ABOUT ME
I know what it feels like to be stuck.
To sense that something inside you wants to move forward — but not quite knowing how to get there. To carry a longing you haven't yet found words for. To keep showing up for others while quietly wondering whether you're living the life that's really meant for you.
That knowing has been my greatest teacher. And it's what brought me to this work.
My name is Essa Bloemers. I am a Focusing-oriented facilitator and breathwork practitioner based in Amsterdam. For the past eight years, I have been accompanying people through some of the most tender and transformative moments of their lives — helping them turn toward what is stuck, listen to what the body holds, and find the movement that is already waiting inside.
Before this work, I spent years as a journalist and press officer for a human rights organisation. I know how to listen. I know how to find the story underneath the story. And I know what it costs to keep overriding yourself in service of everything and everyone else.
That path eventually led me to Focusing — Eugene Gendlin's profound and quietly radical practice of embodied self-inquiry. I am currently completing my certification as a Focusing-oriented therapist and training to teach Focusing to groups, because I believe this practice belongs not just in therapy rooms but in communities, in friendships, in the way we listen to each other.
I have also worked extensively with breathwork, and for several years I facilitated psychedelic-assisted therapy programs using psilocybin truffles. I witnessed profound healing in that work — openings that changed people's lives. I remain deeply respectful of what these medicines can do when held carefully and well.
And yet I made a conscious choice to step back from that work for now. Not because I stopped believing in it — but because I believe it requires a level of team support, supervision and integration that I want to build more fully again before continuing. What I kept from that work is everything that mattered most: the trust in the body's intelligence. The willingness to go slowly. The knowledge that healing doesn't come from the outside in — it comes from the inside out.
That is what The Felt Shift is built on.
I work with people who are ready to stop overriding themselves. Who are tired of thinking their way through something that lives deeper than thought. Who sense — even faintly — that there is more available to them than where they currently are.
If that's you, I'd love to meet you.
Sessions are available in English and Dutch, online and in person in Amsterdam.
My journey
My path into this work has been shaped by my own lived experiences. For years, I struggled with a sense of disconnection, not just from myself but also from the world around me. I’ve walked through periods of doubt, fear, depression, and uncertainty, questioning my place in the world. It was through practices like breathwork, Focusing, and psychedelic exploration that I began to find my way back—back to my body, my intuition, and a deeper trust in life itself.
I have come to understand that much of our collective suffering—loneliness, anxiety, and a deep sense of lack—stems from systemic wounds rooted in capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. These forces have disconnected us from our natural ways of being, from each other, and nature. My work is about undoing that conditioning, reclaiming what has been lost, and fostering a world where people can really listen to themselves and others. When we do this, we create more curiosity, compassion, love, understanding, and connection in society.
“Every bad feeling is potential energy toward a more right way of being if you give it space to move toward its rightness.”
— EUGENE GENDLIN
Testimonials
Contact
Do you have a question? Don’t hesitate and send me a message.