BOOK —

Somatic Experiencing Sessions in Cape Town

private sessions

BOOK MY SESSION —

Find peace in the frantic world

Somatic Experiencing®, breathwork and mindfulness for stress, burnout, anxiety and trauma responses.

These sessions are not psychotherapy and do not replace licensed mental health care.

WHO THIS IS FOR

You do not need a diagnosis to book. This is for you if you are experiencing:

  • — Chronic stress or burnout
  • — Shutdown, numbness, the freeze
  • — Trouble sleeping linked to stress
  • — Decision fatigue and big transitions
  • — Anxiety, overwhelm, looping thoughts
  • — Tension or pain that flares under pressure
  • — A trauma history
  • — Challenging relationships

The BARE Method

Long before you have words for it, stress shows up as a held breath, a braced jaw, a stomach that drops for no reason you can name. We work with that directly, building the capacity to stay with what you feel and changing what the body has learned to expect under pressure. Steadiness follows from that.

B

Breath

Breath is the one part of this you can move on purpose, and it shifts your state faster than thought does. We use it gently, scaled to what you can stay with, to bring your attention back into the body before the analysing mind takes the wheel. A way in, not a tool to fix.

A

Awareness

We make room for what is actually present, including the feeling underneath the symptom. A braced jaw is often guarding an emotion you have not had the room to feel. We notice where the bracing sits and what it is protecting, and we work with that defence rather than against it. Somatic Experiencing® does its work here, tracking sensation without forcing it.

R

Regulation

It builds from the inside out. As you can tolerate more of what you feel, the extremes soften, the times you are wound far too high and the times you go flat and far away. You spend more of your life able to stay present and connected, and the body comes to expect that pressure is something you can get through. The steadiness is a result, not the method.

E

Embodiment

It is present through the whole sequence, and it is what the rest is for. The more of an experience you can actually feel and stay with, the less it runs you from underneath, and the more choice you have the next time pressure arrives. Less of you is braced against your own life. That is what stays, long after the session ends.

Ways to work together

Online or in Cape Town

Somatic Exploration

90-minute session

Somatic Experiencing® & Mindfulness

In person in Bishopscourt, Cape Town, or online via Zoom

R1,350 / session

Slow down, find what your body is doing under pressure, and begin to change what it expects. We never force the feeling. We work at the edge of what you can stay with, so you slowly learn the language of your own body and can be with more of it than before.

What we do

  • — Settle the body out of high alert
  • — Notice what tightens under pressure, and what it is protecting
  • — Breathwork matched to your capacity
  • — Attention training, so you can stay with more

You leave with

  • — Two or three reset tools for ordinary days
  • — Clearer signals, so stress stops ambushing you
  • — A small practice plan
BOOK A SESSION —

Inner Journey

3-hour session

Somatic Experiencing®, deep conscious breathwork & mindfulness

In person in Bishopscourt, Cape Town

R3,500 / session

Three hours for the patterns that do not shift quickly: freeze, the bracing that will not let go, the numbness that keeps you at a distance from your own life. We take the time to settle properly, go further into the body, and let what changes actually hold before you leave.

What we do

  • — A longer settling time
  • — Somatic work, paced and gentle
  • — Deep conscious breathwork, tailored to you
  • — Time to let what shifts settle, with no rushed ending

You leave with

  • — A steadier baseline over the days that follow
  • — Four or five tools that fit daily life
  • — Less reactivity, and a quicker way back to calm
BOOK A SESSION —
Daria Rasmussen sitting on the couch inside a stone chalet at Bliss and Stars

About Daria Rasmussen

I am a Polish-born sociologist and Somatic Experiencing® practitioner. Twenty years in corporate came first, so the work stays practical and honest about real life.

Training

Somatic Experiencing® (SEI). Certified mindfulness teacher under Martin Aylward. Breathwork with Dan Brulé. A master’s in sociology, and a long-term meditation practice.

What I am after

That you understand your own mind and body well enough to feel the difference, in steadier sleep, clearer boundaries, and more room to choose when the pressure is on.

QUESTIONS

Before you book

What is Somatic Experiencing®?
A body-based way of working with stress and trauma responses. Instead of only talking about what happened, we work with what your body is doing now, the tension, the bracing, the going quiet, and help it settle, slowly and at your pace.
It is trauma-informed and can help with trauma responses. It is not psychotherapy, though, and does not replace licensed mental health care. It sits well alongside therapy, and many people do both.

Only as much as you want to. We can work entirely with what is happening now, in the body, without going back over the story.

Only if that is right for you. We match it to what you can handle and never push past it. More often it is slow and quiet than big and dramatic.
If you can, leave yourself a little space. A walk, a quiet meal, less input than usual. Try not to schedule a meeting straight after.