Nicolas Bal
About
I don't work from a fixed approach. Sometimes I listen. Sometimes I dig. I tune in until I find where you are, what you can carry. What you're willing to carry. A tango between comfort and processing.
Reading that accurately is the actual work, more than any technique.
I'm not here to fix what surfaces, or to judge it. I'm here to help you get close enough to your own truth that you can't keep pretending you didn't see it.
Sessions move at the pace of what's real, not what's comfortable to avoid. My job isn't to keep things easy. It's to stay present with you, steady when you need ground, pushing further in when you need movement.
Between breath, body, and what moves beyond words.
I facilitate breathwork where people don't want to look.
My background spans breathwork, music, group facilitation, years of facilitating psychedelic circles, and a lot of time spent in the room with people meeting hidden parts of themselves.
Some of the trainings and teachers that have shaped my work
2019 - Organising for Social Change (Tractie - vredesactie)
2020 - Shamanism Course (Street Spirituality)
2021 - Core healing breathwork facilitator 125h (Vonny Stella)
2021 - Foundations of Psychedelic Study (Ph. D. Jerry Brown)
2021 - The Shadowside of Psychedelics (Florian Birkmayer & Cathy Skipper)
2021 - How to host a psychedelic integration circle (Tim Cools)
2021 - 2-Day Sound Healing Workshop (Sound Mysterium)
2021 - Building an Intentional Relationship with Psychedelics (The Ancestors Project)
2021 - Psychedelics, Easter & The Underworld (Darren le Barron)
2022 - Music for/as psychedelic therapy (Mendel Kaelen)
2022 - Men's Intensive Retreat (Nic Warner & Alex Wirthl)
2023 - Compassionate Inquiry Masterclass (Gabor Maté)
2023 - Enrootment Method™ Foundations Level I
2023 - Psychedelics: Revolution and Renaissance in Human Welfare (Green Templeton College - University of Oxford)
2023 - Groeidag voor ademcoaches (Jessy Bettio)
2024 - Enrootment Method™ Advanced Level II
2025 - 2-Daagse verdieping Breathwork (Jessy Bettio)
2025 - Soulful Leadership (3 Month Group Coaching Journey with Bonny Tydeman)
2025 - Breaking Convention (University of Exeter)
A personal path
As far as I can remember, I have always been looking for a deeper meaning in life and authentic connections with others. I guess something I now call "the essence of life." A highly energetic person, a deep dreamer, a people pleaser, an abstract thinker — my life has always felt like an obscure balancing act.
Needless to say, with a lack of proper personal development tools and an overflow of distrust bred by Western culture, this was a perfect recipe for strong inner conflict. Rage and frustration defined my teenage years. The more I thought, the less I understood. The more I tried to connect, the lonelier I felt.
Not all was bad. I had fantastic brothers and a handful of extremely reliable friends, and we share memories of some wonderful adventures. But the world was a confusing place — not to mention school, which I can't describe as anything other than an arduous waste of time. This resulted, unsurprisingly, in a downward spiral of trouble and bad grades. Eventually, with some delay, I reached the finish line anyway.
Later, in my twenties, the soul of house and techno music got me madly in love — a spark that had ignited back in my teens. The people, the sounds, the culture, the smell of revolution. It felt like coming home.
Eager to have a prominent role in this boundless tribe, I spent countless hours producing music and chasing DJ gigs in local pubs with my partner in crime, Wim. All of it accompanied by drinking astronomic quantities of alcohol, taking E's till the sun rose, and working dull, frustrating jobs for the sake of the weekend.
Some years later, naively entering my 30s, certain people and powerful plant medicines lit up new potential paths in my life — though the seeds of my spiritual practice had been planted decades earlier; that story is for another occasion. Slowly but surely, I started digging in a different way. Anxiously shedding my techno cocoon, radically upcycling my bitterness toward Western culture, and repurposing my indoctrinated shame around psychedelics and alternative lifestyles. The start of something I still haven't finished unraveling.
By exploring and expanding consciousness, we might have a shot at overcoming the destructive consequences of materialism.
Gratitude to all the teachers and friends that guided, inspired and supported me on my journey so far: Wim Nel, Araki Koman, Myrthe Peters, Ismail Jawad, Anthony & JM, Olivia Timmermans, Bert Steketee, Eddy Elsey, Vonny Stella, Ed Dale Harris, "Lou", Luis Breatho, David Yew Mariott, Jessy Betio, Jonas, Sam De Pury... and many, many more
