How To Shape A Better World Through Your Body ‒ Exclusive Interview With Susanna Holowati

Susanna Holowati is a passionate Embodied Change Facilitator, corporate trainer, and embodiment coach. She founded Embodytopia to empower purpose-driven leaders to act with more impact. Her mission is to catalyze transformation through increased embodied intelligence. With leadership embodiment practices, she helps change-makers worldwide to grow beyond brainy boxes and to embody the change they want to bring to the world.

Susanna Holowati, Embodied Change Facilitator

Hello Susanna, nice to meet you! Can you tell us more about you and your background?

Yes, my name is Susanna Holowati, and with multicultural origins from Germany, Russia and Ukraine, I spent 13 years living in France, where I founded Embodytopia in 2020.

I am a certified Embodied Facilitator and a professional UZAZU Embodied Intelligence Practitioner, and I use a range of embodiment practices in my training and coaching approach.

For more than seven years, I worked in international education and media organizations and as a trainer before specializing in embodiment in 2019. Before that moment, I felt like a crucial part of myself was missing in my career, and I figured it out: my body!

My whole life, I had my somatic practices ranging from dance to martial arts, yoga and meditation, and I was also longing to bring these parts of me to my job. With embodiment, I finally could! What I learned through my own body is actually an essential part of my client work.

Since 2022 I am again based in Germany, located near France and Switzerland, where I also facilitate contact improvisation classes next to my corporate training and embodied coaching sessions.

I am always amazed at how transformative it is for people to bring the body into learning processes, and I keep evolving daily with my skills.

What is embodiment, and how does it relate to leadership?

Embodiment is a whole field where professionals from many backgrounds meet: from cognitive science, somatic psychotherapies, and mindfulness to yoga, art, dance, bodywork, and neuroscience. As the word is trending, there are misconceptions and different definitions of embodiment.

For me, embodiment means integrating the body as a holistic part of how we lead ourselves and others through life. It’s directly linked to our leadership. Our body is inherently intelligent. By accessing this intelligence through awareness as a body (vs. of the body), we can make choices that will help us evolve more easefully and skillfully through every life experience. This process requires that we start feeling again.

Try this: touch your body as if it were an object or something you want to keep functional. How does that feel? Now touch your body with awareness of its aliveness, recalling beloved people it has hugged, the places it has visited, the pain and the joy it has felt…How different does that feel? That’s embodiment ‒ the body as a felt living subject.

Instead of just being the vessel of our mind or an object of efficacy, our bodies can be the primary means of learning, resilience, and empowerment. Only through our bodies will we be able to literally walk the talk and be authentic leaders. It’s about choosing any moment how we want to be and practicing who we want to become. That’s what I help people to achieve.

In a nutshell, how do you work with embodiment?

My approach is experiential and practical, with various techniques coming from embodied facilitation and the holistic UZAZU Embodied Intelligence framework. The foundation is to practice embodied awareness and then develop skills needed to change states of being and behaviors.

How we stand, sit, and walk strongly impacts how we feel, think, and relate to others. That’s why I use powerful postures, movement, breath, voice, and UZAZU modes, which help my clients shift how they feel in a given situation and learn new ways of reacting. They’ll also get micro-practices that are easy to apply in daily life so that they develop organically new traits and skills in the long term. For example, instead of needing to go to a yoga class for one hour after a challenging conversation at work, they will now have a personal centering exercise that they can apply in less than one minute to handle the situation better in real time!

Working with the body in coaching and training is a direct way to overcome life challenges; so much quicker than if we try to figure it out with our heads.

Who can benefit from leadership embodiment?

Anyone who wants to be more embodied and better influence their surroundings!

My clients are open-minded people who want to increase their embodied intelligence to transform themselves and the world around them. Whether you wish to manage stress and daily difficulties, be more performant or authentic ‒ you can give your brain a pause and practice through your body new ways of feeling and behaving. The most important aspect is to be open for exploration: feeling and moving your body, trying things out that feel unfamiliar, and stepping out of your comfort zone.

Leadership embodiment is for anyone ready to bring positive change to themselves, the people they're interacting with, and ultimately the world we co-create together. Specifically, if you work with people 1-on-1 or with groups as a helping professional, therapist, coach, consultant, or trainer, embodiment skills will be a massive catalyst for you and others.

What is the next step people can take to be more embodied?

I recommend you commit to several embodied micro-practices. Start by doing somatic check-ins and centering techniques. A straightforward practice is:

Ask yourself, “How am I now?” Notice your current body sensations, the emotional quality of it, your energy level, and what thoughts come up. Stay with it without judging. Do this at least five times per day linked to other routines. Once checked in, accept your state and set an intention of how you want to be (e.g., more light-hearted, focused, relaxed, etc.). Adapt your way of gazing, breathing, walking, moving, sitting, or standing accordingly to achieve that state.

Get inspired by other embodiment experts like Mark Walsh, Dylan Newcomb, Philip Shepherd, Wendy Palmer, Ginny Whitelaw, or Martha Eddy.

To go further, do the UZAZU Embodied Intelligence assessment to see how balanced or dysregulated you get in different life contexts and what skills you might want to develop.

What would you change in our society if you had a magic stick?

Firstly, I would transform education and corporate systems so that learning is based on full-body experiences instead of being primarily a mind-focused approach. Then decision-making could be grounded in a true sense of individual purpose for collective thriving.

If leaders become more embodied in their ongoing development, we might need fewer magic sticks…And everyone is a leader within their environment!

How can people reach out to you, to find out more?

I am always happy to exchange via LinkedIn, the Embodytopia Website, or email.

Read more from Susanna!