Why We Rise?
You built a life here. Now you are ready to feel whole in it.
Migration changes more than where we live.
It asks us to adapt — to new languages, cultures, ways of working, relationships and expectations. We learn how to navigate between worlds. We become capable, independent and resourceful.
And sometimes, without noticing, we become very good at adapting.
Until one day we begin to wonder:
Who am I beyond adaptation?
What parts of me did I silence in order to belong?
What have I inherited that I still carry?
What have I outgrown but feel guilty leaving behind?
What happened to the creative parts of me I once knew so well?
We Rise is for women who are ready to explore these questions.
I work with immigrant women who have built meaningful lives in the Netherlands and are entering what I call their second migration: the movement from adaptation towards greater voice, agency and sovereignty.
This is not about rejecting where you come from.
It is about becoming more fully yourself — while finding a way to honour what came before you.
Rooted and free.
Hi - I'm Susana.
Artist. Women's Guide. Intercultural Educator. Coach.
I'm fascinated by life and by the remarkable complexity of being human.
For almost two decades, I have explored questions of identity, meaning, beauty, connection and transformation through art. Today, I bring that artistic perspective together with my work as a trained coach, intercultural educator and guide for women navigating change, identity and belonging.
My work sits at the intersection of lineage, creativity, embodiment and sovereignty.
My story.
From Art to the Inner Landscape.
I was born and raised in a small Portuguese town, surrounded by nature and animals.
From an early age, I knew what it felt like to be different. I often felt the pressure to adapt, to fit in, and to make myself easier for others to understand.
Art became one of the ways I made sense of that experience.
In 2009, I moved to the Netherlands to pursue a Master of Fine Art. Over the years, I developed a professional artistic practice and exhibited my work across Europe.
Migration gave me new possibilities, but it also deepened my questions about identity and belonging.
What happens to us when we build a life between cultures?
What do we keep from where we come from?
What do we leave behind?
And what parts of ourselves do we sometimes silence in order to belong?
My second migration.
For a long time, I believed that being strong meant being able to carry everything.
I felt responsible for the people around me. I wanted to help, protect and sometimes even save others. I felt guilty for pursuing my own dreams when someone else might need me.
It took me time to understand that loving people does not mean carrying their lives for them.
That I can honour where I come from without living according to every expectation I inherited.
That I can claim space without taking space away from someone else.
And that choosing myself does not have to mean abandoning others.
This became part of my own second migration — a movement from adaptation towards a more conscious relationship with myself.
From asking "Where do I belong?" to asking:
"How do I belong to myself?"
The work that brought me here.
More than a decade ago, I began a deeper personal journey through workshops, courses, mentorship and different approaches to personal development, health and wellbeing.
Alongside my artistic practice, I trained as a coach, became a certified holistic health coach for women, and trained in dance coaching. My work has also been informed by somatic approaches, integrative perspectives on women's wellbeing, ancestral and lineage work, and my ongoing exploration of the relationship between body, creativity and emotional life.
Working with women over the years, I began to recognise a pattern.
Many women are incredibly capable of adapting.
They build careers.
They care for families.
They navigate different cultures.
They become the bridge between worlds.
And yet, underneath that competence, there can be a quieter question:
Who am I beyond everything I have learned to be?
This question is particularly powerful for women who have migrated and built successful lives between cultures.
From healing to personal power, agency and purpose.
My work has evolved with me.
Where I once spoke primarily about healing and personal transformation, I now see the work more specifically as one of integration and sovereignty.
I don't believe you need to reject your past, your family, your culture or the parts of yourself you once needed in order to survive.
I believe we can become more conscious of what we carry — and begin to choose what we want to carry forward.
This means learning to listen to your body and your desires.
Reclaiming creativity.
Interrupting inherited patterns.
Finding your voice.
Asking for what feels fair.
Honouring your commitments to yourself.
And learning to choose yourself without abandoning connection.
The knowing body.
Over time, these experiences and different fields of practice have come together into my own approach: The Knowing Body.
It brings together intercultural identity work, lineage exploration, archetypal perspectives, creative recovery, embodiment and coaching.
At its heart are three questions:
LINEAGE
What shaped me, and what do I choose to carry forward?
VOICE
What wants to be expressed, created and heard through me?
SOVEREIGNTY
What do I choose when I no longer need to abandon myself to belong?
This is not about becoming a different woman.
It is about becoming more fully acquainted with the woman you already are — and learning to live from that place with greater coherence, agency and self-loyalty.
A note on coaching.
As a trained coach, I see coaching as a space for curiosity, reflection, responsibility and conscious choice.
I don't see myself as someone who has all the answers for you.
I'm there to help you ask better questions, recognise what you already know, explore what may have become difficult to see, and create the conditions for you to make choices that are genuinely yours.
Because ultimately, sovereignty isn't something I can give you.
It is something you learn to practise.
If you're here...
Perhaps you have built a life you once dreamed of — and yet something in you is asking for more.
Perhaps you miss a creative part of yourself.
Perhaps you're negotiating the tension between family, culture and your own desires.
Perhaps you are tired of being the strong one.
Or perhaps you simply sense that you're entering a new chapter and want to meet it consciously.
You don't have to know exactly where you're going.
You can begin by listening.
Your second migration may already be underway.
healing
/verb/
Integrating. Resignifying. Coming back home to your true nature. Finding your own place in the world. Connecting to your cyclic nature and personal power. Expressing your authenticity. Aligning with life. Being the creator of your life.