The Great Pause is a two-day (or more) personalized,
individual immersion, that bridges breathwork, neuro-science, embodied practice and lived experience, creating space where insight, healing and meaningful change can unfold in a calm and impactful way.
WHY?
Something about the speed of our culture and our world is no longer working. We feel it. We see it everywhere. The pace of modern life has outgrown the natural rhythm of being human, and a deep longing for real connection is emerging.
Every living system; nature, the human body, even the breath itself, moves in rhythms of expansion and rest. Without it, there's no renewal, only overwhelm, and overstimulation. The Great Pause is therefore part of a larger cultural shift and exploration. It combines science-based breathwork journeys with creative, exploratory and contemplative and somatic practices, and sense-making. It is a layered process that cuts through distraction and opens up beyond the breath into a deeper relationship through personal stories, and the study of life’s process. Whether you're looking to dive deep into your healing or work through specific challenges, or seek to be mentored on your path, there's something for you.
Meet your guide,
Katrien
I don’t believe life was meant to be mediocre, nor to be a copy-paste of someone else’s path. It is meant to be exceptional, and introduce new perspectives, awaken curiosity and courage, and foster meaningful change for a brighter future.
My strength in your process is of navigating complexity. I can see through human, systemic, and relational patterns with care, and clarity. I help untangle deep dynamics that can reveal the root causes of what may be holding you back. I bring sharp intuition, professional insight and knowledge with intellectual rigor. Clients often find me in times of transition, and are drawn to a highly private space where what’s ready to shift can be met with care, clarity, and depth, and from a wider and wiser perspective.
START YOUR JOURNEY
Step away from the noise, come back to yourself, open your world
Step 1
INTAKE
In a 30 minute intake call, we will investigate if we are a good fit, and the process can truly serve you.
Step 2
PREPARATION
Before The Great Pause, you will complete an intake form. We’ll review it together to create a personalized starting point. You’ll also receive preparation materials by email to help you begin well.
Step 3
THE WORK
With honesty and depth, we will work at the core of complexity, through theory, practice, and four guided breathwork journeys. This
process allows visions and insights to emerge that can shift your identity, history, and lived reality with internal alignment.
Step 4
INTEGRATION
True transformation takes time, and integration is an important part, also during the two-days. After the Intensive, we will have two integration session calls.
You will have the option to continue working together to reinforce and build on your insights and change.
Why The Great Pause?
20+ years of experience in studying human complexity through neuroscience,
psychology, philosophy, arts, breathwork and contemplative practice, → I understand your world.
Accredited counselor with 10+ years of breathwork facilitation and expertise in non-ordinary states of consciousness. A researcher with psychoanalytic rigor. → I bring depth, structure and understanding to the process.
This is a one-on-one deep dive process. → A tailored, unique, immersive and transformational experience.
Invest in impact and transformation for yourself and through that for the wider world. Harnessing human energy to make effective change.
Start your journey.
Conscious Connected
Breathwork
In a world drowning in complexity, breathwork is the simplest, most powerful tool to reconnect with yourself, regulate your nervous system, and expand your consciousness.
In The Great Pause you will be offered four carefully curated breathwork journeys that acts as a bridge between knowledge and embodied wisdom. It is an extraordinary self-healing practice that supports emotional processing, nervous system regulation, and access to altered states of consciousness. In a safe and trauma-informed space, this breathwork invites deep inner listening and the unraveling of what's been held, both positive and negative, and open a new relationship with emotional blockages, stress, tension and trauma, as well as your deeper truths and inner freedom.
Read my academic study on The effects of Conscious Connected Breathing on Cortical brain activity, Mood and State of Consciousness (Published, 2023)
INVESTMENT
Step 1: Complimentary Intake
To ensure alignment, the initial 30 minutes conversation is free of charge.
Step 2: Intake
A deeper assessment with a 30-minute debrief conversation.
Step 3: The Work
Customized to your needs as a two-day immersion in Amsterdam from 10.00 - 16.30/17.00. Lunch costs are not included. Pricing is customized if a structured, long-term approach is requested, and/or if the work will take place at another studio location than the Open Up studio, or outside of the Netherlands.
Step 4: Integration
After the two-day intensive we will schedule 1 or more integration calls of 30 minutes to further explore what is needed.
Starting from
EUR 3000
Excl. 21% VAT
I Work With
Top entrepreneurs, founders, politicians, academics, scientists, healthcare professionals, veterinarians, policymakers, refugee youth, celebrities, artists, and also with young potentials who are ready to strengthen their presence and direction for the future. I'm inspired to work with those who operate at the highest level and seek a trusted space to challenge their thinking and process, and gain clarity and impact beyond immediate challenges.
NOW WE NEED HUMANS
THE GREAT PAUSE
The Great Pause is part of a larger exploration which I;ve started calling "Now We Need Humans". It urges us to remember that human beings and societies are not separate. The way we think, feel and relate to ourselves shapes the systems we create. Inner transformation and societal change are therefore deeply connected. My work exists to explore this connection. We need more human-making, analog
processes that are not separate from the practice of evoking the spirit or essence of a phenomenon, place, animal or person. The individual is part of the collective and by living and bringing those worlds together, it allows for a new kind of anchoring of individual minds into a more collective identity, reality, and process.