Fine artist, founder and director of the Humanifold School for the Art of Living in Arnhem, The Netherlands (1997). As a European first prize winner in Painting she started exploring the relationship between creativity and emotional freedom in her workshops and courses from 1982 (Netherlands). Speaker Web Site Yoyo Olivier - van der Kooi Yoyo studied meditation, deep bodywork, belief management and emotional integration with teachers in East and West and started her practice for body/heart/mind coaching in 1990. Working with hunderds of people towards wholeness and wellness, she learned how to subtly rebalance bodies twisted by connective tissue chronically contracted as a result of frozen emotions and mental inhibitions. Using touch, humor, breathing techniques, movement, sound and emotional expression, she helps people to free themselves from restrictions caused by early survival strategies and conditioning. Assisted by her accomplished students, she offers two-week mini-sabbaticals twice a year on various locations in Europe, in which the participants explore the various stages of human consciousness and their untapped creative potential. Her first book, From Suffering to Flowering, is expected to appear by the end of 2005. Session Information: EQ and body intelligence Key Concepts: Interactive sessions to wake up the heart, mind, and spirit. In her practice for body oriented coaching Yoyo explored the relationship between the suppression of emotions and physical discomfort/complaints. Emotions are vibrations, whose function is to help our bodies recover from life's shocks and inflicts. Uninhibited, we spontaneously tremble with fear or anger, we shake with laughter or crying, we writhe with despair. When we learn to behave as “civilized” human beings, we (unconsciously) start contracting certain muscles in order to prevent our emotions from happening. In the long run this leads to chronic tensions in the connective tissue. As the life energy can no longer flow freely through our systems, we lose our flexibility and end up with chronic stress, pains, physical disbalance, numbness, depression or worse. Yoyo will explain how this process can be reversed by touching the “frozen” spots or stretching the tissue, while inducing vibration: either by freeing the repressed emotions, or by having the client use specific breathing techniques or produce sound (resonance). TIME-OUT TOUCH CHAIR MASSAGE Six students of the Humanifold School for the Art of Living will ensure the well-being of the conference participants, by giving free 10-minute chair massages during the breaks. Time-Out Touch is a delightful way to integrate the wealth of information and impressions the conference offers. It's a gentle yet firm massage of back, neck and shoulders that will give you fresh energy. Relaxing your body in a specially designed chair, you'll be rocked and pampered by professional and nurturing hands. In a matter of minutes tension, stress and strain disappear from your system and you'll be ready for the next adventure. Be sure to book your sessions at the beginning of the conference: once you've had this experience, you'll want more of it! YO-YOGA: WAKING UP WITH YOYO Yoga means yoke and is about balance. Yoyo means playing with the ups and downs of life and is about having fun Yo-yoga combines the two in a lighthearted wake-up call for lazy people. Join Yoyo to get your body bouncing, your feelings flowing, your mind moving and your spirit sparkling with no effort at all.