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Integrative Somatic Therapist

Somatic wisdom for awakening, healing and aliveness

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

A gentle place to land

You may have arrived here after years of trying to feel better

Perhaps you have explored therapy, mindfulness, breathwork or spiritual practice. If you are anything like me, you have probably got bookcases filled with self-help and personal development books!

Maybe you live with anxiety, burnout or a quiet sense of holding everything together. A nervous system constantly switched on, even when nothing is obviously wrong. Some people arrive here while navigating recovery, neurodivergence, C-PTSD or experiences that have arisen through meditation or spiritual practice.

Often there has already been a great deal of insight.

Many people begin therapy hoping to feel better, which is completely understandable.

But what if the task is not simply to feel better, but to learn how to feel?

Because it is often through feeling what we have been avoiding that a deeper sense of aliveness begins to return.

To stay with yourself rather than turning away when things become uncomfortable. To build the kind of inner trust that allows you to meet your experience without shutting down, pushing through or pretending everything is fine.

This work asks for courage, but you do not have to do it alone. Therapy can become a place where difficult experiences are met slowly, safely and with support.

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Somatic therapy starts with the body

A trauma-informed, body-based approach to healing

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.

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.

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.

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Hi, I'm Laura

Founder of Somatic Wellness Hub, I’m a trauma-informed integrative somatic therapist and meditation teacher with over 25 years’ experience in mental health, trauma and substance misuse. Beyond 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. Alcohol, overworking and perfectionism became ways to cope. Despite insight and spiritual curiosity, my nervous system never truly felt safe. Everything changed when I found a somatic path. Through sobriety, yoga, meditation and somatic therapy, my body began to soften. Awareness moved out of my head and into lived 'felt' experience. Healing became less about striving and more about listening. Today, I support others to find an embodied, grounded reconnection.

Wondering if this kind of work might support you?

Living with anxiety, burnout or emotional shutdown

Feel stuck in cycles of overthinking, people-pleasing or self-judgement

Identify as sensitive, neurodivergent or highly attuned

Are in recovery from alcohol, overworking or other coping patterns

Exploring meditation, yoga or spiritual practice and feel ungrounded or overwhelmed

Many people arrive here after years of trying to understand themselves and change patterns that keep returning. You may recognise yourself in some of these experiences.

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Ways to work together

I offer several ways to explore this work depending on where you are in your journey.

1:1 Somatic Therapy

A deeper therapeutic space where we explore patterns that live in the body, including the impact of trauma, relational experiences and early developmental patterns.

This work unfolds slowly and at your pace, supporting the body to settle and process experiences that may feel difficult to shift through insight alone. Together we bring attention to sensation, emotion and the subtle signals of the nervous system, allowing what has been held inside to be met with care and integration.

My approach integrates somatic awareness, relational attunement and, where appropriate and with clear consent, gentle therapeutic touch to support regulation, connection and embodied presence.

Sessions are available online or in person in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

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HeartSomatics™ Meditation

A somatic approach to meditation for the busy, distracted mind and the nervous system that finds it hard to settle. Rather than asking you to force stillness or empty your thoughts, this work starts with the body - with breath, sensation and gentle regulation — so that meditation becomes something that actually feels possible.

This is particularly supportive for people with ADHD or a restless nervous system, though you don't need a diagnosis to recognise yourself here.

The Foundations of Meditation is a live 6-week online course running in October. It takes you from the basics of somatic awareness through to a sustainable, embodied meditation practice you can carry into everyday life.

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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

Healing doesn't come from forcing change

Change doesn’t happen by pushing yourself

It happens when the right conditions for safety and connection are in place, allowing the nervous system to soften and new experiences of belonging, trust and aliveness to emerge. This work isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about remembering what was never lost. If something in your body softened while reading this, that’s enough for now. You’re welcome to explore at your own pace, or take the next step when it feels right.

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Dive Deeper with Me

Somatic Therapist Laura Starky smiling at 1:1 client laid down in therapy room with plants, a lamp, and a colorful blanket, based in Beverley East Yorkshire

NeuroAffective Touch® Therapy in the UK

You might be wondering how NeuroAffective Touch actually works, and what a session looks like. I recently had my own experience of it, on the table with the founder of this approach, and it changed how I understand this work from the inside out.

What is Somatic Trauma Therapy?

After years of therapy, self-help books and trying to heal from the neck up, I found somatic therapy, a gentle way of listening to the body and helping the nervous system find safety and ease.

What to Expect in a Somatic Therapy Session (UK)

If you are thinking about somatic therapy, it helps to know what actually happens in a session. A UK somatic therapist explains the first session, pacing, touch, consent and how sessions end.