About

I am a Clinical Somatic Educator based in York, Founder of Somatic Habit and part of the Essential Somatics training team. I started teaching somatic movement in 2016 after coming across it two years earlier. It sparked a curiosity in me that is stronger now than ever. I am ever thankful to somatic movement education for the freedom and playfulness that it continually enables me to grow in my life. I’ve been fortunate to undertake my somatic movement teacher training and clinical somatics training through Essential Somatics, with Martha Peterson and her fantastic team. Through Essential Somatics I am connected with a worldwide somatics community full of support, knowledge and experience.

Like many people, I was motivated to ‘find a cure’ from pain and limited movement after a riding accident that left me with a fractured vertebra. This initially led me to Pilates, which I have practiced since 2007 and taught since 2015. My Pilates training was through world renowned organisations including The Pilates Standard, Polestar Pilates and Balanced Body Pilates, in reformer, equipment and comprehensive mat work.

However, despite my knowledge and experience of Pilates I still had questions about pain and limited movement that I could not answer. It is somatic education that has given me the answers and clarity that I was missing. I see and experience time and time again how somatic movement and clinical somatics empowers people to find freedom from pain. Simple movements, when practiced mindfully enables people to re-connect with themselves, develop new and freer movement habits and remind us how it is to ‘be you’.

Somatic movement education is not yet a household name, but don’t let that put you off. Trust yourself to try something new. The movements and the results speak for themselves, which is why I am so passionate about teaching this work. It is a humbling experience to support people to enable change in their lives and be witness to them creating a foundation on which they can continue to do the things that they love.

Somatics, like our lives, is to be experienced and felt. A quotation from a well-loved children’s book is a useful reminder, that ‘knowing’ something is different from feeling and sensing it. When Piglet asks Pooh “how do you spell love?” Winnie the Poo says, “You don’t spell it, you feel it.” For me, this sums up somatics and life; it is something to be experienced and felt.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Karen
Founder Somatic Habit