About Small Shifts
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Providing practical, physiology based support to help people manage stress, energy, and daily demands.
Small Shifts delivers practical, evidence informed, physiology based support to help people manage everyday stress, movement, and recovery more effectively.
Across workplaces and communities, many people are carrying ongoing stress, overwhelm, fatigue, and physical tension that make daily life harder to navigate.
Many turn to breathwork, tools, or protocols, hoping one approach will calm the nervous system for good. These can help in the moment, but once the session ends and daily demands return, the body often slips back into familiar patterns. Most of life isn’t spent doing a practice, it’s lived in the quiet moments in between.
What shapes how we feel day to day is the state the nervous system naturally returns to when nothing in particular is happening, our baseline. This baseline is influenced by how we breathe, how the body holds tension, and how we move through the world.
When the nervous system has been under sustained strain, techniques may offer short-term relief, but on their own rarely create lasting change.
Lasting regulation comes from gradually shifting that baseline over time, reducing unnecessary strain, improving recovery, and supporting the system to respond differently to everyday demands.
That’s the focus of Small Shifts.
Our Story
Small Shifts began from seeing firsthand how ongoing stress, physical tension, and pressure affect people’s health, focus, and ability to cope, within the NHS, in workplaces, and in everyday life.
What started as short, practical breath and movement sessions on NHS wards developed into a research-informed approach, with evaluation showing measurable improvements in stress, mood, and sleep quality.
As demand grew from healthcare teams, organisations, community groups, and individuals, we evolved to meet different needs. Today, we operate through two connected arms:
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Small Shifts Ltd - supporting workplaces and organisations
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Small Shifts Community CIC - delivering accessible programmes for individuals and communities who may not otherwise be able to access support
Together, these two arms allow us to deliver consistent, evidence-informed, physiology based support across workplace, community, and individual settings, in ways that remain sustainable and accessible.
Founder
Lucy McCormick
Lucy is a breathwork and exercise specialist whose work has been shaped by years of hands-on experience across health, movement, and NHS settings. While working within acute services, she saw firsthand how ongoing stress, physical tension, and everyday physiological patterns affect people’s health, focus, and ability to cope.
Alongside this professional experience, Lucy has observed colleagues, friends, and family living with musculoskeletal pain, burnout, and fatigue, reinforcing the need for practical, accessible tools that support the body in everyday life, not just in clinical or training settings.
Her approach is grounded in research, real-world application, and care for the realities people live with day to day. Small Shifts reflects this commitment, delivering practical, physiology-based, evidence-informed programmes designed to support everyday functioning across work, community, and home life.
Start the Conversation
Whether you’re curious about Small Shifts, exploring support for yourself or others, or have a question, you’re welcome to get in touch.
