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THE OPEN UP
GROUP SERIES
Worlding the Now
The
Introduction
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We are learning that we are not solitary actors in this world. We are experiencing that we are not well enough connected to our body and inner world to hold tension and transform it. We are recognizing the importance of meaningful education beyond the edges of our knowing. Answers for the ungraspable times we live in, call for us to recognize the inherent possibility of who we are as human beings, and what we are here to do. This is a call to awaken new depths within ourselves. Making-into-relation the sensitive and conscious act of breathing and Being. What might this depth look like? Who are we and who is here with us to guide us? What can it offer us?
I don't know yet. We can start with unstiffening our vibrant bodies and spasms to release the suffering and breathlessness in the nervous system. We can experience what it feels like to have openings and endings in new places of curiosity, power and responsivity; vitalizing the relation with ourselves, others and the nature. We can shake the narratives that we’ve become so used to and shock the familiar through the natural, spontaneous and free movement of our breathing. In this reconnection with a world that can no longer be seen as separate from our inner world, we shift our perspective to come-to-a-place and possibility to go blank. Allowing ourselves to come into the right partnership with chaos and the right relationship with our future.
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Welcome to The Open Up Group Series; a five-week exploration of Worlding the Now.
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– Katrien Franken, Creator of the Series, Teacher & Host
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The
Open Up Group
Series & Chaosmosis
After running The Breathwork Group Series for 10 editions, we changed the name to 'The Open Up Group Series to offer a wider context and field to what we are doing, and why. It remains a five-week process of self-exploration and therapy which offers the ground work for true inner change. ​It's also a research inquiry into expanded states of consciousness and what it means to be “breathing with chaos", or Chaosmosis — “osmosis” implies breathing together. In this osmosis with chaos; new realities can join us, a new harmony, a new syntony can emerge, a new depth can become us suited to a better world.
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Each week for five weeks we will explore this chaosmosis, governed by our body's inner healing intelligence and a powerful mix of deep psychological and embodied practices, arts and improv. We will honor the full range of human experience, and breathe-with, learn-with, expand-with, fail-with, grow-with, be-with our unmet truths and disowned shadow parts. In search for wholeness we will enjoy each other's support and inspiration, being with the same focus. We might return to the natural rhythm of our own breath and learn to breath with chaos. You can expect your beliefs to be challenged, and your perspective to be shifted.
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The
Healing
Power of
Breath
Ancient and native cultures used breathing exercises for centuries as a means of cultivating expanded states of consciousness in order to facilitate transformative experiences that deepen the connection between body and mind and help access healing. An unfolding of great depth can occur in breathwork. Particularly in non-ordinary states of consciousness. States which expand and integrate the relationship with our psychological, biological and spiritual contents at a deeply personal and intimate level. We will confluence between mysterie and knowledge, relation and connection, openness and growth, longing and belonging, and the "space in between". The appetite for time-bound experiments, curiosity, imagination, and mutual enrichment.
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NEW SERIES
STARTING AGAIN
IN 2024
5-week in-person Transformative Journey
with Katrien Franken
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JOIN WAITINGLIST
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* On request we also design this work for organizations, universities, innovative networks
and democracies. Please get in touch
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Welcoming the Guest
Shocking the Familiar
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Important Curriculum​​​
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The days in between our sessions are designed to integrate what might have openend. To grapple with the expansion and explore your capacity to staying with the trouble as the inner workings start to work with you
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You will receive supportive practices and information throughout to help open, integrate and deepen your journey, and compost new realities
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The Series is a foundational part of a bigger program we are developing called Alive Learning Education
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Receive a conscious approach, full presence from the facilitating team to stimulate and support your process
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Important curriculum; nothing is fixed or final
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What will we be doing?
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Depth work: Breathwork inspired on Holotropic Breathwork as created by Stanislav Grof which is combining faster breathing, evocative music, and releasing bodywork - to induce intense states of consciousness which can have remarkable healing and transformative power, unlocking human magic. Release tension and trauma from the body and mind, liberate visions from the unconscious, and increases your somatic, emotional and social intelligence.
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Process work: opening to the bodily felt sense, awakening the sensory system in experiential and science based teachings; in solo, paired, trio, small group and large group practice.
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Trigger work: Opening-with the fragmented, disowned and forgotten parts of ourselves through uncovering our shadow behavior; our hidden and blind spots. Serious play, using tools from eco-psychology, cognitive sciences, arts, and the mythopoetic.
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Presence work: Being conscious, co-creating with the different energies, tensions, frictions with deep spiritual awareness and wholeness. Being present with what emerges within, and between us - making space for newly sanctioned.​
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Relational work: Open to the transcontextual nature and interrelationships of Life. Learn to learn from all that informs us from the present, past, and future. Making-available for us to practice our infinite opportunities to connect through the small and intimate.
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Why Group Work?​​​
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This work can be both liberating and exhilarating, but also challenging. Fundamental assumptions about life are swept away. The process can deeply activate the connection with yourself and others. In conscious group work we are the mirror for each other, reflecting back who we are. In this intimate exchange we find our way into our intimate belonging. We will meet the pleasure of nourishing and restoring our energy, and of grounding ourselves in our body. We offer each other authentic relationship and are changed because of it. ​
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THE OPEN UP
GROUP SERIES
About
This Series
Like the previous ten versions, through breathwork, shared explorations, inquiry, sound, movement, meditation and emergent rituals, it longs to push toward the free, and the surprising by exploring new nuances and complexities in the field and worlds between us. The longing of Open Up is to assemble an approach that might help us move beyond the stuckness and limitations of theory. It's about practice and cultivation, materializing a practical, meaningful, experiential and imaginative way of learning.
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It's about building foundations for opening to
progressive deeper ways of being present in the world. Expanding through a conscious​ integration, resourcing with a "bigger" mind, and present body to receive the bigger picture. Tending to our openness; having a curious attitude, giving us the time we need to think seriously about the future. Gathering to be sure you are in the right place with yourself, and allowing your feelings to come into being, offering it a home.
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THE OPEN UP
GROUP SERIES
New edition starts in 2023
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€ 495 pp
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To sign up for this Series you intent to take part in all 5 sessions (missing out maximum 1 session)
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Breathwork is not suitable for everyone. Please read the Contra-indications to make sure it is right for you.
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The Series will be held in English unless all participants speak the Dutch language.
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This is an in-person process, limited to 16 participants.
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An invoice can be send on request. The applicable 21% VAT will be charged to your fee.
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What People Are Saying
"The Breathwork Series was truly transformational. The strides I made in the short time was remarkable and powerful. No other practice has had such a profound impact on me, both physically & emotionally. Katrien creates a trusting, safe space to open up, get vulnerable, explore stories, and dive deep into our inner worlds. Under her guidance, I felt completely safe to let go and explore my truths. As a result of the Breathwork Series, I know myself better, trust myself more. I’ve made some positive changes in my life that needed to be addressed long ago."
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– Christine Finke - Loyalty Advocate. Participant Series 1, 2017
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"Katrien offers a course that is much more than just breathwork. She shares in-depth content in a nice flow of exercises that is challenging on many levels with a great balance between individual experience & group dynamics. I loved the support she and her team offered during the program. With even greater curiosity, i'm looking forward to the second edition."
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– Nienke Dijkstra, Speakers Coach at TEDxHaarlem. Participant Series 7, 2019
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"The Series was a good shake up on many different levels of my being. In a very safe and professional environment. Guided with love, humor and depth."
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– Carlijn Kooij, participant Series 10, 2022
'What I experienced during the course was both extraordinary, humbling and deeply profound. Katrien is a rare human. She encapsulates both the knowledge and professionalism of an experienced breathwork practitioner with the warmth of a deeply wonderful person. She provides the ideal guidance for what is a deeply powerful and often very moving subconscious experience. I cannot recommend Katrien's course to you enough."
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– Walter Elliot-Paice, Chief Operating Officer Sphaira Innovation, London. Participant Series 5, 2017
Disclaimer
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The facilitators are no doctors and therefore we do not give health or medical related advice or counsel directly to a potential participant. All information provided by potential participants is considered completely private and confidential and held in confidence by us. The participation in the Series are at the attendee's decision, responsibility and risk. We reserve the right to use our discretion to refuse anyone that we deem to be unfit for the experience.