Embodied guidance at thresholds of change
My name is Yana Zielstra. I guide people back into contact with what is real, alive, and ready to move, through embodiment, voice, and relational presence. Much of my work lives at thresholds: moments of change, unraveling, or reorientation, where the old no longer fits and the new is not yet fully formed. I hold spaces where insight can become lived experience, and where the nervous system has room to soften, reorganize, and tell the truth. The tone of my work is grounded, experiential, and paced. Playfulness and depth are not opposites here. They inform each other.
How I work
My work is experiential and embodied. While conversation can be part of the process, it is rarely the starting point. I pay close attention to what is already present in the body, in sensation, emotion, impulse, and in the relational field between people. I work with individuals, couples, groups, and professionals through sessions, workshops, and facilitated journeys. Across these different formats, the essence remains the same: creating conditions where people can listen more honestly to themselves and each other, and where insight can move from understanding into lived change.
Embodiment is central to my approach. This can take many forms: movement, breath, voice, ritual, impulse play, silence, or simple attunement. Much of the work is non-verbal, or uses words sparingly and intentionally. I am attentive to pacing, autonomy, and choice, and I actively support people in staying connected to their own boundaries and capacities. Playfulness has a functional role in my work. It softens rigidity, invites curiosity, and helps life force move where things have become stuck. At the same time, I welcome depth, grief, anger, and tenderness when they arise. Nothing needs to be forced, and nothing is excluded.
When working with professionals, my focus often lies on refining how space is held: language, structure, pacing, team dynamics, and the subtle layers of facilitation that shape safety and autonomy. Whether the context is personal, relational, or professional, my role is to guide the process rather than to direct outcomes. I listen with my whole system, respond to what unfolds in the moment, and support integration so that what is touched can find its way into daily life.
What informs my work
My way of working is shaped by a combination of formal education, long-term practice, and lived experience. I hold a BSc in Clinical Psychology and an MSc in Methodology and Statistics. I have been teaching since 2007, in a wide range of contexts, and I continue to deepen my work through ongoing training and study. My background includes yoga, tantra, Taoist practices, and embodied approaches to relational and somatic work. I consider myself an eternal student. I invest in formal education and training, and I learn continuously through life itself: through relationships, through the body, through breakdowns and repair, and through paying close attention to what actually works in practice. This combination allows me to bridge analytical clarity with embodied sensitivity. I am comfortable holding complexity, uncertainty, and paradox, and I value both precision and intuition. These qualities inform how I guide others, and how I stay accountable to my own process as a practitioner.
Art as integration
Alongside my work as a guide and facilitator, music is an essential way I integrate my life. I write songs and mantras as a way of listening, distilling, and staying in relationship with what moves through me. Often a single sentence lingers. An echo that asks to be followed. From there, a song takes shape. Not as an explanation, but as a companion to experience. My music lives close to the body and the nervous system. It supports remembering, grounding, and returning when a process resurfaces.
Through song, I explore themes such as staying present in moments of intensity, finding simplicity in complexity, and turning toward discomfort as part of living fully. Listening is an invitation to slow down and notice what resonates within you.
I also facilitate singing circles and musical journeys, where repeated phrases in Dutch, English, or Sanskrit serve as anchors for meditation, embodiment, and shared presence. Inner Echoes is one such journey, weaving live music, inner listening, and voicing what wants to be heard.
A growing selection of lyrics and chords can be found under Resources, where you are welcome to use the songs as reminders, anchors, or gentle entry points into presence.
Values in practice
The way I work is shaped by a small set of values that guide my decisions, my pacing, and how I relate to others. These values are not ideals to strive for, but practices I return to again and again.
Gentleness
Gentleness guides how I meet intensity. It does not mean avoiding challenge, but approaching what is tender with care and patience. In my work, gentleness creates safety for honesty and supports nervous systems in staying present with what arises.
Integrity
Integrity means being honest about capacity, boundaries, and impact. It shows up in how I structure spaces, how I name limits, and how I take responsibility when repair is needed. I value alignment between words, actions, and underlying intention.
Curiosity
Curiosity keeps the work alive. It invites a beginner’s mind and opens space where things have become rigid or fixed. Rather than trying to get rid of discomfort, curiosity allows us to turn toward it and learn from what it has to offer.
Mutuality
I value relationships where all involved are seen and considered. Mutuality is not about sameness, but about attunement to difference. In practice, this means paying attention to power, consent, pacing, and the unique needs present in a group or relationship.
Creative expression
Creative expression is a vital force in my life and work. It allows what is internal to take form, and what is complex to become tangible. Whether through movement, voice, ritual, or art, creativity supports integration and meaning-making.
Openness to change
Change is inherent to life. This value supports meeting transitions with honesty, flexibility, and care, even when they involve loss or uncertainty. I trust that staying in relationship with change allows new forms to emerge in their own time.
This page offers a glimpse of how I work and what informs my way of being with people. If curiosity moves you further, The Field offers a view into how this work is held together, and Neurodiversity: My Personal Journey offers more context on the lens through which I work.