“My primary commitment now is to cultivating stable attention and energy.”
Mattijs M. van Katwijk guides leaders and professionals who wish to ground their work in clarity, integrity and strength.
His path began in the arts and the humanities. During his studies at the Vrije Hogeschool, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague), he explored how ideas take shape in reality and how easily thought can detach from experience and action. That tension between concept and reality became the thread of his further development: a search for coherence between mind and body, vision and execution.
In Aikido, Taijiquan and Qigong, he found disciplines that do not merely describe that coherence but train it. For over twenty years he has deepened his practice in these internal martial arts, where stability, perception and decisive action form one whole. Since 2005 he has taught the internal arts, and since 2015 he has trained executives, teams and professionals in embodied leadership through Elementair werk.
His clients include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Dutch Police and housing association Portaal. He is known for making complex principles tangible. With precision, humour and a strong sense of safety, even for the most analytical participants.
Although he has no background in governance or business administration, this has given him a fresh position within that world. His perspective is shaped by psychology, philosophy and the arts, combined with years of physical practice and close observation of human dynamics. That combination makes his work precise, attuned and free of jargon.
Today Mattijs lives and trains for much of the year in Indonesia with Lotus Nei Gong International, where he continues to study traditional internal martial arts, meditation and Chinese health arts.
For Mattijs, integrity is not an abstract ideal but a felt coherence of body, mind and action. It brings clarity, steadiness and direction together. Qualities that enable leaders to create meaningful impact with less effort.
“I want to help the individuals, teams and organisations who can make a real difference to stand firmly on their own two feet.
I want them to feel their backbone and their blood come alive.It gives me joy to see the human being emerge, radiant and full of life, beyond mere function.”
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, housing association Portaal, Vervoersregio Amsterdam, Police Netherlands, Philips, the International Criminal Court, European Patent Office, EY Netherlands and others have been inspired by MENG Elementair werk.
