Why move? Why dance? 

To express (and accept, and be conscious of, and make space for) all the parts of yourself, to blow off steam, to get to know yourself better, to listen to what's actually going on, underneath the most immediately accessible level, and to learn new ways of managing yourself, to enhance your movement vocabulary and move with more creativity, to free yourself up from the tyranny of your incessant thinking, to feel embodied, grounded, and nourished, at a physical, emotional, and soul level - while the mind serves.

To be happy, in short, with all of you.

To bring self-acceptance of all that you are into relationship, and practice embodiment with others (the emotional, soul, and mind levels - contained in the physical here-and-now awareness of grounded safety). Self-compassion & acceptance in all your difference & understanding & valuing yourself is crucial, if you want to get un-stuck and move forward. 

Dancing with all that you are is a skill that gets developed through regular practice. Come back, and back again. Come witness your emotional and cognitive streams while in movement (it's like a moving meditation), and practice supporting yourself. The objective is gentle, clear self-awareness, following our path, getting more and more familiar with the surprisingly expansive vastness of who we actually are. 

We dance to anchor the Container

A constant awareness of our body, and the contact with the ground, in addition to all the dance tools which facilitate embodiment, or coming into the body more fully), facilitate a sense of safety. I am here in this body, and there are some solid truths about it, some reality I can always attune to. We can learn to differentiate the body awareness of our sensations, from our emotions, from our thoughts, and our sense of self. We can also develop the Observer: an awareness of the clear seeing that we are at all times; as well as the loving connection to ourselves, no matter what. It's all about enlarging the ways in which we connect to ourselves - to increase resilience and joy. 

Human beings are born to move; as dancer and movers, we thrive - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

The art of moving is infinite.

Research shows that people who dance grow more

• flexible
• confident
• capable of intimacy
• resilient in the face of change

We dance because it feels good on every imaginable level - physical, emotional, mind and soul.

Open Floor Movement Practice is

• a lively meditation practice that builds muscular and emotional intelligence, enhances movement vocabulary and resources; we use Core Movement Resources and Embodied Anchors (parts of our embodiment in this body on this planet: parts that make us feel more tangible, more 'fleshy' and safe here) in each class. For a quick outlay of the Core Movement Resources of Open Floor (meta-cognition tools to help us see wider and consider more resources of movement or of being), please see here. 

• a dance floor discovery place where we move and include good and bad days, our own and others': community support is encouraged 

• a dance practice in which there are no steps to learn and no way to do it wrong; it's about compassionate self-connection, first and foremost. From this Truth, we connect to others

There is a mix of music with clear guidance and free dancing time; both connections and solo time are encouraged. Bring in your emotional life: dance it out! Give it shape in the dance, make it travel through the music, let it transform (you)!

See what happens when you trust the Container to support you. 

Please come as you are. Sometimes, all you need is to see friendly faces, or a hug. Sometimes, laying down and feeling both your emotion and the safety of others around you is the best you can do. Come. Sometimes you need to dance out your rage, act out your fearful side in the dance, or explode in joy. That's what it's for. You're welcome. :)

What is Open Floor?

Open Floor is a form of conscious dance which inspires people to move from more of who they actually are - enlarging the vocabulary of movement and resources we have at our disposal to face daily life. Our dance and mindful movement practices are for personal healing, professional growth and community building. Open Floor supports resilience, compassion and joyous connection with others, when life is challenging. We dance because joy and compassion are good for our mood, our thinking, and for how we act in the world. 

Come dance with me: what is your way? 

I focus on non-judgement & unconditional positive regard, because relational safety matters to me: that's when we think better, heal and are able to work together. Boundaries are a fundamental part of safety (physical and other): feel free to communicate what you like best, or you can't do. If you can't do something, please translate my instructions to something that would work for you, or to turn/move away and do what you need to do to best take care of your body or your nervous system. Sitting down or laying on the side can be helpful at times. I might check on you, but please be aware that this is a group environment: for more personalized attention, or if you are aware of a trauma that can still be accessed through coaching, I am available for one-on-one sessions bookings. For more serious (particularly relational) trauma, a psychologist might be a better option.

When you can't express your needs, or don't even know what they are, please give yourself time, kindness, and compassion. When you're feeling failed by others, go back to supporting yourself, or ask for support - if you are able to (not everything we want comes at the moment or in the way that we want; but eventually, we figure it out). Some things make a lot of sense afterwards. 

It is important to keep your deeper well-being in mind: when you're connected with it, you are connected to the well-being of everyone around you, and to the best possible solution. Yet you can't force anyone. In that spirit, feel free to move away from someone if it feels better - even if that might upset them. You are free to engage or to move away if someone wants to dance with you (the law of your own two feet). This will help relax your nervous system relax ; we gradually retrain the nervous system to make free choices about our own bodies. And please be attuned to the non-verbal language of other dancers: if they turn or move away, avert their eyes from you, it may signal interiority, shyness, or a need to be left alone. A clear 'thank you'/Namasté gesture with the hands in front of the chest is a good way to signal 'thank you, this is over', or 'no, thank you'. The more you do the internal work of self-love (grounding, feeling your pain) when others need their space, the freer and the more joyful of an environment you will help create. Thank you in advance for contributing to a world which trusts in our deepest truths, together. 

Why Embodied Coaching? 

Why Embodied Coaching? 

This is what I'm interested in: we're always changing, breathing, maturing. We can do this consciously (choosing the direction in which to connect the dots), or let this happen naturally - but it's happening anyway. When we are stuck, feeling like we can't feel good about our past, we can go see a therapist. When we can't feel good about our future, we often see a coach. Thankfully, there is a lot of cross-pollinating and overlap between these professions: we all understand that for healthy action, you do need to have made peace with your past, for your future to stand on solid, embodied ground.

As your past lives in your body, I want to, with the help of your body, resurface the clarity of where you are, make space for your direction of evolution (it can be as simple as choosing a little more relaxation, or as life-changing as envisioning a career change, with everything in between), and we will spend time to connect the dots, together.

Between body, mind, heart and soul, between inner and outer, between past, present and future, etc. - our work is to create the conditions for natural re-connection; so that the system can function as one, big, interconnected, healthy and resilient, dynamic and alive whole.

This might not be in one hour, nor in one time - but little by little, piece by piece, we make way for major change, meaningful relationships, and healthy expression of everything you came on this planet to be. 

What you need to know about the bodymind 

The brain is plastic, meaning it is ever-changing, and responsive to your inner and outer environments. It is made of interconnected brain cells, which are alive and making stronger or weaker connections all the time - according to what we put our attention on, and what our experiences are. 

The body is also constantly wiring and re-wiring itself, due to its nervous system wiring, its interconnection of tissues, organs, muscles and bones, and to its hormonal diffusions (see The Molecules of Emotion by Candace Perth: our emotions directly affect and modify our bodies). 

The heart changes size according to its capacity to feel, its sensitivity (it is bigger in this case, more responsive), or its inability to feel much (its armoring, toughening, and shrinking size). A healthy heart has a large HRV (heart rate variability), or capacity to respond with a variety of responses (fast, slow, rythmic, desynchronized), to a variety of (outer and inner) stimuli. 

Our DNA furls and unfurls in response to stress or relaxation, and the science of epigenetics has shown a correlation between lifestyle and gene expression: we are constantly changing, down to the very core and functioning of our breathing, living, multiplying, and dying cells. 

Even our Soul is in evolution: we learn, we expand lived knowledge and lessons, we become more conscious of the interconnection of more and more life. 

So what is stable in this life? 

What do we hold on to, when everything is change? 

Where do we choose to go? What are the patterns we want to guide our life?

Those questions are important for our happiness and creation as a collective.

We need to connect the dots at all levels, so that we act as one. One with many faces, many expressions, many lives, but one...

One giant body, with many cells; and many body parts, many organs, many muscles. It doesn't make sense to fight other body parts.

Only our interconnection and our roles in the co-creating make sense.

Our recognition that we need difference: a foot is not a hair, and the liver is not the brain. We need to work together as a big human family, with everyone being healthy and happy, or at least at peace with their choice. And this means living through difficult emotions coming up to be felt.

The good thing is, we are becoming more conscious, collectively.

It starts with each of us doing what they can to function in a more wholesome fashion - in connection with the rest of the body.

For us, this means that we ask ourselves different questions, go on different investigations, because that's how we open up the mind to the intelligence of Life.

When we relax in goodness and get curious, and listen, many, many good solutions just come up to the surface of our awareness - effortlessly. 

Let's go on this adventure together!

Towards the inside of the mystery of who you are, and what's left to uncover...

There is something that cannot wait for this to unfurl to even better relaxation and vibrant health (emotional, physical, relational, & mental)!

Get in touch with me here to see what we can do for you together. 

Embodied Coaching through Open Floor One-on-one & small group sessions 

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. 

The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression.

It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.'

Martha Graham

Do you like to move? Are you interested in self-developement? In listening to yourself? Finding your inner, best path? 

Connect your body, heart, mind & Soul, cope with the hurdles on your path (develop the direction and the perspective to bounce off from 'failures' or stuckness), and follow your own life path.

No previous dance experience is necessary. For more information about Open Floor, look here.

Why Coaching + Dancing ?

• Make space for your embodied wisdom
• Transcend your (physical, emotional, & mental) limitations
• Learn to move gently, and in your own terms, with what's going on 
• Find your embodied way, and develop long-term trust into it
• Find the Freedom to be yourself - on the path from being Gentle with yourself to being at Peace with your relationships

What can you expect to find in a one-on-one Embodied Coaching session?

• Take the time you need for self-connection in a trusted atmosphere. Feel the intimacy with yourself, the fine embodied self-awareness inside of your body; and from this inside self-perception, explore your creativity outside (range of motion, connected to your emotions, your mind, and to your wider purpose) and joy of moving and dancing freely
• Benefit from a personalized embodied coaching process, where you can access your your body's inner wisdom & insights, anchoring the new emotional and mental awareness in your body 
• Explore your issues with the help of intra- and interpersonal connection coaching, dancing & embodiment tools: discover and practice your personalized embodiment process to take into your own life and towards what you need to feel, be and do, while trusting you have the key to yourself
• Work towards your objectives in an embodied way. Get unstuck, notice & go beyond your interconnected mind-body-emotional patterns, and enlarge the range of your possibilities for physical, emotional and intellectual movement

Individual Embodied Coaching session price:

150 euros for a 1.5-hour Embodied Coaching session

300 euros for a 3-hour session: includes an Embodied Coaching session, then a guided Dance Integration 

(if in person in The Hague, add room rental costs)

(on Zoom: includes a break) 

Please contact me here. 

In practice, for the Embodied Coaching session: we connect to your current situation, objective and potential obstacles before the session. On the day of the coaching session, we typically sit and discuss more in depth your situation. My coaching questions will help you reflect and make the necessary feeling and sensing connections between your body feeling, energy, postures and movement, and you emotional and mental life, to help you to get to your embodied objective. 

In practice, for the Dance Integration: we stretch, we rest, we arrive at our own rythm, and come onto the dancefloor in our own pace. We get more and more into our body sensation awareness, semi-guided (you are free to take or replace the instructions: the goal is mostly self-respecting & self-loving self-connection). Music is playing. Then we gradually move to a guided conscious dance and embodiment journey, to integrate all of the learnings and what was stirred in this coaching session. Typically, more insights will come, but I also guide you to more embodied movement resources, connected to what we just discussed. There is a point where you are free to explore what's been learned and developed by yourself, with music, to just let go of all of it or have fun with what you learned. By the end of the session, we come back to settling into whatever state we have arrived in, and close the session. The closing gathering might involve speaking, it might not - as always, you're always free to feel what is most fitting to you at that moment. 

What happens during a Small Group Embodied Coaching session? 

Connecting to the different parts of ourselves - body sensations, emotions, thoughts, and sense of self - in music, in silence, together, by ourselves, using the Open Floor core movement resources and embodied anchors to facilitate deeper and deeper self-awareness and resourcing, that's what I find sums-up a group session. We learn to better connect to ourselves, and to support ourselves; and we learn to better connect to others, and to navigate the landscape of connecting to them from the inner space of ourselves. It's a journey, not a destination. You're never finished, never fully complete - and at the same time, exactly right the way you are right now, for yourself to keep evolving. In relationship, we evolve faster. It's full of surprises, good and bad - and we learn new ways, we expand our capacity to cope, to resource ourselves and to support each other - and then, to have full, unadulterated, pure bliss! Being ourselves, together. In our common humanity.