A New Way to Lead, Create, and Innovate
True innovation, leadership, and organizational success come from a holistic integration of mind and body.Leaders and teams can be more present in their bodies, make mindful decisions, and use physical awareness to enhance creativity, productivity, and workplace culture.
The Future of Work Is Embodied
In an era defined by digital acceleration and constant change, organisations are discovering a powerful yet often overlooked asset: the human body. Embodiment—our capacity to stay connected to our physical sensations, emotions, and presence—is emerging as a cornerstone for resilient, creative, and ethical leadership.From Zoom fatigue to decision paralysis, today’s workplace challenges aren’t just cognitive—they’re somatic.
Embodied practices help leaders and teams reconnect with themselves and each other, enabling more grounded decisions, authentic collaboration, and adaptive ways of working.As the future of work shifts toward more conscious, human-centered systems, embodiment isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.
Visionary Leaders & Decision-Makers
Embodied Inner Leadership
As a leader, you can learn to be fully present, lead authentically, and build trust through embodied practices.
Collaborative Teams
Mindful Team Collaboration
Workshops that guide teams through embodied communication exercises, helping them become more in tune with each other’s energy and body language.
Creative teams
Creative Problem-Solving through Embodiment
Move beyond traditional brainstorming by engaging the body and using movement to stimulate new perspectives and approaches.
Mindful Organizations
Corporate Well-being & Work-Life Integration
Programs that encourage employees to balance their work and personal lives by fostering a greater sense of self-awareness and bodily presence.
GUIDED BY
four core values:
PRESENCE: Teaching leaders and teams to be fully present in their work, aware of their actions, and intentional with their decisions.
CREATIVITY: Emphasizing innovative thinking and problem-solving through embodied practices that tap into deeper, often untapped, reservoirs of creativity.
AUTHENTICITY: Encouraging authentic leadership and team interactions through mindfulness and the integration of body and mind.
WELL-BEING: Prioritizing employee well-being, recognizing that a healthy, balanced workforce is key to long-term success.
be surprised by the
positive outcomes:
Improved team cohesion and collaboration
Increased creative problem-solving abilities
Enhanced employee well-being and reduced stress
Development of authentic leadership styles
Long-term improvement in workplace culture
next events:
Discover the difference of
our approach:
HOLISTIC: EMBODIED NEW WORK integrates physical and emotional intelligence into business practices, making it a unique offering in the corporate world.
INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES: Embodiment, mindful collaboration, and movement-based creativity are uncommon in business consulting and can differentiate your team.
FOCUS ON WELL-BEING AND PRODUCTIVITY: By combining leadership and creativity with well-being initiatives, improve the effectiveness and happiness of your employees.
Ana Bernardes
founder
I love to create spaces for growth and transformation. For that, I use embodiment and awareness-based tools.My background in Psychology, as well as my career in Business Consulting, Experience Design and Game Design, made me a believer that by bringing more consciousness and playfulness into the workplace we can create a lasting impact in living a purposeful and balanced life, both individually and collectively.
GUEST EXPERTS
A dedicated team of experts is tailored to meet the unique needs of each project.These cooperations come from the following fields:
Business Consultants
Artists
Researchers
Coaches and Trainers
explore
articles and podcasts
The Future of Work Is Embodied
As the future of work continues to evolve in the face of global uncertainty, automation, and deepening complexity, leaders and organizations are being called to reimagine not just what they do—but how they show up.
[read more]
Ana Bernardes
In 1998 I started dancing and studying Psychology and I walked these 2 paths separately until they began to get intertwined.As a Vocational Counselor and Trainer, my career started in 2004 and focused on developing soft skills. This brought me into human resources consulting, training organisation and facilitation, and project management.After several years working in the corporate setting, in 2013 I discovered social entrepreneurship and experience design. Among other events, I co-founded a festival for innovation in education in Vienna (stEFFIE – Experimental Fun Festival for Innovative Education).In 2019 I started working in a game design agency, where I was responsible for people management, finance and organisation development, as well as for creating and hosting events and developing game concepts for companies.In what felt like a parallel world, my first class as a dance teacher was in 2000. For ca. 20 years I taught social dances, mostly ballroom and salsa, and I’ve learned many more partner dances, like tango or kizomba. In 2017 I came across Biodanza, which was the first step in using dance as a way of expression and healing.In the last years, I’ve added to my skills embodiment and dance practices such as Social Presencing Theater, Authentic Movement, Embodiment Coaching and Holistic Dance.
SOME ORGANISATIONS I'VE COOPERATED WITH:
(as an employee, partner or service provider)
CV
Education
09/1998 - 07/2003
Degree in Psychology - Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal)
Work Experience
| Date | Organisation | Job Role | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Since 06/2021 | Self-employed (Vienna, Austria) | FACILITATION / EMBODIMENT TRAINING / EXPERIENCE DESIGN | Design of learning programs for personal and organisational development mostly based on embodiment, somatics and non-linear thinking. Training, facilitation, experience design and event organisation |
| From 05/2019 to 05/2021 | Playful Solutions (Vienna, Austria) | EXPERIENCE DESIGN & OPERATIONS MANAGER | Experience designer, workshop facilitator and game designer. Operations Management: People Management, Finances, Office Management and Organisational Development. Project Management in B2B projects and projects funded by the Vienna Business Agency. |
| From 08/2017 to 04/2019 | Out of Context | FOUNDER | Support to individuals and organisations in changes related to the Future of Work, mostly focused on promoting a local network to support remote workers in Portugal. |
| . | Hardware City (Aveiro, Portugal) | EVENT MANAGER | Development of hackathons for product development. |
| . | Self-employed (Portugal) | TRAINER & FACILITATOR | Corporate training focused on the topics of Leadership and Interpersonal Relationships; personal development workshops using tools from Theory U, Social Presencing Theater and Art of Hosting; dance teacher |
| . | Total Fun (Coimbra, Portugal) | L&D CONSULTANT | Development of corporate events in the MICE department of a travel agency. |
| 12/2016 - 07/2017 | Erste Group Services (Vienna, Austria) | TRAINING ORGANIZATION | Organisation of training programmes for the Erste School of Banking and Finance, part of the Group Talent Management and Learning from Erste Group, which serves its employees in Austria and Eastern Europe. |
| 08.2015 - 07.2016 | Ajado GmbH (Vienna, Austria) | EVENT MANAGER (02.2016 - 07.2016) | Organisation of business events developed by ajado GmbH. Support for the Digital Marketing Consulting department. |
| . | . | EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT OF THE CEO (08.2015 - 11.2015) | Support to the companyʼs management, namely Accounting, HR and Office Management. |
| 01.2014 - 01.2016 | dieLICHTFABRIK (Vienna, Austria) | PROJECT MANAGER, EXPERIENCE DESIGNER, FACILITATOR | Participation in the general management of the association dieLICHTFABRIK, namely in developing the business plan, and support to the accounting process. Event Design and Facilitation of events based on social experience design. Graphic design. |
| . | . | CO-FOUNDER AND PROJECT MANAGER - stEFFIE Festival | Development of stEFFIE Festival - a yearly event for Innovative Education in Vienna, which aimed to showcase and further develop projects with a disruptive intention in the field of learning. Organisation of monthly crowdsourced learning events (stEFFIE talkinʼ). |
| 10.2009 - 12.2012 | Klim Consulting (Aveiro, Portugal) | SENIOR CONSULTANT | Business Unit Manager (Leadership and Coaching department) - project management, development and implementation of methodologies in Talent Management, Performance Evaluation, and HR systems. Consultant: Support in the areas of Business Strategy and Innovation. Trainer: mainly focused on soft skills (leadership, communication, time management) and people management. Event manager:development of off-site events for our clients, and seminars. |
| 04.2009 - 09.2009 | VLM Consultores (Aveiro, Portugal) | BUSINESS UNIT MANAGER | Project Manager: development and management of a training business unit (Academia VLM) focused on the development of top executives. Recruiter: Recruitment and selection in internal processes. |
| 07.2008 - 04.2009 | Advance Station (Portugal) | TRAINING COORDINATOR / ASSESSMENT & DEVELOP. CONSULTANT | Training coordinator: Pedagogical coordination of the company courses in the centre of Portugal (15 schools). Management of trainers pools. Consultant: development and implementation of Assessment & Development Centres. |
| 06.2007 - 05.2008 | Randstad (Portugal) | HR ASSISTANT (in-house services) | Management of flexible workers pools; recruitment plans development; selection; workersʼ support and performance evaluation; administrative management of the flexible workers' contracts and legal aspects; CRM. |
| 10.2006 - 03.2007 | Alert Life Sciences Computing, S.A. (Portugal) | TRAINER / ON-SITE FACILITATOR - | Trainer and on-site facilitator of the clinical software Alert ® in the emergency departments of Portuguese Hospitals. |
| 02.2006 - 09.2006 | Soporcel Austria Gmbh (Viena, Austria) | MARKETING AND SALES ASSISTANT | Support to the Marketing and Sales office, working with Central and Eastern Europe. |
| 09/2005 - 12.2005 | Leonardo da Vinci Project “People” (Vienna, Austria) | INTERN | ● karriere club: Insight into the following areas: single consultation, diagnostics for professional selection, personnel development, personnel selection and communication techniques. Participation in the field of international projects. ● Waldorf Schule: support to the classes of Eurythmy and Music Therapy. |
| 09/2004 - 04/2005 | Centro De Formação Profissional De Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal) | TRAINER | Preparation and delivery of the classes of “Citizenship”, “Learning to Learn” and “Interpersonal Relationships” in groups of Vocational Training. |
| 10/2002 - 06/2003 | Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional | INTERN | Vocational Counsellor - cooperation in the selection of candidates for the Vocational Training groups. Development and implementation of a Cognitive Promotion Program with Vocational Training students. |
Certified Skills
LANGUAGES:
Mother Tongue: PortugueseOther languages:
- English – Level C2 (“Certificate of Proficiency in English”)
- German – Level C1 (B2 - ÖSD Prüfung 11/2014)
- Spanish – Level C1DANCE: Holistic Dance and Movement Pedagogy; Authentic MovementEMBODIMENT: Embodiment training; Embodiment Coaching; Social Presencing TheaterTRAINING: Train the trainer; E-learningHR: Recruitment and Selection; Assessment and Development Centres Management; Development of Competency Models; Assessor Skills; Feedback SkillsPM: Project Management; MS ProjectPRESENTATIONS: Presentation SkillsAUDITOR: Social Accountability Auditor
[workshop]
For creative teams
move.create
Creative Problem-Solving through Embodiment
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
ALBERT EINSTEIN
This workshop is designed to help participants shift their perspectives from purely cognitive to fully embodied, engaging their whole selves in the creative problem-solving process.
Next Date: 26.08.2025 17:00 - 20:00Location: ViennaSmall Group: 4 participantsCost: 90,00€ / participant
This workshop is open for individual registrations. Please contact me directly to book a session with your team.
OBJECTIVE:
Participants will use embodiment techniques to explore creative problem-solving, unlock deeper insights, and co-create solutions.
BY THE END OF THE SESSION:
Participants will have embodied their challenges, uncovering new perspectives and insights.
They will experience shifts from "stuck" postures to solution-based movements, both individually and collaboratively.
Concrete solutions or next steps will be identified, ready to be applied to real-life challenges.
Participants will leave with a deeper awareness of how physical embodiment can enhance creative problem-solving.
We use the framework of Theory U and tools from Social Presencing Theater, as well as insights from other embodiment methods and theoretical models such as Emotional Intelligence, Polyvagal Theory, Authentic Movement, Mindfulness, Embodied Cognition, and Experience Design.
[intro session]
For Visionary Leaders & Decision-Makers
inner leadership development
Embodied Inner Leadership
“An organization cannot evolve beyond its leadership’s stage of development.”
Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organizations
Next Date: 04.09.2025 17:00 - 18:00Location: onlineCost: free of chargeRegistration is mandatory.
This session is a foundational introduction to the principles of embodied inner leadership, giving participants a taste of the practices and insights they’ll explore in more depth throughout the longer program.This intro session is designed to preview the key themes and tools they will develop over the course of the program.
OBJECTIVE:
Empower participants to apply embodied leadership techniques in their personal and professional lives, fostering greater self-awareness and transformative leadership from within.
BY THE END OF THE SESSION:
Participants will gain a deeper understanding of embodied leadership, learn to connect to their inner wisdom and leave with practical tools to apply in their leadership journey.
[mini-masterclass]
For Visionary Leaders & Decision-Makers
embodiment and the future of work
What if the body isn’t just along for the ride, but leading the way?
In this mini-masterclass, we explore how embodiment is reshaping leadership, coaching, and collaboration in a time of deep uncertainty, complexity, and change.
Next Date: 22.07.2025 17:00 - 18:00Location: onlineCost: free of chargeRegistration is mandatory.
Designed for facilitators, coaches, and change-makers, this session introduces key principles and practices from the field of embodiment, offering grounded insights and practical tools you can apply in your work right away.
OBJECTIVE:
To introduce facilitators, coaches and change-makers to the role of embodiment in navigating complexity, fostering presence, and supporting meaningful transformation in modern work and leadership contexts.
BY THE END OF THE SESSION, YOU WILL:
Understand the key principles of embodiment and why it matters now
Experience a guided practice to access body awareness and insight
Recognise how the body can support resilience, creativity, and clarity in yourself and your clients
Leave with a practical resource to begin integrating embodiment into your work immediately
Imprint
Ana Bernardes
Trainer in adult education
Krenngasse 1180 Vienna[email protected]
Freelance (Neue Selbständiger / new self-employed)
Content and webdesign: Ana BernardesPhotos: Ana Bernardes, Laurent Ziegler, Iza Hegedus