Embodied Healing Practice for highly capable, deep thinkers, women who want to embrace change with age but struggle with habitual over-functioning and wellness that only scratches the surface.
Finally get to the root of what therapy, mindset and nutrition haven't solved.
Hi, I’m Katarina.
I help you move out of chronic stress and survival mode into presence, safety and connection so you can stop chasing symptoms, start trusting yourself and find freedom from chronic health issues.
Nervous system-based work, integrative nutrition and somatic healing to bring you home to yourself.
You’re here if you want to navigate change as you get older from a place of presence, calm and focus, wellness to support you rather than hinder you…because you know you can’t keep living constantly stressed, exhausted, anxious and disconnected from yourself.
But you need help to stop stress manifesting in your body because the symptoms are taking over your life. You may be living with…
a constantly racing mind and/or brain fog so you can’t think straight
struggling to shift anxiety so you end up worrying about the future all the time
bone-deep exhaustion that no amount of sleep can fix
chronic tension your body physically can’t let go so you no long move as much
mysterious auto-immune conditions doctors can’t explain
painful tummy from eating any food so you cut out foods you love...
I see you and I understand how you feel. You may be:
At the backend of an exhausting career and years of working over capacity has left you feeling numb, fatigued and lethargic.
You’re looking for change and know what to do but can’t bring yourself to actually take action on the things that support you, you’re feeling stuck and overwhelmed.
Realised that you're looking for answers outside of yourself all the time.
You know it's time to look within, but you need help as you don't know how to come back to yourself and where to start, worried that you might lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. (You won’t and if you do it will be by choice!)
Tried everything to manage your stress, anxiety, time, energy, have a better work-life balance, take time off…
…but as soon as you’re around the kids or your partner need support or you’re on a new project, you’re triggered and overwhelm. There is little capacity for risk and growth.
And because you’ve been told over and over that managing is best it could get - when it comes to healing - you wouldn’t know where to begin.
The reason why your efforts at wellness haven’t worked is not because they are wrong things to do or you are somehow not good enough for them. But because your nervous system is operating from survival mode, moving through the world in a state of disembodiment and disconnection from yourself, from your body, your felt sense. That’s why you can be doing ‘all the things’ for your self-care, but not really feeling the benefits.
Making changes, and choosing calm and focus, requires feeling safe in your body first, not just better mindset.
You know this because you recognise the feelings and symptoms of living disconnected from your body and you may just not yet know that your nervous system governs emotional balance, physical health, mental wellbeing.
That’s why you need to stabilise the nervous system first, release stored stress in the body and create space and capacity so that the changes you desire can come from within and really stick.
THE DEEPER TRUTH
Your chronic stress symptoms are messages from the body signalling that you’ve been carrying more than your system has been designed to carry for this long, alone.
Your body has accumulated years (maybe decades) of stress from:
Emotional and mental stress, poor sleep, malnourishment, toxic overload, and digestive system weakness.
Unresolved trauma in the body and conditioned thinking have kept your nervous system trapped in survival mode.
The body has learnt to brace and tense through stress and challenges rather than move through them with true resilience, safety in belonging, trusting yourself and having a sense of perspective.
This is not your fault, your nervous system has been doing what it knows best how to keep you alive. Shaped at an age when you didn’t have a choice.
And that’s why you need healing and addressing the root cause at the level of the nervous system and not just surface-level fixes.
And I’m not talking about rehashing trauma or digging at the root cause or reliving your childhood.
I’m talking about doing the work with somatic tools to enhance the relationship between the mind, body and soul. To come back to yourself through the good old-fashioned sensory input. Felt sensation is the doorway into the body.
To bring all your systems into harmony with each other and the environment, so wellness happens as a response to your being at home in your body, not as a calendar filled with self-care activities.
The good news is that your body has innate capacity for healing, repairing and rebuilding. You’re in the right place.
Welcome.
Hi, I’m Katarina Hunter.
I grew up on a subsistence farm in Eastern Slovakia, before spending a decade and a half studying and building a career in international relations in London and Brussels.
As I started to get older my body was slowing me down through worrying chronic health issues. On the outside I was upbeat, strong and admired for my achievements - but on the inside I felt lost, sad and in pain. I was searching for solutions trying things for years, until I realised that stress was impacting my health and life. Eventually, I found my way back to myself through embodiment, somatic and nervous system healing work -- which is now my life's work.
Most wellness advice sells you the next technique to manage your symptoms or regulate your emotions -- better habits, more willpower, morning routine, breathwork or meditation, another mindset shift that keeps you trapped in being busy but never seeing the change last.
I work holistically with the nervous system directly, so the high-functioning women I support can move from over-functioning and chronic stress into presence, self-trust and a body they finally feel at home in.
This is what makes my practice different from most health and wellness out there:
Addressing the root causes of chronic stress and its impact on your body, not just managing symptoms
The importance of moving away from ‘managing stress’ to understanding over-functioning as a trauma response that’s in the body
Nervous system healing through felt sensation and body-mind-soul integration that don’t require rehashing trauma
Integrative nutrition to eliminate hidden stressors in the physiology focused on replenishment, food as joy, and strengthened digestive system without restrictive dieting, punishing fasting routines or harsh cleanses
Cultivating embodied boundaries and reclaiming anger and emotional processing as a natural source of personal power, authentic expression as well as strong and healthy immune system
Restoring your body’s innate healing capacity and stepping into your agency where self-care becomes a response and rhythms instead of relying on endless external fixes and calendar entries
I offer somatic therapy, embodiment and integrative nutrition health coaching via 1:1 sessions online. I also offer free monthly gathering for women with somatic practice and community connection.
Start here:
Calm the Overwhelm. Reduce Your Body’s Chronic Stress Load.
Free monthly gathering for high-functioning women, with guided somatic practice, holistic health coaching and community connection for high-achieving women who want to discover practical tools to start creating space and ease in your body and life.
Join me to start slowing down enough to safely turn down the false alarm in your nervous system, calm the anxiety underneath the over-functioning, and feel more grounded, centred and energised in your day.
What women who attended have said:
‘ What really surprised me was how being guided to look into the distance and noticing the response in the body looking away from the screen gave my nervous system almost an instant relief. The simple practice Katarina shared were wonderful and I was able to feel more settled.’
— Becky
‘The session was great. One thing that stood out for me was how quickly I felt the response in my body through the eye-orientating practice and the sight brain connection. Katarina led us through a couple of practices and in under 30 minutes I could feel the change in my nervous system.’
— Maria L. Monserrate
‘What stayed with me most was how effective the session was without being overwhelming or complicated. Katarina has a natural ability to hold space in a way that feels both supportive and empowering. I left feeling more regulated, clear, and centred, and I could still feel the benefits unfolding for days afterward.’
— Masha M.
‘After the somatic practices that Katarina guided us through in the session, I noticed how things had slowed down for me and my awareness of my body and surroundings felt sharper. I appreciated the value of pausing for a few moments to simply be, because even though I already know how important and helpful rest is, I often prioritise other things on my 'to do' list.
— Ali
Get your Personalised Recovery Plan.
decode your exhaustion.
A 1:1 personalised self-assessment and 90-minute session with a integration recovery plan to stop your body’s energy leaks and traps.
You get to finally stabilise your nervous system, ease the pressure your body has been under, get clearer about your self-care need, and step into the path of accelerating your body’s return to vitality.
Free Resources
Calm Your Nervous System Using Your Sight
A 15-minute eye-orienting somato-sensory practice to cultivate felt sense of safety and calm chronic stress activation.
Where you look affects how you feel. We are going to be looking around the environment and stimulating our visual sense -- at the same time we are activating neural synapses within our brain.
Find a quiet space, listen in and tune into your environment to notice the regulating effects on your body, your nervous system state and your mood.
Navigating Silent Burnout: Women’s Hidden Struggle
Blog post
Do you find yourself going through the motions of your successful life while feeling increasingly hollow inside? Your friends call you resilient, your colleagues depend on your reliability, and everyone assumes you've got it all together. But inside, you're disconnected from what you actually feel or need.
But here's what makes this particularly challenging for high-functioning women: we've learned to override our body's signals. We've become so skilled at pushing through that we literally can't feel when something is wrong. We don't notice the early signs because we're disembodied.
Why Thinking Feels Safer Than Feeling
The Sensitive Professionals Podcast Interview
So many of us have learned to survive by staying in our heads - overthinking, analysing, planning, staying one step ahead. But what gets lost when thinking feels safer than feeling?
In this podcast interview we talked about why the mind starts to feel safer than the body – especially for sensitive women – and what it takes to gently come home to yourself.
Beyond People Pleasing
LinkedIn Live Dialogue
When ‘being nice’ starts to cost you your health, relationships and authenticity. Exploring the lesser-known nervous system survival strategy that shows up as being endlessly accommodating, agreeable, and emotionally attuned… until you’re burnt out, resentful, or quietly disappearing from yourself.