I'm Rachel Sever (she/her), Licensed Massage Therapist (OR LMT # 28420) and Certified Massage Therapist (CA CMT # 96328), and member of Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), with 12+ years experience as a bodyworker. I'm a trauma-informed, systems-aware, polyvagal-informed Somatic Integrationist with a certificate from Pacific Center for Awareness and Bodywork in Hawaii in Awareness-Oriented Structural Integration, and trained in NeuroAffective Touch. I specialize in somatic integration: context and awareness-based, deep connective tissue (fascia) bodywork, with safely held-space for exploration of mind-body-heart connections, supporting increased embodied awareness and nervous system regulation. In addition to English, I speak German and French, and can understand basic Spanish.
My Approach I aim for my space to be a safe, non-judgmental space for contextualized, generational- and trauma- and system-aware deep explorations with nurturing presence to support individual and collective healing. I am passionate about the societal need for embodiment for healing, rediscovering and uniting parts of ourselves we have been disconnected from or that have been fragmented through traumas and through dualistic, individualistic, and colonialist paradigms. Rediscovering the mind-body-emotion connections supports coming out of reactive patterns, while also honoring that some of the survival strategies in our bodies are not "ours" to fix, but are still very necessary in current contexts and systems. Creating deeper balance and ease in the body mind (without just retreating into individualistic privilege), means deeply feeling (usually with support of some kind) the connections own bodies carry to our thoughts, our beliefs, our personal past wounds, and also to the generational and historical and social traumas of our bodies' various positionalities (meaning some of the somatic tensions we carry come out of very necessary guarding against real threats of racism/ sexism/ transphobia/ xenophobia/ colonialism/ ableism/ heteronormativity/ neuronormativity, etc... and/or from unconsciously guarding the privilege our bodies have been trained to see as "ours"). Through working to see, feel, and release some of the patterns of tension and reactivity that aren't needed anymore to protect us, or are causing harm to ourselves and others--whether they come from our personal, generational, or societal stories--, we can rest in more presence and openness with ourselves and others, giving space to hear our wisdom and move from our power. Embodiment is a felt-experience to witness humanity and our necessary collective path of healing and liberation. We can't be fully free from the real external stresses and dangers that provoke the stress responses in our own bodies (and hearts) unless we are free from them together. I believe our bodies and each others' carry so much wisdom that we have learned over years and generations to disconnect from, and that we need to start listening to again in order to heal. My Background I have a BA degree in 'Deconstructing the Status Quo' from an integrative studies community program (Johnston Center, University of Redlands) and previously worked for six years in social services in the field of mental health with adults and kids. I previously worked for six years in social services with adults and kids, but was frustrated by the limits of the field and systems and by the paradigms that enforced "expert"-client hierarchies, mind-body hierarchies, sane-mad hierarchies (and the racism, patriarchy, and colonial-narratives woven through all of those), and the perpetuation of those broader systems of separation and dehumanization of all of us because of all that. I went wwoofing, travelled, did my awareness bodywork training, and ended up living as an immigrant in Berlin for 8 years, and being part of an off-grid, eco-building, meditation center in France for 5 years (living there for 3). I have experience with managing meditation retreats, I've spent years participating in ecological construction, I've offered bodywork at yoga retreats in 3 countries, and have co-taught several retreats and workshops on embodied exploration, and have worked 1:1 with folks of around 40 nationalities. I'm into embodied meditation, listening to the music and wisdom of the trees and mountains and independent artists, mutual aid, biking, gardening, being silly, continuing to learn about somatics, trauma, neuroscience, solidarity, and interconnection, and exploring possibilities for change on the personal and social levels through somatics, including anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, and anti-colonialist change. I grew up among the redwood trees on the West Coast of the US (Native Pomo Land). I continue to learn as much as I can about being human each day, including who I am (parts of which are white-body-privileged, queer, and neurodivergent) and how to live myself more fully and openly, who others are (human and non-human beings), and how to show up in deep listening and integrity as much as possible moment by moment. |
What is SOMATIC Integration?
JOURNEY INTO DEEPER AWARENESS OF LAYERS OF YOURSELF
I have integrated my passion for awareness-oriented somatic bodywork into the modality of "somatic integration." My approach is polyvagal-informed (acknowledging the importance the autonomic nervous system plays in our mental-emotional-physical states and adaptive stress reactions) , and combines elements of Structural Integration (a fascia-based approach to supporting more alignment and deep balance in the body which is based on the work of Dr. Ida Rolf), NeuroAffective Touch (a mind body approach by Dr. Aline LaPierre to explore early-developmental traumas that most of us carry in pre-verbal parts of our brains and bodies), and my many years of experience with awareness-based approaches to bodywork. This work is explorative, grounded in your strengths and acceptance-based. A central goal of my approach in these sessions is to hold your experience in each moment in a deep and accepting presence, to help create a safe space in which you and the different parts of your inner experiences moment-by-moment are welcome as they are. When your autonomic nervous system feels safe, it can begin to regulate and open into curiosity. We'll work as a team to bring that curiosity to your individual patterns of tension, explore slowly through layers to bring increased awareness to mind-heart-body connections, create increased capacity to rest in a regulated nervous system state, use your strengths to support unwinding old and unhelpful or oppressive somatic patterns, and learn to apply this to daily life.
I have integrated my passion for awareness-oriented somatic bodywork into the modality of "somatic integration." My approach is polyvagal-informed (acknowledging the importance the autonomic nervous system plays in our mental-emotional-physical states and adaptive stress reactions) , and combines elements of Structural Integration (a fascia-based approach to supporting more alignment and deep balance in the body which is based on the work of Dr. Ida Rolf), NeuroAffective Touch (a mind body approach by Dr. Aline LaPierre to explore early-developmental traumas that most of us carry in pre-verbal parts of our brains and bodies), and my many years of experience with awareness-based approaches to bodywork. This work is explorative, grounded in your strengths and acceptance-based. A central goal of my approach in these sessions is to hold your experience in each moment in a deep and accepting presence, to help create a safe space in which you and the different parts of your inner experiences moment-by-moment are welcome as they are. When your autonomic nervous system feels safe, it can begin to regulate and open into curiosity. We'll work as a team to bring that curiosity to your individual patterns of tension, explore slowly through layers to bring increased awareness to mind-heart-body connections, create increased capacity to rest in a regulated nervous system state, use your strengths to support unwinding old and unhelpful or oppressive somatic patterns, and learn to apply this to daily life.
The Möbius Strip may appear to be 2-sided, but trace one side and you travel the whole. Likewise if we follow the our bodies, we end up in our thoughts, emotions, memories, and energy -- and then back in the body. And in the same way, the individual becomes collective; the societal becomes personal. Healing, in and out.
A 10 SESSION SERIES TO GO DEEP
A series of 10 weekly or bi-weekly sessions structured to provide the consistency and safe space to explore deep-seated patterns of somatic bracing, stress reactions, and feelings of space, ease, and empowerment. Working through these 10 Sessions together, let's explore all of this in a deeper way than is possible in just a stand-alone session. These sessions are about 90 minutes long, are participatory and will include dialogue, your active awareness to different parts of your experience, some active movements at times, and explorations and practices to do between sessions. There is no pre-set schema I follow for this series, as it is individualized and collaborative to support your specific needs and experiences, overall, but also session-by-session. Wear comfortable clothes and underwear to the sessions (depending on the work we do in the sessions, some sessions you may remain fully clothed, some sessions with more skin-contact bodywork, you may transition to undressed covered by a sheet). These sessions can be deeply relaxing, and they can also be intense at the same time. They will also include much more communication than is usual for massage.
We'll start each session sitting together to check-in about your current needs, follow up on the last session and any home practices done between sessions, goals for the current session, and a collaboration about what approach for that day's session is right to meet those needs. Some sessions will involve more seated dialogue-based exploration, some will involve gentle and slow holding of parts of the body, some will have gentle massage, some will involve directed self-touch, some will include body-readings, and some will have deep connective-tissue bodywork. All the sessions will focus on bringing awareness and curiosity to the explorations and keeping those explorations safe for the nervous system to stay open and relaxed into. All sessions will end with a few minutes together integrating the day's work and ideas about how to continue the exploration into the coming week.
A series of 10 weekly or bi-weekly sessions structured to provide the consistency and safe space to explore deep-seated patterns of somatic bracing, stress reactions, and feelings of space, ease, and empowerment. Working through these 10 Sessions together, let's explore all of this in a deeper way than is possible in just a stand-alone session. These sessions are about 90 minutes long, are participatory and will include dialogue, your active awareness to different parts of your experience, some active movements at times, and explorations and practices to do between sessions. There is no pre-set schema I follow for this series, as it is individualized and collaborative to support your specific needs and experiences, overall, but also session-by-session. Wear comfortable clothes and underwear to the sessions (depending on the work we do in the sessions, some sessions you may remain fully clothed, some sessions with more skin-contact bodywork, you may transition to undressed covered by a sheet). These sessions can be deeply relaxing, and they can also be intense at the same time. They will also include much more communication than is usual for massage.
We'll start each session sitting together to check-in about your current needs, follow up on the last session and any home practices done between sessions, goals for the current session, and a collaboration about what approach for that day's session is right to meet those needs. Some sessions will involve more seated dialogue-based exploration, some will involve gentle and slow holding of parts of the body, some will have gentle massage, some will involve directed self-touch, some will include body-readings, and some will have deep connective-tissue bodywork. All the sessions will focus on bringing awareness and curiosity to the explorations and keeping those explorations safe for the nervous system to stay open and relaxed into. All sessions will end with a few minutes together integrating the day's work and ideas about how to continue the exploration into the coming week.
MY EDUCATION & Trainings
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Brandenburg Tor, Berlin
