Meet Karine Flynn: Trauma-Informed Psychotherapist

Your body remembers what your mind has learned to forget

For as long as I can remember, I've been drawn to depth. As a child observing the world, I was captivated not by surfaces but by what lay beneath - the hidden currents that drive human behaviour and shape our experiences.

If you've found your way here, you've likely tried the intellectual route. Perhaps you've gained insights through talk therapy, read the books, done the self-awareness work. You understand your patterns. You know why you do what you do. And yet... the confusion persists. Something is still missing.

Through two decades of work I've learned that understanding trauma isn't the same as releasing it. Your body holds the unfinished cycles - those moments when it wasn't safe to express what you felt, when you had to suppress your response to survive. Maybe you learned early that showing vulnerability invited danger. Perhaps expressing anger meant rejection. Or your needs were dismissed so consistently that you stopped recognising them altogether.

These incomplete experiences don't just fade. They live in your nervous system, creating the very patterns you can't seem to think your way out of.

From insight to embodied transformation

My approach integrates powerful frameworks - Internal Family Systems, Compassionate Inquiry, Somatic Psychology, Behavioural Analysis, Polyvagal Theory - but here's what matters most: this work doesn't happen in your head.

While insight creates the map, somatic release provides the journey.

We work directly with your nervous system, helping your body finally complete what it couldn't finish back then. This is where intellectual understanding meets felt transformation. Where you don't just know you're safe, you experience it in your body.

We invite compassion and curiosity, and create enough safety for your system to finally let go of what it's been holding for so long.

Authority through lived experience

My journey hasn't been linear. I've navigated countries and cultural transitions, profound losses, parenthood, complete life reconstruction. These experiences haven't simply informed my practice - they've shaped my deepest understanding of what transformation actually requires.

What became unquestionably clear: feeling genuinely safe is non-negotiable for release. Your nervous system needs to know, at a cellular level, that it's finally safe enough to let go. This understanding drives everything I do - creating a space where profound work can happen.

Why somatic release creates lasting change

If you're here, you've probably experienced this frustration: you understand your trauma intellectually, yet find yourself stuck in the same patterns. You know what happened and why it affected you, but that knowledge alone hasn't freed you. That's because: 

Trauma isn't stored as a narrative in your mind. It's held as incomplete responses in your body.

When you couldn't fight or flee, when you had to freeze or appease to stay safe, your nervous system locked those protective responses in place. Understanding this cognitively doesn't complete the cycle. Your body needs to experience the release it couldn't access then.

My approach creates the safety and structure for this release to happen. We work with what your body is already holding, at the pace that feels right for your system. You will finally be giving your nervous system permission to complete what it started - and discover that on the other side of that completion lies the freedom you've been seeking.

For those ready to move beyond understanding into embodied transformation, I'm here to guide this journey with both gentleness and precision.