A conversation with nutritionist and somatic movement practitioner Raj Barker on women’s wellbeing, stress, stillness and learning your body’s language.
There comes a point in many women’s wellness journeys where what once “worked” no longer does.
The workout routine that used to energise now leaves you depleted. The healthy habits that once felt supportive start to feel rigid. Sleep shifts. Recovery takes longer. Stress lands differently.
And perhaps most disorienting of all: your body begins speaking a language you don’t yet understand.
For Raj Barker, this is where the real work begins.
As both a qualified nutritionist and somatic movement practitioner, Raj brings a rare perspective to women’s wellbeing — one that spans intuition and emotion, physiology and nervous system regulation, food and nutrition. It’s a holistic lens that feels particularly resonant in a wellness culture so often split between hard data and bio-hacking, and simple foundations.
“Getting to know yourself is the most profound way that you can look after yourself,” Raj says.
In our conversation we spoke about wellbeing not as another protocol for optimisation or external validation, or to tick off another checklist.
We spoke about wellbeing as relationship.
Somatic Movement Is Having A Moment
If you’ve heard the word somatics lately, welcome to the club. For those of you new to this world, let us explain:
“It’s a practice where we focus on the internal experience,” Raj explains. “That looks like bringing interoception into your process — tuning into what’s happening in the inner landscape of the body.”
In practical terms, that means shifting attention away from metrics, reps and output — and toward sensation, breath, temperature, energy and emotional response.
If you’re lucky enough to attend one of Raj’s BURN by Body Medicine classes, you’ll experience a mix of modalities: yoga, pilates, cardio, breath, sound, free-movement, tapping and shaking, and pause. It is truly like nothing you’ve experienced before. The energy is palpable but incomparable to other high intensity workouts.
There’s no experience or strength level required in somatics, instead you are invited to come as you are, and choose to participate in a way that supports you best. Only you know your body, and only you can choose how to use it.
It’s a notable contrast to traditional fitness culture, which has long prioritised performance, competition, aesthetics and external transformation.
“I think women are realising that you might look a certain way — and it could be societally praised — but internally, you might not feel that great.”
This is a distinction that so many women can relate to. Our nervous system’s wellbeing rarely shows up in the mirror. In fact, we’ve thought of many ways to cover it up.
Increasingly, women are recognising that feeling well and looking well are not always the same thing.
High Cortisol, Burnout, Auto-Immune Disease, and The Cost Of Override
Raj is candid about what she sees in so many people today.
“We’re dealing with burnout. [Women’s] autoimmune disease rates are so much higher than men. We’re getting sick and we’re not coping.”
Could somatics be the answer?
Raj’s perspective is not anti-exercise. In somatics, movement remains foundational. But the way we move — and the energy we bring into that movement — matters.
“When we switch the lens from how to look a certain way into how to feel good, it’s proving to be a much more sustainable way of living.”
And this is where somatics becomes less of a trend and more of a foundation - rooted in ancient practice and tradition. A return, perhaps, to the body as a collaborator.
What Role Does Nutrition Play?
What makes Raj’s perspective particularly compelling is that she sees these same themes in somatics as she does in clinical nutrition. The women arriving in her practice are deeply familiar.
“I’ve been practicing nutrition for over 10 years,” she says. “And now I’m attracting women in a similar life stage to me.”
At 40, that often means conversations around perimenopause, recovery, fatigue and confusion.
“Women are saying, " Wait a second. I’m still watching what I eat. I’m still training hard. I work hard, play hard. But my body’s not responding the way it used to.”
Sound familiar? Raj says the instinctive response is often to double down.
Eat less. Train harder. Push through.
But often, that’s exactly the wrong move.
“Contrary to what people think they should be doing, the best place to start is slowing down,” Raj says.
Symptoms Or Signals?
Our founder Elle has long spoken about rethinking wellness as a dialogue rather than a discipline — about seeing symptoms less as failures and more as signals. That philosophy closely mirrors our broader beauty-through-wellness positioning. And Raj agrees.
“Sometimes people are so out of their bodies they don’t even understand the difference between what feels supportive and what doesn’t.”
Raj’s invitation is to start noticing.
How do you feel after that workout? That coffee? That dinner? That conversation?
“Am I coming away feeling fulfilled? Or am I feeling anxious, depleted, deflated?”
This is somatics at play, every day. It is a certain kind of emotional literacy.
Not just movement. Not just mindfulness. But learning your body’s language.
Information vs Intuition
There is a real tension in wellness right now between information and intuition. What the algorithm shouts at us every second of every day, vs what our bodies tell us in the quietest of ways. So where does Raj land?
Somewhere in the middle.
“Your body absolutely gives you information,” she says. “But we can function below par for a really, really long time and not flag much.”
Until, she says, the whisper becomes a scream. And it’s different for everyone.
For some it’s a rash, others, panic attacks. For many women it’s normalised brain fog and severe fatigue.
“Blood markers are valuable,” she says. “External guidance matters. But it’s what you do with that information that counts.”
This nuanced perspective is neither anti-testing nor blindly data-driven, instead, Raj sees optimal wellbeing as an intentional relationship between insight and action.
What Do Women Actually Need?
Yes, protein matters. Yes, magnesium often has a role. Yes, foundational nutrition remains critical. But Raj’s most refreshing answer had nothing to do with supplements.
“Where’s the fun? Where’s the play?” she asks.
It’s a question rarely asked in optimisation culture. But we’re realising that it is perhaps one of the most important.
“Sometimes the better option is going out with people you love, having belly laughs, stepping out of your analytical head and into something more playful.”
Wellbeing, after all, is not meant to be solely about disciplined inputs.
It’s also about joy, vitality, and quality of life.
The Power Of Stillness
For Raj, stillness is everything. It’s not passive. It’s diagnostic.
“When you slow down and get still, you inevitably receive some sort of information,” Raj says.
This may be why practices like somatic movement resonate so deeply right now. Not because they’re trendy. But because modern life is relentlessly loud. Constant stimulation. Constant input. Constant output. Raj’s prescription is simple:
Walk without headphones. Drive without a podcast. Sit with tea. Stare out the window.
“Those moments sound so small,” she says, “but they’re actually so good for you.”
Women’s Wellness Is So Personal
If there’s one message Raj returns to, it’s this:
There is no universal protocol. No one-size-fits-all routine. No singular definition of optimal.
“Your friend might be doing a protocol that works brilliantly for her — and it could be awful for you.”
This is not failure. This is individuality.
Somatics invites us to move away from comparison and back toward self-knowledge.
The body knows.
Find Raj at: https://www.thebodymedicine.com/ @bodymedicine_ @rajbarker