About Catherine

A lifelong curiosity about the human body

I've always been curious about the human body.

How it moves. How it adapts. How it responds to the world around us. How something as simple as touch, movement, or the presence of another person can change what we experience within ourselves.

That curiosity led me into massage therapy more than twenty years ago.

I completed my professional training as a Registered Massage Therapist in Ontario, Canada and went on to spend two decades working with people through hands-on care, eventually owning and operating my own clinic.

Looking back, I now see those twenty years as something more than a career in massage therapy. They were also a twenty-year apprenticeship in the work I do today as a somatic practitioner.

What twenty years taught me

Massage therapy gave me a deep appreciation for the complexity of the human body.

My formal education provided a foundation in anatomy, physiology, movement, and clinical care. But it was the thousands of hours spent working with people that continued to deepen my curiosity.

I became interested not only in where people experienced pain or tension, but in how their bodies responded.

Why did some people find lasting relief while others returned with familiar patterns of discomfort? Why could two people with similar physical complaints have such different experiences? What influenced the way a person responded to touch, movement, or rest?

I didn't have all the answers. In fact, the longer I practiced, the more curious I became.

Over time, I began to recognize that understanding the body required looking beyond muscles, joints, and physical structures.

The body is also responding to our experiences, our relationships, our environments, and the ways we've learned to navigate the world.

That realization opened a new chapter in my work.

From working with the body to learning its language

My curiosity eventually led me deeper into the study of trauma physiology, the autonomic nervous system, attachment, and somatic approaches to healing.

I completed a two-year certification in Somatic Trauma-Informed and Nervous System Coaching, along with yoga teacher training that expanded my understanding of movement, awareness, and embodiment.

These experiences didn't replace my earlier training. They helped me understand it through a wider lens.

I began to see familiar patterns in new ways.

Tension wasn't always simply something to release. Withdrawal wasn't necessarily something to overcome. And the body's responses weren't always problems that needed correcting.

Sometimes they were adaptations—ways the nervous system had learned to respond to the conditions of a person's life.

I became less interested in asking, How do we fix this?

And more curious about asking, What might the body be communicating?

The work I do today

Today, through SOULCRUM, I bring together my clinical experience, somatic training, and lifelong curiosity to help people develop a different relationship with their bodies.

I work as a Somatic Trauma-Informed Guide and Educator, helping people become more fluent in the language of their nervous system.

My approach is rooted in three relationships:

• Our relationship with our body: Learning to notice sensations, emotions, impulses, and the subtle ways our bodies communicate.

• Our relationship with our environment: Exploring how the spaces and conditions around us influence our sense of ease, protection, and connection.

• Our relationship with others: Becoming curious about how our nervous systems respond within relationships, and how we can remain connected to ourselves while connecting with others.

Through nervous system education, guided reflection, gentle movement, and embodied exploration, I create opportunities for people to slow down, turn their lens inward and discover what is happening within them.

There is no perfect nervous system state to achieve. No expectation to feel calm all the time. And no single way a body should respond.

Instead, we begin with curiosity.

We learn to notice without immediately needing to change what we find.

We explore what supports us, what challenges us, and what becomes possible when we have more awareness and choice.

Why SOULCRUM?

I believe our bodies are not machines to be fixed. They are living, responsive ecosystems shaped by our experiences and continually adapting to the world around us.

And I believe we can learn to be in relationship with them rather than constantly trying to control them.

My work is not about teaching people how to become someone different.

It's about helping them develop the awareness, understanding, and capacity to participate more fully in their own lives.

After more than twenty years of working with the human body, I am still curious.

And perhaps that's what I love most about this work.

There is always more to discover.

The body speaks. The mind listens. The soul moves.