When Rest is not Enough: Energy Activation Sessions come to South Africa this September

As South Africans push through the final stretch of a demanding year, international facilitator Irena Kovaljukova is bringing Safe Energy Activation to the country, with group and private sessions taking place across South Africa this September.

For people balancing work, family, deadlines and the constant pull of digital life, burnout can be remarkably functional. You keep working. You keep showing up. Things get done. Yet somewhere along the way, energy, clarity and a sense of connection to yourself can begin to disappear.

This September, international transformational facilitator Irena Kovaljukova comes to South Africa for her first national tour, offering group Safe Energy Activation sessions and private one-on-one experiences across the country.

What does a Safe Energy Activation session look like?

Safe Energy Activation, or SEA, is Kovaljukova’s approach to Life Force Activation: a guided, energetic, body-based practice that brings attention to the body, breath, sensation, and the responses that may arise when a person has space to slow down.

Participants do not need to know how to meditate, practise yoga or have previous experience of energy work.
In a group SEA session, participants lie down while music forms part of the experience and Kovaljukova facilitates the room, working with individuals throughout the session. Rather than being taken through a sequence of poses or exercises, participants are encouraged to relax and notice what happens in the body. That can be different for everyone.

Some people may remain completely still. Others may notice changes in breathing, warmth or tingling, spontaneous stretching or gentle movement. Emotion can surface. Some may experience sound or vocal expression, while others describe simply becoming deeply relaxed and quiet.
There is no required response and no particular experience participants are expected to produce.

“Your body may move. Your emotions may surface. You may experience profound stillness. You may notice sensations you would normally pass over. There is no performance. There is no right experience. There is only your body, and what it is ready to show you,” says Kovaljukova.

More information about Irena’s method is available online.

Private sessions

Alongside the group programme, Kovaljukova offers private one-on-one experiences.

During a session, the participant lies comfortably on a treatment table while the practitioner observes the spine, posture and the body’s physical and energetic responses. The work involves very light touch or, at times, no touch at all.

It is not a massage, and the practitioner does not manually stretch or manipulate the body. Instead, the approach is to observe and work with responses that arise naturally during the session.

These can include spontaneous stretching or gentle unwinding, changes in breathing, tingling or warmth, emotion, sound or periods of deep stillness.

Every session is different, with the emphasis on giving the individual time and space to notice and respond to what is happening in their body rather than working towards a predetermined outcome.

More about Irena Kovaljukova

Before moving into transformational work, Kovaljukova built an international corporate career, held senior leadership positions and managed teams of more than 200 people.

Her outward success, coupled with a growing sense of internal disconnection, eventually led her to spend years studying human behaviour, body awareness, consciousness, emotional patterns, and energetic practices.

Today, after more than five years of professional facilitation and thousands of individual experiences, her work centres on helping people create space to slow down, reconnect with their bodies and pay attention to what may have been drowned out by the constant demands of everyday life.

“We have become incredibly good at functioning,” she says. “We work, take care of people, meet deadlines and keep moving. But being able to function does not necessarily mean that we feel connected, energised or fulfilled.”

The experience is not positioned as treatments for burnout, anxiety or other medical or psychological conditions. They are facilitated wellbeing practices intended to offer people an opportunity to slow down, turn their attention inward and become more aware of their physical and emotional experience.

For those who have spent much of the year running on empty, the starting point may not be finding another way to do more, but creating enough space to notice what the body has been saying while you have been busy getting everything done. Those interested can learn more about her story here.

Get tickets to the South Africa tour

Kovaljukova’s September tour will travel through Johannesburg, Pretoria, Centurion, Cape Town, Hout Bay and the Garden Route, with group sessions and private appointments available. Group Sessions are 2.5-hour facilitated experiences.

Cost: R1,350 per person (Group Sessions) | Private one-on-one sessions available by advance booking. Book now on the website.

When: 14 – 23 September 2026 | Various times
Where: Lighthouse Holistic, The Barracks, 50 Bree Street, Cape Town | Alila Yoga, 1 Westerford Way, Hout Bay | Lotus Studio, 1st Floor, Knysna Mall, 53 Main Road, Knysna | George (TBC)

Safe Energy Activation facilitated wellbeing practices and are not substitutes for medical or psychological treatment. Individual experiences vary.

Website: spiritual-heaven.com
Instagram: @irena.kovaljukova