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Integrative Somatic Therapist

Somatic therapy for people who've tried everything except working with the body

The primary, ancient symbol for breath is the Sanskrit character Om (ॐ) or Prana, representing life force, consciousness, and

A gentle place to land

Somatic wisdom for healing, awakening and aliveness

If your nervous system feels like it's running the show and talk therapy, self-help books and trying harder haven't been enough..... then you are in the right place.

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This is where somatic healing happens, not just in your head but in your body.

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I'm Laura, and I work with people who have spent years holding it all together, managing high-functioning anxiety, navigating neurodivergent nervous systems and surviving by staying in control, who are ready to move from understanding their patterns to actually feeling different in their bodies. I also work with many people who are experiencing spiritual or energetic awakening, noticing shifts in their body and their life that they do not yet have language for and are looking for support that is embodied, grounded and not alarmed by what is unfolding. 

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Many of the people I work with have ADHD, or recognise themselves in the description even without a formal diagnosis. They are thoughtful, capable and often exhausted by the gap between what they know and what they can actually feel.

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Some people arrive having used alcohol, food or constant activity and overworking to manage what their nervous system could not yet hold on its own. Others carry the long shadow of adverse childhood experiences or early relational trauma, often without fully recognising it as such. What they share is a body that has been working hard for a long time, and a readiness to finally work with it rather than around it.

What you might begin to notice...

Change tends to unfold gradually and everyone's experience is different, but the direction is usually towards more ease, more steadiness and a deepening sense of being at home in yourself. You feel more grounded and connected to your body, even when life feels unsettled. Your nervous system becomes more regulated, so you can feel your emotions fully, let them move through and meet the world with less fear. What has opened in you begins to settle into everyday life and feels less overwhelming. A deeper sense of peace and steadiness emerges as old patterns begin to quieten. You begin to live with more freedom, less bound by the patterns that once helped you cope. You trust your intuition and the wisdom of your body a little more. You are easier on yourself and find more ease in how you live and work. There is more curiosity, presence and aliveness in how you meet each day. ​​​​

Somatic therapy starts with the body

For when insight alone hasn’t been enough

What is Somatic Therapy? Somatic therapy supports nervous system regulation by listening to how experiences live in the body, not just how we think about them. When stress, trauma or overwhelm happen, especially early in life, the body adapts to survive. Over time, those survival patterns can show up as anxiety, emotional numbness, people-pleasing, perfectionism, addiction or functional freeze, and they can also shape how we meet something new opening up within us.

 

My approach integrates somatic therapy with NeuroAffective Touch, a polyvagal-informed practice that works directly with the body through attuned therapeutic touch. What is NeuroAffective Touch®? This is particularly relevant for experiences that formed before language — early relational wounds that are held in the tissues and nervous system rather than in conscious memory, and that talking alone often cannot reach.

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Rather than analysing or reliving the past, we work gently in the present moment. We build safety first within the therapeutic relationship, then support the body to unwind what it has been holding, at a pace your nervous system can hold. The body has its own intelligence, and this work honours that — inviting collaboration between your lived bodily experience and your capacity for reflection, so that healing can take root at a deeper level.

What to expect...

1. A free connection call We begin with a relaxed conversation to explore whether this work feels right for you, and you do not need to share details of your history. 2. Sessions at your pace Sessions last 75 minutes and take place online or in person in Beverley, and we begin by building safety, so that you set the pace and nothing is rushed. 3. Working in the present We work gently with what is happening in your body now, without needing to relive painful memories. 4. Touch only with your consent Where appropriate, gentle therapeutic touch may be offered, always with clear consent, and you are free to say no or change your mind at any time.

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Hi, I'm Laura

I am the founder of the Somatic Wellness Hub and a social worker turned somatic therapist, with over 25 years' experience across mental health, trauma and substance misuse. Alongside my professional training, I bring lived experience. For much of my life I survived through functional freeze, appearing capable on the outside while feeling numb, anxious and disconnected inside, and alcohol, overworking and perfectionism became my ways of coping. Despite a great deal of insight and spiritual curiosity, my nervous system never truly felt safe.

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Everything began to change when I found a somatic path. Through sobriety, a late ADHD diagnosis, a profound spiritual awakening and years of contemplative practice, my body began to soften, and awareness moved out of my head and into lived, felt experience. I know from the inside what it is like when something opens and there is nowhere obvious to take it. Healing became less about striving and more about listening, and today I support others to find that same grounded, embodied reconnection.

Wondering if this kind of work might support you?

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You feel stuck, even though you understand yourself well and have already tried a great deal.

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You are looking for integration after spiritual shifts or an awakening, and are not sure where to take what has opened in you.

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You are living with burnout, anxiety or a sense of having held everything together for too long.

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You identify as sensitive or neurodivergent, perhaps after a late diagnosis.

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You are in recovery from alcohol, overworking or other ways of coping, and are ready for something that goes deeper.

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“Laura was a revelation. For the first time I learned how to truly recognise the patterns in my body and what it feels like to be deeply relaxed.”

Sally

When understanding isn't quite enough

When your self-aware and still-stuck

Many people arrive here having already done a great deal. Therapy, reflection, reading, honest self-inquiry..... often over many years. There is real insight and genuine self-awareness, and still something persists, or remains just out of reach.

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That is not a failure of the work you have done. It is often a sign that the work has reached the edge of what language and thinking alone can touch.

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The body holds its own kind of knowing, and it does not always respond to understanding, however deep. It responds to presence, safety and a different quality of attention. This work begins from where you already are. It does not ask you to go back over your history or release what you have been holding all at once. Change happens gradually as the body becomes safe enough to feel, safe enough to slow down and safe enough to say no, and that safety builds slowly, through the relationship itself.

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The primary, ancient symbol for breath is the Sanskrit character Om (ॐ) or Prana, representing life force, consciousness, and

Dive Deeper with Me

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