For Referrers

For Social Prescribing Link Workers, Health and Wellbeing Coaches, Care Coordinators, WorkWell and community partners.

Helping people feel calmer, clearer, and more capable

For people experiencing ongoing stress, disrupted sleep, fatigue, or persistent tension, and finding it difficult to engage with support.

Many people referred into social prescribing are living with ongoing stress, disrupted sleep, fatigue, or persistent physical tension, affecting how they function and engage with support.

For most, it’s not a lack of advice. People may already have been signposted, supported, or given clear next steps, but under ongoing demand, it can become difficult to take those steps consistently.

This often starts to make more sense when you look at what’s happening in the body.

When stress remains high, the system adapts. Breathing becomes less efficient, muscle tone stays slightly elevated, and recovery becomes less reliable. Over time, this begins to affect focus, sleep, and the ability to engage with support.

Small Shifts works at that level.

Using simple breath and movement practices, the programme supports how the body responds to stress, tension, and recovery, helping people build the capacity needed to engage with support, community resources, and day-to-day life.

Small Shifts Programme

Small Shifts is designed to support change between sessions, not just during them. The live sessions and membership work together to gradually shift how your body responds to everyday demand.

The programme includes four 45-minute live online sessions, led by a facilitator, alongside three months of Small Shifts membership, including guided audios, learning resources, and ongoing support for using the approach day to day.

Built on small, repeatable inputs that fit into real moments, between tasks, before conversations, or as pressure begins to build, the approach works within what’s already there, so it carries across the different parts of your day.

Live Sessions

Delivered live online, sessions are led by Small Shifts facilitators who are DBS-checked and safeguarding trained.

And Breathe

Breathing, state, and your starting point

Understanding how breathing influences how you feel, think, and respond. Noticing your own patterns, and introducing small adjustments that reduce unnecessary effort.

Move & Release

Reducing tension and supporting the body through the day

Looking at how tension builds through posture, habits, and sustained demand. Introducing gentle movement and small shifts to redistribute effort.

Stress Less

Understanding pressure and how the body responds

Exploring what happens in the body under ongoing demand, and learning simple ways to reduce that pressure by allowing the body to settle when it doesn’t need to stay switched on.

Sleep & Recovery

Supporting rest and more reliable recovery

Understanding how the body transitions into rest, and exploring simple, realistic ways to support sleep and recovery, especially when things feel wired, tired, or inconsistent.

If committing to a 4-week programme feels like too much at the moment, you can begin with a single 45-minute session. A simple introduction to the approach, with practical breath and movement you can start using straight away.

Upcoming dates

Referral Process

Our referral process is simple and easy to use. It fits smoothly into primary care and supports people experiencing stress, poor sleep, MSK discomfort, fatigue or difficulty coping with daily demands.

Make a referral

“Despite being under more stress currently, I feel more equipped to manage it.”

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust participant

Monthly sessions for referrers

We run a monthly 45 minute session for Social Prescribing Link Workers, Health and Wellbeing Coaches, Care Coordinators, WorkWell and community partners.

Each session focuses on a different topic. such as supporting sleep, reducing tension, managing pressure, or helping people get started when capacity is low.

These sessions are practical and accessible, offering a chance to experience the approach, build confidence in how it works, and explore when it may be helpful to refer.

You’re welcome to join as often or as little as is useful.

Join a session

Evidence-informed, grounded in practice

The approach is grounded in current research and established physiological principles.

In a recent evaluation delivered in partnership with an NHS Trust in Cornwall, staff reported reduced stress, improved sleep, and a greater sense of calm following a structured breath and movement programme.

Even in high-pressure environments, small, practical interventions made a meaningful difference. This underpins the approach, practical, non-clinical support that fits into real working lives.

You can read the full paper here.

“These findings support integrating breathwork into local NHS staff wellbeing strategies to mitigate work-related stress and enhance sleep.” South West Clinical School Journal, 2025

Rachel, Occupational Therapist

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation

“I found myself relaxing more easily, sleeping better, and using the techniques in stressful moments at home and at work. They were simple, short, and easy to fit into daily life.”

Matt, Talking Therapist