EMBODIMENT · LEADERSHIP · LEARNING
Exploring how humans think, learn and worktogether.
We help leaders, educators and teams translate insights from embodiment science into their work lives, leading to deeper learning, effective leadership and successful collaboration.
NEW BOOK
”Bodies of Learning: How Embodiment Science Transforms Education”
By Guy Claxton & Emily Poel
The ideas that underpin much of our work are explored in depth in Guy & Emily’s new book, combining cutting-edge cognitive science around learning with practical insights for leaders and educators.
NEW BOOK
”Bodies of Learning: How Embodiment Science Transforms Education”
By Guy Claxton & Emily Poel
The ideas that underpin much of our work are explored in depth in Guy & Emily’s new book, combining cutting-edge cognitive science around learning with practical insights for leaders and educators.
APPROACH
We offer practice grounded in science and lived experience. Every engagement begins with genuine curiosity about your specific situation, goals, and the people involved.
4E COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Gaining insights grounded in interdisciplinary research.
Our work is rooted in 4E cognitive science, which understands intelligence, thinking, and learning as embodied, relational, and shaped by context. Rather than treating cognition as something that happens only in the head, this perspective recognizes that understanding emerges through physical action, interaction, and learning in real-world situations.
INQUIRY-BASED PRACTICE
Opening new perspectives rather than prescribing answers.
Our work invites experiential exploration and reflection that deepen personal, professional, and social awareness. Together, we interrupt habitual patterns, notice what is often taken for granted, and explore new ways of noticing, thinking, and acting—both individually and collectively.
TAILORED WORK
All activities are shaped around your specific context.
Our work begins with genuine curiosity about your situation. There is no off-the-shelf program. Whether through one-to-one sessions, workshops, keynotes, or long-term project design, every engagement is shaped around your goals, context, and aspirations.
WORK WITH ERIK
Leadership & Organizations
I guide professionals in strengthening self-awareness and resilience, making better decisions under pressure, and support the building of high-performing workplace cultures.
Drawing on psychology, embodied leadership, martial arts practice and years of international experience, my approach integrates body awareness, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking.
My work focuses on helping leaders better understand the dynamic relationship between themselves and the systems they inhabit. Together we explore practical ways to navigate complexity, build resilience, strengthen relationships, and respond to challenges with greater clarity, empathy, and effectiveness.
Erik’s Story
Growing up in northern Germany school wasn’t always an easy fit for me, but certain teachers who truly saw and encouraged me brought out my best. Looking back, they showed me how much difference one person can make in another person’s life.
After my civil service year at a school for children with physical and intellectual disabilities, I developed a growing interest in learning and coaching and began studying to become a secondary school teacher in Kiel.
At the same time, I co-founded a business with a friend. We eventually relocated the company to Berlin and grew it successfully over several years. As the business expanded, however, tensions with my business partner also grew. The strain eventually led me into a period of depression.
Finding my way through that experience changed the direction of my life. Martial arts, bodywork, and therapeutic practice helped me better understand the relationship between my inner life, my relationships, and the environments I lived and worked in.
For nearly twenty years since, I’ve worked with leaders, teams, founders, and creatives across a wide range of international organizations.
I’m inspired by the fact that small shifts in awareness and action can create profound change—not only for individuals, but for the teams, organizations, and communities we’re all a part of.
Learning & Education
I support educators, leaders, and organizations in designing embodied learning that deepens thinking, strengthens collaboration, and prepares people for an increasingly complex world.
I’ve always been curious about movement, learning and how people change. That curiosity led me into contemporary dance, where I studied performance and dance history in college, performed professionally for a number of years, then entered into more than twenty years of exploring embodiment through professional practice, teaching, and facilitation.
In 2016 my husband Erik and I co-founded Embodiment at Work. Over the past decade we’ve worked in different professional settings to help people experience how bodily awareness, emotions, relationships, and our environments are at the core of how we think, learn, and make decisions.
Over time, my focus shifted towards embodied learning and education and the research surrounding embodiment. I became increasingly intrigued by how adding movement, interaction, and reflective inquiry can deepen thinking, creativity, and learning processes.
That journey led me to co-author Bodies of Learning: How Embodiment Science Transforms Education with Professor Guy Claxton (Routledge, 2026). Our book explores how a more complete understanding of both human nature and learning can help us reimagine education to cultivate capable, adaptable learners ready to face rapidly changing future circumstances.
Recently these same questions have also led me into the realm of democratic culture. Together with political scientist Dr. Nina-Kathrin Wienkoop, I co-founded Embodying Democracy in 2025, an initiative that explores how embodiment practice can support democratic participation, dialogue, and collective action in increasingly challenging times.
WORK WITH EMILY
CLIENTS
SupportingForward-ThinkingOrganizations
We work with forward-thinking leaders, organizations, educational institutions and networks that are exploring new ways of leading, learning, and collaborating. Our portfolio includes schools, businesses, foundations, and social enterprises. We work internationally in English and German.
TESTIMONIALS
ILONA SCHUBERT / HR DEVELOPMENT
Fraunhofer FOKUS
"Especially in our science department, employees are use to working quickly and a lot with their heads. Working with Erik made it wonderfully possible to bring some of its "headwork" down into direct, physical experience. Intuitive understanding while "doing" was then often surprising and sustainable. Also very helpful in crisis situations"
Anna Wenzl / Head of Department
State Institute for School Quality & Educational Research (ISB)
Working with Erik and Emily—whether designing workshops, creating events or discussing research findings—repeatedly brings genuine ‘aha’ moments for me. Their unique approach combines physical experience with ongoing intellectual reflection, allowing participants to develop new and deeper understanding. Working with them is always a creative journey that has a lasting impact on my educational practice and continually sparks new ideas.
Felix Haas, Strategy & Concepts
u-institut
“We integrated Embodiment at Work sessions into our workshops for our Culture & Creative Pilots (Kultur-und Kreativpiloten). Participants learned how to use their body perception as a resource and were inspired to create new perspectives in developing their different entrepreneurial paths. Erik & Emily have an impressive repertoire of methods and exercises and they’re also very warm and empathetic.”
Prof. Sonja Umstätter / Coach, New Work & Learn Professional, Professor for Film & Motion Design
SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences
“The Embodiment Workshop and Emily’s work is amazing. I really enjoyed practicing, experimenting and laughing with Emily. The workshop was easy to access and with the focus on learning and understanding through experience, everyone interested in facilitation and New Work should be doing this!”
Julius Martini, Co-Founder
Sitzfeldt GmbH
“As a co-founder of our company, I encountered countless challenges. From dealing with staff and tricky negotiation situations to working productively with my partners and dealing with the daily stresses of being an executive, Erik used Embodiment at Work to help me focus, continually rediscover my qualities, and channel that into new decisions and actions."
M. Schader, Director of People
DECA Games
“Emily and Erik's Embodiment at Work concept fit perfectly into our primarily "remote first" work culture and strategy insofar as it allowed us to support our team members with regard to physical and mental health – independent of their location. Above all, our team really appreciated Emily and Erik's genuinely open mindset and approach."
PARTNERS
