Somatic Experiencing & Trauma Therapy — Byron Bay & online
Attachment-based, nervous system-focused work for women and practitioners ready to move beyond survival patterns and relate, connect, and lead from true power
It may feel like you’ve been shedding skins for years.
Relationships ending. Old identities dissolving.
A way of living and relating that no longer fits — without the next one fully formed yet.
You’ve already done the inner work.
You understand your patterns.
But in the moments that matter,
you still find yourself adapting, holding back, or losing yourself in connection.
What you’re standing in now is not a problem to fix —
it’s a threshold.
A place where your nervous system and relational patterns are asking for something deeper than insight.
Not another strategy. Not more self-analysis.
But a trauma-informed, somatic space where you can begin to stay with yourself —
in intimacy, in connection, and in the parts of you that used to feel too much or unsafe.Art of Connection is for women ready to shift survival-based ways of relating —
and create intimacy, connection and self-expression from embodied safety.
This is not about fixing you.
It’s about working at the level where these patterns actually live —
in your nervous system, your body, and your relational experience.
Most approaches help you cope.
This work helps you change the patterns that keep repeating.
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You are in the right place if …
You are high-functioning, sensitive, and deeply perceptive — but notice how your system defaults to people-pleasing, control, withdrawal, or over-responsibility when closeness or desire arises
You might find yourself feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or constantly on edge —
or going numb, shutting down, or disconnecting from yourself when things become too muchYou long for real intimacy and emotional depth and are done with push–pull dynamics, polarity games, or performing a version of yourself to be loved
Your voice, sensuality, creativity, and power want to be fully alive — but shame, inhibition, or self-protection still live in your body
You are moving through a time of transition —
where old ways of relating no longer fit, and something new is not yet fully formedYou’ve already tried to understand and shift your patterns cognitively —
but something still isn’t changing, and you’re ready for deeper somatic work that takes your nervous system and attachment patterns on board
IN THE PAST MY WORK HAS SUPPORTED CLIENTS TO
• Shift how you show up in relationships — dissolving people-pleasing, power struggles, and shutdown, and learning to stay connected to yourself while rebuilding trust, desire, and emotional depth in relationships.
• Heal developmental and relational trauma including PTSD and C-PTSD — transforming chronic anxiety, numbness, or hyper-independence into embodied safety, trust, and a deeper capacity for connection.
• Release sexual shame and dissociation — reclaiming pleasure, erotic aliveness, and embodiment after abuse, medical or birth trauma, abortion, miscarriage, or years of self-suppression.
• Move out of burnout and emotional over-functioning — restoring nervous system capacity and creating a life and work that no longer require self-abandonment.
• Reclaim voice, creativity, and visibility — shifting from self-censorship and fear of being “too much” into embodied truth, clear boundaries, and grounded expression.
• Interrupt intergenerational and patriarchal conditioning — loosening inherited patterns of compliance and self-erasure, and creating change across relationships, family systems, and your work.
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The foundation of real, embodied change lies in your body
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You don’t need to try harder or understand yourself better.
This work meets attachment patterns, people-pleasing, control, withdrawal, and emotional shutdown at the level where they were formed — in the body and nervous system — so change doesn’t rely on willpower or self-management. -
Here, connection is not created through adapting, fixing, or holding everything together.
You learn how to stay present with yourself while staying in relationship — so boundaries, desire, vulnerability, and truth can exist without collapse, over-functioning, or distance. -
Art of Connection weaves together established trauma therapy and neuroscience (Somatic Experiencing®, attachment-oriented and polyvagal approaches) with embodied and feminine practices (womb work, somatic breathwork, traditional tantra, yoga therapy).
The work is held in a longer-term relational container because nervous system and attachment repair require depth, pacing, and continuity — not intensity or shortcuts.
This is what allows integration to land emotionally, relationally, and creatively, rather than fading once the experience ends.
How this work unfolds
01 — Nervous System
Safety & Capacity
Everything begins in the body.
We start by restoring nervous system safety and capacity, meeting survival patterns exactly where they were formed — below conscious control.
As your system learns that closeness, desire, and visibility are no longer dangerous, emotional resilience grows.
You move out of chronic survival responses and into a felt sense of safety, presence, and inner steadiness.
02 — Relating
Connection without self-abandonment
From this embodied safety, we work directly with attachment and relational dynamics.
Old patterns around people-pleasing, control, withdrawal, or emotional over-responsibility can soften and reorganise.
You learn to stay connected to yourself while being in connection with others — allowing clear boundaries, honest needs, and real intimacy to coexist.
03 — Embodiment
Expression, aliveness, truth
As the nervous system and relational field stabilise, your authentic feminine expression becomes available again.
Creativity, sensuality, voice, intuition, and leadership emerge from the body — not as something you force, but as something you inhabit.
From here, you no longer live from coping or performance, but from embodied truth — creating relationships and a life that actually reflect who you are.
Art of Connection weaves together my expertise and training in:
Somatic Experiencing® & Trauma processingPolyvagal theory & nervous system repairAttachment-focused psychotherapy & counsellingTranspersonal coaching & humanistic psychologySomatic Touch (consent-based, titrated)Dance & movement therapyRebirthing breathworkWomb-centred and feminine embodiment workTraditional Tantric (Kashmir Shaivism) & Yogic philosophyShamanic Medicine work
You were shaped by a system — not broken by it
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Your body learned what it had to learn in a world that asked you to
comply, attune, stay small, and be easy to love.
For most women, trauma isn’t one event.
It’s a lifetime of self-abandonment —
of swallowing your voice, your needs, your anger, your desire.
What once kept you safe
now keeps you from experiencing real intimacy, depth, and aliveness.
This work meets these patterns at their root —
in the nervous system and the body.
So love no longer requires performance.
And belonging no longer costs you your truth.
You begin to relate, create, and live from a place that feels grounded, real, and fully yours.
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daniela’s story ♡
“A session with Clara can change your entire life.”
When I came to Clara, I was in the middle of an emotional breakdown — traumatised, uprooted, and full of fear. I had tried conventional therapy before, but it never truly moved anything. With Clara, it was different.
In just one session, I was able to release a toxic attachment I had held onto for three years. Something shifted deeply inside me. Suddenly, there was peace. No more pain. No more resentment. And I realised: I can give myself what I had been desperately seeking from others. That was liberation.
Clara’s work goes deep — and it works. I feel safe in my body again, connected to my intuition, grounded, clear, and powerful. I now know who I am, what I want, and that I can trust myself.
This work changed my life. Truly.
— Daniela W.
Working with me
Sessions are available:
Online or In person in Mullumbimby / Byron Bay / Northern Rivers region
In English or German
Each session is 50 minutes and held in a focused, somatic and relational field
In-person sessions may include optional trauma-informed somatic touch work (fully clothed)
How this work is held
This work is not designed as one-off support, but as a deeper, ongoing process.
This allows us to work not just with symptoms — but with the patterns underneath.
We begin with an initial session —
to meet, explore what you’re working with, and sense whether this space is right for you.
From there, most clients choose to continue in a longer-term container,
allowing real change to unfold at the level of the nervous system.
Single Session — Entry & Assessment
A single session serves as an entry point into the work.
It allows us to meet your current patterns and explore whether ongoing work together feels aligned.
Most chosen for lasting change
10-Session Package — Therapeutic Container
10 × 50 minute sessions
+ 6 months access to Soma Sanctuary Practice Portal
5-Session Package — Short-Term Container
5 × 50 minute sessions
+ 3 months access to Soma Sanctuary Practice Portal
Limited concession spaces available for students + unemployed by request.
Soma Sanctuary Practice Portal (Included in Packages)
Packages include access to Soma Sanctuary (not single sessions!) —
a practice portal of somatic tools, psychoeducation, nervous system support, and integration practices.
So the work continues to land between sessions —
week by week, layer by layer.
Get to know me
I’m Clara — a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and trauma therapist working at the intersection of nervous system healing, attachment, and embodiment.
I support deeply feeling, intuitive and high-capacity women — including practitioners and spaceholders — who are done shrinking themselves for love, belonging, or success.
My own path taught me to stop hiding my too much — my depth, emotions and longing for intimacy — and to reclaim my aliveness through my body & feeling.
I midwive women to restore safety in their bodies, reclaim intimacy without self-abandonment, and step back into the truth, power and aliveness they were never meant to lose.
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sabines story ♡
“This was the most important and best investment in myself I have ever made.”
Through working with Clara, I feel like myself again. I feel connected, aligned, and able to live my purpose. I feel safe in my body and capable of meeting any challenge.
I was able to release so many old patterns and integrate past trauma. I never imagined this kind of change could be possible in just three months.
I have regained my joy for life, and I feel empowered to actively shape my life and live my dreams.
My relationships have reached a new level of intimacy, because I am now able to express my feelings, needs, and boundaries with clarity.
Thank you, Clara, for your profound work. I truly feel like a new person — and fully myself again.
— Sabine R.
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“To be ourselves causes us to be exiled by many others, and yet to comply with what others want causes us to be exiled from ourselves.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
This IS for you if…
✓ You’ve done the inner work — and are ready to embody it.
You want your truth, desires, and boundaries to become lived, not just understood.
✓You take responsibility for your patterns and your life.
You’re willing to meet your nervous system honestly and choose differently from embodied knowing.
✓ You are a deeply sensitive, creative woman ready to take up space.
You’re done shrinking or performing — and ready to live from presence, voice, and self-trust.
This is NOT for you if…
X You’re looking for change without engaging in a deeper process of self-responsibility and reflection.
X You prefer to stay on the level of understanding, rather than working with the body, emotions, and nervous system directly.
X You are currently in an acute crisis or need immediate psychological support — in this case, working with a clinical psychologist may be more appropriate.
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No. In Australia, Medicare rebates are only available through Clinical Psychologists and some other eligible allied health providers under a Mental Health Care Plan.
The Australian Psychological Society’s recommended fee for a standard 46–60 minute psychology session is currently around AUD 318.
The Medicare rebate for a 50-minute session with a clinical psychologist is approximately AUD 145.25, leaving a significant out-of-pocket cost.In addition, Medicare rebates are limited to only 10 sessions per year. Ongoing work beyond this is charged at full fee.
Highly specialised, trauma-informed practitioners in Australia typically charge AUD 150–350 per session, depending on training and scope of work.
While this work may be more expensive in the short term, many clients experience it as a long-term investment — reducing the need for repeated one-off sessions, temporary relief, or cycling through different providers and instead working at the root of their issues.
Many clients report significant shifts within 5–10 sessions, often describing the work as more impactful than years of talk therapy.
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This work is therapeutic in nature and trauma-informed.
I am registered in Germany as a licensed psychotherapy practitioner (Heilpraktikerin für Psychotherapie) and have over five years of training in somatic and attachment-based trauma therapy modalities.While the work may include elements that feel coaching-like — such as integration, reflection and orienting toward what wants to emerge — it is not performance or mindset coaching.
What I integrate from coaching is direction and embodiment:
We don't only explore the past or analyse patterns, but work directly with the nervous system so change becomes felt, lived and sustainable.The focus is on nervous system repair, relational safety and embodied capacity — allowing you to not only understand what you want, but to feel safe enough to live it.
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Yes — many clients work with me online, and find it deeply effective.
Being in the comfort and familiarity of their own home often allows for greater nervous system settling, safety and integration, especially for attachment and trauma work.
In-person sessions (offered in Mullumbimby / Byron Bay / Northern Rivers) offer an additional layer of co-regulation through presence, embodied work and, where appropriate, somatic touch.
Touch-based work, womb-centred practices and ceremonial elements are only offered in person, always with clear consent and pacing.Both formats are held with the same depth, attunement and therapeutic integrity.
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This work is for you if you’re done analyzing and understanding your patterns, but not seeing the change in your life and relationships. You’re done with just thinking positive, manifesting your dream life through affirmations or doing deep cathartic healing work that feels exhausting and like a full-time job.
Maybe you sense that your challenges are not a mindset issue, but rooted in attachment, trauma and nervous system patterns — and you are ready to meet them in the body, not just through insight.
It is suited for women who are willing to commit to depth, nuance and a longer-term process, and who feel ready to take responsibility for real change.
If you are seeking crisis support, quick fixes or purely cognitive input without taking action, this may not be the right space.
A single session can serve as an entry point to assess fit — for both of us. -
Somatic Experiencing® (SE), developed by Peter A. Levine, is a body-based, trauma-informed approach working directly with the nervous system.
While originally known for addressing survival responses, contemporary SE integrates attachment theory, developmental trauma work and polyvagal principles.
Rather than reliving trauma, confronting or “discharging” it, SE supports the nervous system to restore safety, capacity and relational regulation — allowing attachment patterns, emotional responses and self-perception to reorganise from the inside out.
The work is slow, relational and titrated.
Change emerges as the body learns it no longer has to protect against closeness, emotion or aliveness.
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