Discover the Power of Your Body’s Wisdom in Healing – Exclusive Interview with Claire Buttrum

Claire Buttrum founded Somatic Harmony Healing, a clinical practice focused on integrating mind and body wellness. Drawing on her training and experience in Anusara yoga, Pilates, coaching, and holistic therapies spanning 25 years, Claire has developed a therapeutic approach grounded in coaching, movement, and somatic healing. As one of the world's first level 7 qualified somatic trauma-informed coaches, she specialises in nervous system regulation and guiding women from stress and anxiety to resilience and inner peace.

Claire uses a range of modalities, including Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work, Somatic Healing, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). She holds certifications in the Safe and Sound Protocol and menopause and ADHD coaching, tailoring her support to women's unique needs. Her mission is to empower women in their health journey, offering a safe, supportive space for deep healing and transformation. The butterfly in her logo reflects the powerful changes she helps her clients achieve.

Claire Buttrum, Somatic Trauma Informed Coach

Please tell us more about you so we can get to know you a bit more.

Hi there! I’m Claire, a perimenopausal, neurodivergent mother of two young adults. I’ve turned my lifelong passion for experiencing emotional regulation through movement into a thriving clinical practice supporting women to attune to their innate wisdom.

I live near Cambridge in the UK and have danced since I was three years old. I trained at Rambert Ballet School in London before joining a dance troupe called 11:Eleven. Finding the physical demands of full time dancing really challenging due to my then undiagnosed hypermobility and dysautonomia I retrained in Anusara yoga and opened my own yoga studio. When my kids came along, I joined the workforce in the charity sector, working as a project manager for nearly twenty years while doing all my therapeutic stuff in the evenings and weekends.

My special interests are nature and science, especially the brain. I’m constantly learning new things and love reading nonfiction books. I’m also a published author, writing a novel in lockdown when I was furloughed. I sometimes make abstract art when I feel the call.

In my spare time I go for long walks with my husband, and adore kayaking, meditation and soundbath evenings. I love a cacao ceremony and sober raves. And I’m always doing a jigsaw puzzle. This summer I gave up alcohol because it was just making me feel so yuck. I love animals and nature, and have a beautiful nature reserve and river on my doorstep where I (very slowly) run, walk, and watch the local wildlife.

I’ve used a somatic and parts-based approach to heal my own trauma and understand why I arrive in a space the way I do. It’s been a truly transformative journey that has saved my marriage and changed my life completely.

My ethos is the first step towards transformation is always looking within.

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

While I’ve been on this path for twenty-five years, training in Anusara yoga and holistic therapies in 2000-01 after dancing professionally for a time, it was really when I discovered I was neurodivergent that something clicked for me.

Up until that point I’d always known I was different. I’d experienced multiple periods of burnout when my body and mind couldn’t function anymore. Balancing my career as a project manager in the charity sector with my need for movement teaching dance and yoga, and later my family, led to cyclical exhaustion. Every couple of years I’d be absolutely wiped out. No GP, no specialist ever seemed to know what was up. I’d been referred for fibromyalgia, brain scans, tilt tests - as far as medicine was concerned I was a healthy, very normal woman. Who just weirdly had episodes of complete exhaustion, couldn’t tolerate standing for long periods of time, and didn’t like crowds and noise.

I finally figured out at the age of 41 – with support from a brilliant neurodivergence specialist - that I was AuDHD, symptomatically hypermobile, dysautonomic and in perimenopause. This kickstarted a new direction for me as I devoured everything I could about neurodivergence, the nervous system, polyvagal theory and the impacts of trauma on the body and mind.

I retrained, set up my clinic, and haven’t looked back. What I’ve discovered in the last five years is that there are thousands of women struggling with hormonal imbalances, undiagnosed hypermobility, trauma and neurodivergence, navigating a medical industry that just doesn’t listen to them. Unless you’re very lucky to find that one person who has a special interest in these conditions and the headspace and curiosity to find out more.

Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.

My greatest career achievement is being one of the first Level 7 somatic trauma informed coaches in the world. After coaching project managers and executives in the charity sector for nearly twenty years, then female authors, this qualification took me in a completely new direction.

All the coaching I’d done before that had been very cognitive and thinky. I worked with people on mindset and problem solving. How to shift habits to be more productive. But none of that worked with the body. Or understood how trauma, life experiences, conditioning, and attachment style, as well as our neurobiological make up can influence how we show up.

So becoming trauma informed and learning about somatics was a complete gamechanger. I now had a model to connect all of my yoga and body-based practices with the cognitive expertise of coaching.

I then did further training in internal family systems, acceptance and commitment therapy, polyvagal theory and the nervous system, trauma, neurodivergence, perimenopause and menopause, and somatic healing.

What is your business name, and how do you help your clients?

I founded Somatic Harmony Healing, combining everything I’ve ever learnt about anatomy and physiology, movement-based regulation, the nervous system, accessing the Self, and trauma. With proven techniques in ground breaking approaches like parts work, internal family systems, and acceptance and commitment therapy I’ve developed a unique approach that is truly holistic.

I see therapy as a collaborative journey, and using a blend of these powerful techniques allows me to create an experience that is unique for each woman I work with. Being holistic means I look at the whole picture of their wellbeing - mind, body, and spirit.

In session, I might explore the different aspects of a client with Parts Work, listen to the messages of the body through Somatic Healing, or build a more value-driven life with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Emotional Freedom Technique is a gentle yet powerful tool to clear stuck emotions and help with nervous system regulation.

I'm also deeply committed to supporting women through specific and often misunderstood life stages. That's why I pursued specialised certifications in menopause and ADHD coaching, allowing me to offer nuanced and knowledgeable support in these areas.

My greatest hope is to equip women with the understanding and tools to champion their own wellness. I create a warm, supportive environment where this kind of deep, transformative healing can unfold at their own pace. There’s no pushing through, striving, high demand approach. Just curious exploration and self-compassionate discovery.

What kind of people do you support?

I work with women of all ages, but they mainly fall into two camps. There’s the 45-60 year old group, holding lots of trauma, legacy wounds, navigating the trifecta struggles of menopause, older teenage kids, and aging parents.

Then there’s the younger group, usually around 25-35 who are often neurodivergent, sometimes deeply questioning life, society, and health, and almost always dealing with intergenerational trauma and mother-daughter relationship challenges.

Everyone who comes to me is deeply curious about finding themselves. Making authentic connections with all their parts, developing more meaningful relationships, creating a career that aligns with their values, and living a values-based life. Almost everyone has a background of trauma or difficult life experiences. I facilitate their discovery, helping them make sense of their experiences and find compassion for themselves.

They leave me feeling more emotionally regulated, intune with their bodies, with greater awareness - all of which allows them to make life, career, and relationship choices that feel good for them.

What services does Somatic Harmony Healing offer?

I tend to use the umbrella term of therapeutic coaching. This allows me to tailor each session to the needs of the client, what they are holding, and their short and long term goals. I love the joint aspect of using parts work to access the past, and coaching techniques to look towards the future. I think that is a beautiful way of understanding where we’ve come from so we can make the most of where we’re going.

I also offer one-to-one somatic healing sessions which is purely body-based work. We can use this approach to access psychological wounds by tuning into the body. And access the nervous system and all of our patterns and learned behaviours we hold within it. Somatic healing uses techniques like breathwork, sound healing, titration, pendulation, and yoga to feel into the body, listen to its messages, and learn how to reset and restore calm.

Could you share a success story from one of your clients?

I’ve recently finished working with an incredible client who has completely transformed her life. She came to me wondering why she was always meeting men who hurt her. They were not showing up authentically, lying, and sometimes ended up being abusive or cheating. She was desperate to meet someone with whom she could truly connect and have a meaningful relationship with.

We worked initially on stabilisation. Tuning into the body and building some nervous system resilience. Then we started hearing the stories of all of her parts. There was a whole ecosystem of protective parts working really hard for her. But occasionally in maladaptive ways. There was a part that morphed itself into what it thought other people wanted. There was another part that misdirected people, hiding her true self and projecting an alternative version. There were parts that were angry, confused, people pleasing, and who didn’t trust her Self energy at all! Ultimately, she was drawn to people who felt familiar to her parts and attracted people who could see her vulnerabilities and exploit them.

We worked with each of these protective parts. We heard their stories. Why they were doing what they do. What their greatest fears were. And then we found the wounds beneath. The child parts who had been hurt. We worked with each of them to heal and unburden them. Witnessing their pain. Grieving with them.

Gradually, the protector parts softened. And allowed for authentic connection. We gave them new roles to help her discern what felt like the right fit from prospective relationships, instead of chasing what was only making her feel worse. We looked at communication and how to set boundaries, and asked her parts to help her.

That client has now met an incredible person who is a great fit for her. She’s learned how to listen to her Self, trust her instincts, and communicate authentically from a place of compassion with her new partner.

For readers inspired by this conversation and eager to start their journey, what first steps would you recommend?

If you are inspired and want to know more, there are two things I suggest. I have a wealth of articles on my website for you to explore, and I’ll be publishing more on Brainz so be sure to follow me here. I cover topics like somatic therapy techniques for anxiety, how to regulate your nervous system using the breath, and tips for understanding your parts.

The second thing I recommend is booking a free consultation with me. On this call we have 30 minutes to discuss your concerns, I’ll give you some immediate pointers to help you, and we can chat through whether therapeutic coaching is right for you at this moment in your life.

Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

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