From doing to being. From proving to inhabiting.
When success is no longer about proving, but about becoming.
It is about that moment when we have already built so much of who we are, and yet something inside starts asking a different question.
Not “what else do I need to achieve?”, but more: what is true for me now, and who am I when I no longer need to become anyone else?
What this is
The Second Stage Circle
Eight sessions of two hours, every other week, over four months. Six to twelve women. Online, on Zoom. In English.
It will be a small, intimate group for women in this kind of transition, exploring identity, relationships, the body, emotions, desire, boundaries, pleasure, meaning and what wants to emerge in the second half of life.
Who this is for
For women roughly 40 to 60 who have spent the first half of life proving, achieving, caring, adapting, and being the strong one.
The transition can look like many things. Children leaving. A relationship changing or ending. Illness. Menopause. Burnout. A professional reinvention. Or no external event at all, and simply the loss of a direction that used to be obvious.
You do not need any experience of somatic work, therapy or group work to be in this room.
And who it is not for
This is not therapy and it is not crisis support. If you are in acute crisis, this is not the right room and Eva will say so.
It is also not a program for feeling better and returning to the same life. The work is about a change of identity, not relief.
How I work
What makes this different
Most approaches work with either the body or the story. I work with the nervous system behind the scenes and what wants to emerge but doesn’t know how.
I weave together what life has taught us to keep apart.
I combine different approaches that are all focused on the body and the nervous system: intimacy and sacred sexuality, polarity, bodywork, Jungian coaching, somatic experiencing, shadows work, in a very grounded way.
I practice what I preach.
Insight is not the problem. Most women who come to this work already understand their patterns very well. Understanding them has not changed them, because the old identity is not held in the mind. It is held in the body and in the nervous system, and that is where it has to be met.
What happens in a session
- Welcome and landing in the body with a somatic practice
- Sharing with somatic awareness of what happens in the body while one is sharing
- Topic of the session: theory and practice
- Sharing
- Q&A
Two hours. Every other week, so there is time between sessions for the work to land in an actual life rather than in a notebook.
The eight sessions
- The threshold. The self that is ending. Landing in the body
- Safety and receiving. Moving what you feel
- Boundaries. The embodied no, stop, enough
- Desire. Self pleasure, intimacy, reclaiming pleasure
- Body shame. Taking up space
- Speaking your truth
- Relational integrity. Remaining yourself with another
- Integration. Sharing and commitment
Between sessions there are simple practices, reflection prompts, and real life experiments. Nothing that takes an hour a day.
What changes
By the end of the four months:
- A more regulated and trustworthy relationship with your body.
- Greater clarity around what you need, what you want, and where your boundaries are.
- Less over functioning, proving, pleasing and self abandonment.
- More capacity to receive support, pleasure, visibility and abundance.
- A stronger, warmer and more unapologetic voice.
- The ability to stay yourself while staying close to another person.
She became fully herself, unapologetically, authentic, free, connected with herself and the world.
She doesn’t push anymore, she just allows life to unfold and she knows how to flow with it.
She is able to express freely what she feels, what she senses and what she wants.
She doesn’t ask permission anymore.
She just IS.
She is an inspiration for younger women, she is impactful.
What is included
- Eight live sessions of two hours, on Zoom.
- A WhatsApp group for the circle, for the four months.
- Practices and playlists between sessions.
- “Awaken Your Inner Council”, the guided active imagination, sent when you join.
About the active imagination
You will feel the power of potent archetypes awakening within you. It is an embodied experience that awakens presence, grounds awareness in the body, and prepares you to lead with grace and power, hold space with confidence and transmit your message with clarity and play.
Eva Di Pierro
I’m Eva Di Pierro, a Somatic Experiencing certified practitioner, bodyworker, Jungian coach and embodied leadership mentor. Before moving into this work, I spent many years in the corporate and entrepreneurial world, building businesses, training people and working in high-performance environments. I knew how to lead, solve problems, carry responsibility and keep moving. From the outside, those qualities looked like strength, and in many ways they were. But that way of living also had a cost. Over time, I became increasingly disconnected from my body and from my own needs. I knew how to perform, achieve and stay strong, but not always how to stop, receive or listen inwardly.
I confused skills with trauma response.
Exhaustion became a turning point. I began to question some of the qualities I had always considered simply part of my personality. I confused skills with trauma response. I started to see that strengths and adaptations can sometimes look remarkably similar: independence can also be difficulty receiving, excellence can be driven by perfectionism, emotional intelligence can begin as hyper-awareness of others, and the ability to perform under pressure can come with a body that has learned never to fully stop. That distinction changed the direction of my life and led me into years of study and practice in trauma-informed somatic work, nervous-system regulation, embodiment, attachment, depth psychology, Jungian coaching, myofascial bodywork and de-armouring.
Today, I bring these two worlds together. My work is informed both by direct experience of leadership, business and high-performance environments, and by my professional training as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, bodyworker and Jungian coach. I work with the body, emotional patterns, trauma responses, relational dynamics and embodied change, helping women understand not only what they think and do, but how their histories and adaptations continue to live through the body and shape the way they relate, lead, choose and receive. The Second Stage grew from this integration. It is for women who have already developed strength, competence and experience, but who are ready to understand what is truly theirs, what they once needed in order to survive or belong, and how to move forward without abandoning either their power or themselves.
One woman’s story
Livia, in her forties, seemed to have everything: an easy life, financial freedom, the possibility to travel and choose how to live, and yet something inside her still felt missing.
She felt empty and disconnected from herself and from her body, with no clear sense of purpose or direction. More than anything, she wanted to understand what it actually meant to feel herself, to know what she wanted, what mattered to her and how to feel truly present in her own life.
She also longed for a fulfilling intimate relationship, but the deeper longing was for a connection with herself she had never really known.
She had already tried so much, from workshops and therapy to bodywork and travelling, always searching for something that could finally create a real shift. She understood a lot, knew the language and could explain her patterns, but knowing was not changing how she felt or how she lived.
We worked together for a year and a half, slowly bringing all those pieces together through online Somatic Experiencing and Jungian coaching, bodywork, Myofascial Energetic Release and dearmouring, movement, art and an intensive four-day 1:1 retreat, allowing the work to move beyond understanding and become something she could actually feel in her body and live in her everyday life.
Today, Livia knows herself differently. She can feel what is happening inside her, listen to her body, recognise her needs and stay connected to herself when life becomes challenging.
She has also learned how to use the somatic tools we practised together to regulate herself, stay in her body and remain present instead of disconnecting or losing herself when things become difficult.
Her sense of purpose is still unfolding, but it is growing and becoming clearer. She feels more grounded, more alive and more able to trust what she feels, what matters to her and the direction that is beginning to emerge from within.
Her relationships have changed too, and she is now in a happy one, learning to trust, relax, receive and allow herself to be cared for while staying connected to herself.
For years, she had been searching outside herself for something that could make her feel whole, but what changed was not finding one more answer.
It was discovering what it meant to truly be in relationship with herself.
The shape of it
Eight sessions, every other week, over four months.
The circle is online, so it does not matter where you are. Sessions are not recorded.
The dates are set. Write to Eva and she will send you all eight, so you can check them against your own diary before you decide anything.
Questions
Do I need any experience of this kind of work?
No. Some of the women will have years of it and some will have none.
Is this therapy?
No. It is group work with the body and the nervous system. It is not treatment, and it is not a substitute for therapy if you are already in it or need it.
What does it cost?
Write to Eva and she will tell you, along with the dates. This first circle is priced well below what it will be, because it is the first.
What if I miss a session?
Tell Eva. Sessions are not recorded, and the circle is built on the women who are in the room, so come to as many as you can. Missing one is not a problem. Missing four is a different circle.
Where are the other women from?
Anywhere. The circle is online and in English. What the women have in common is the transition, not the country.
Is what I say in the circle private?
Yes. Everyone agrees to that before the first session, in writing.
Write to me
If you have read this far, write to me. Tell me where you are and what made you read it. I will send you the dates and what it costs, and I will tell you honestly whether I think it is right for you.
Who am I when I no longer need to become anyone else?