created a space inside me, which I didn't have before. And actually inside that space is an enormous amount of gratitude, for everything. So these are all kind of much, much bigger things than being a better actor, which is what I thought I was coming for. Yeah, those are the two things that I have learned and started to practice and it is changing me."

Rob:

"One of the most beautiful things, for me personally, was remembering that there's a little boy inside who I need to be kinder to, and not to judge my emotions as they come up, not to be frightened of them, and to recognise that I don't have anything to prove. You didn’t give me answers - you smiled and breathed - and that really frustrated me at first (as you know) - but it meant I figured things out myself, with you as a guide. I am really, really grateful for that."

Below is the whole of Pip's reflection...

I’ve properly felt Both Feet in my year - in my bones - and I am so grateful. If I look back over 2025, Both Feet / Bod / Steph have: * Put fire in my belly and belief in my bones for a massive pivot: leaving a 20-year career running an organisation I co-founded. Not easy, but possible. Like I can put both feet on the ground and step into the next thing without needing to be ‘ready’ first. * Deepened my understanding of real connection - to myself, and to other people - and opened up remarkably beautiful relationships and friendships I honestly didn’t think were possible at this stage of life. Bod has given me a community that’s both tender and straight-talking - which, honestly, has been life-changing. * Made creativity central - not as a hobby I get round to, but as a tangible part of who I am every day. Like I’ve reconnected with something in me I always suspected was there, and now it’s properly switched on and locked in. * Nudged me into saying yes sooner. I stopped waiting for time / permission / perfection and started doing the thing: - I’m nearly at the end of a frankly ridiculous project - writing, recording and posting a poem a day for 100 days - which has been an exercise in creativity and discipline, and I’ve learnt loads. - And I finally did the 21-day self-tape challenge instead of postponing it forever - with your encouragement, Steph - I just fucking did it, and it was fucking brilliant. * Professionally (on the stage or in the room), I feel more connected to who I am. Less ‘performing the idea of me’, more inhabiting myself. Bod has given me a practice: a way to land, listen, and do the work from the inside out - especially when life’s been loud. It’s helped me trust simplicity. Less ‘showing’, more presence. Less effort, more truth. * Expanded my capacity to stay with discomfort - to not fix, rush, or avoid - and to let something real arrive. Just working through some shit, and staying with it. Both Feet is one of my favourite places on earth. A place I know I’m allowed to surface. To breathe. To be a whole person, not just a job title or a to-do list. With gratitude and love right back at you. Pip. xxx

Sally sent me a photo - a wall of post-it notes she looks at every day. Some from Bod.

She wrote:

“It’s made such an impact to be open ENOUGH. Not perfectly open. Not 100% open all the time. Just enough to let the light in… and out. Because I’m shining too, and I owe so much of that to Bod”

What moved me most reading and listening to people's reflections wasn’t what anyone achieved (and bloody hell they have achieved so much!!!).

It was how people stayed with themselves. How they breathed. How they asked for help. How they stopped separating who they are from how they work.

Yes - this is actor training. But it’s also about how you live, relate, recover, and return. And those things feed your craft just as much as your craft feeds them.

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who trusted me with their words. And to this community - which has held me, too, through a year where my world genuinely fractured - professionally, emotionally, structurally. What kept me moving wasn’t barely down or pretending it was fine. It was community. Rooms. Conversation. Breath. You. Being held accountable to the same work I hold others accountable to do.

This work doesn’t exist in isolation. And neither do we.

With gratitude and all the love in the world,

Steph x