The Healing Cocoon Podcast

In today’s episode of the podcast, we are joined by Karen Nitsche, a breathwork facilitator and dance healing guide, as she describes the evolution of her spiritual awakening, from the magical astral dreams of her childhood, to ultimately stepping into her calling as a facilitator of guided breathwork and movement for others.

Karen lives in California and is a former actress and dancer. Her curious and seeking spirit, combined with a fascination for movement, took her from ballet, jazz and contact dance to Chinese martial arts, QiGong and yoga. She has been able to weave these practices together to create a holistic integration of the body, mind, heart and spirit in order to help people connect to their soul’s purpose.

Astral Dreaming 

Despite not being raised in a religious or spiritual home, Karen always had an innate pull to something beyond the physical realm and experienced alternate states of consciousness. This was evidenced as early as eight years old, when she began having very intense, vivid dreams almost nightly. She would see herself floating outside her body into beautiful purple clouds, seemingly on an endless loop.

She brought the dreams to her parents, but they didn’t have the language to help her interpret what she was experiencing, so she kept them to herself for many years. Over time, as she moved from an unconscious mind space into the realm of conscious living, she was able to define these dreams as astral travel. Because of her intuitive pull towards the spiritual, and the innocence of her childhood allowing her a freedom to explore these out of body experiences, she flowed easily between different states of consciousness. 

Rebirth in LA

LA is infamous as being a place of transformation for so many. There’s a freedom there to experience an ego death and self-renaissance without fear of judgment, and with a full array of modalities available for exploration. 

Karen was born and raised in France and relocated to Los Angeles as an adult, where she ended up going through her own rebirth. Her original purpose in moving to LA was for the fashion industry, which led to the entertainment industry. While she enjoyed her roles, she found little room to grow and explore herself.

She began to reconnect with the experiences of her youth, finding ways to explore the dimensions she had repressed for so long. Her wings were ready to fly again, and she was in the perfect place. It became clear how serendipitous it was that she had moved to Los Angeles, with so many healing modalities at her fingertips, exactly when she needed them. Once she reopened the door to the dimensions she had entered into so long ago, the whole world unfolded beautifully to receive her.

Breathwork and Anger 

Karen discovered that breathwork was an essential element on her journey of spiritual reawakening. Her first experience was at the home of a woman in Berlin. “I walked into this living room of a woman in Berlin and had no idea what it was about. She told me to be open to the process and to let myself be carried by the music, by the breath. I had probably the most meaningful and most transformational breathwork experience in my life.” 

As she processed this experience, she became aware of an anger she didn’t realize she’d been carrying that seemed caught in her body. She was encouraged to explore it instead of moving away from it, and that advice carried her into a deep dive of self-discovery. As she unpacked the origin of the anger, she realized it was stemming from the responsibility she felt as a child to manage the emotional needs of those around her, even though most of her childhood memories are filled with love. Through continued breathwork, she’s been able to free herself of this burden.  

Karen’s deep explorations into breathwork and the role it played in her own rebirth has given her the ability to hold space for others to access their own inner guiding intelligence. She infuses this space with the power of carefully crafted music, and creates a safe, informed, self-guided breathwork experience for others to journey into the different layers of themselves.

Learn more about Karen at www.karennitsche.com or on social media at @karen.nitsche.

For the full interview with Karen, listen via the link on this page, thehealingcocoon.co, or find us on Instagram @thehealingcocoonpodcast.