About Essentience
Our background, our vision and
The Four Pillars framework.
Essence + Sentience = Essentience
Essentience combines two words: essence and sentience. We believe that your personal development is not about becoming someone new, but about becoming more fully yourself. Coherent across every layer. Aligned in every direction. Aware of our essence and living it out.
The one thing missing: oversight
Essentience uniquely provides the one thing that was missing in your personal and professional development: oversight. It is for people who are already on a journey of Self-development, perhaps have already built 'external success'.. and are now looking to built the internal architecture to match it.
We work with The Four Pillars that make up you: the Body to experience, the Heart to feel, the Mind to understand and the Soul to sense on a deeper layer.
These pillars are of equal importance, yet each holds its own center. Through advisory and coaching we offer you oversight in your personal development and help to build the internal architecture that creates the alignment, integration and coherence of The Four Pillars in you.
Not doing more. Doing more aligned.
Curious about The Four Pillars Framework?
The Four Pillars
Essentience works through the four dimensions of who you are and how we develop through life as one integrated picture.
BODY
🜂 Physical
Emphasizes the development of our innate greatest possible self-awareness of the body, its interaction with the environment and the energy that fuels its function. This Pillar cultivates a heightened connection with the body through enhanced biomechanical and proprioceptive awareness.
HEART
🜃 Emotional
Refers to the increased awareness of our own emotions and become attuned to the emotions of others in our environment. This Pillar empowers a sensitive knowing of the self and its change of states, to allow for listening without judgment and to respond appropriately.
MIND
🜁 Intellectual
Focuses on the cultivation of our mental acuity, critical thinking and reflective awareness. This Pillar explores with curiosity the deep engagement with our thoughts, beliefs and perceptions, to question assumptions and seek understanding and coherence of our life experiences.
SOUL
🜄 Existential
Emphasizes the deeper dimensions of our knowing and awareness, tapping into a layer of potentiality that transcends the physical dimensions. This Pillar invites us to develop a sense of purpose and connection from within and to accept that which the mind cannot rationally explain.
Movement Practices
The Body at the core of our experiences and development.
Develop your physical intelligence by enhancing body awareness, coordination, strength and adaptability. Through a blend of structured and intuitive training, you build a deeper connection with your body and learn to move with efficiency, intention and a heightened sense of presence.
Our movement practices help you build strength, endurance, mobility and physical resilience. These sessions rewire postural imbalances, restore energy and regain the confidence to perform with lasting vitality.
Practices: breathwork, strength training, endurance training, movement, mobility, recovery & nutrition
Meditative Practices
The Heart offers stillness as the ground from which conscious action arises.
Cultivate mental clarity and emotional balance through guided meditation and breath-led awareness. These practices train your attention, quiet the mind and regulate the nervous system - helping you develop a deeper connection to the present moment.
Through our meditative practices you learn to observe thoughts and emotions without judgment and create space for more intentional responses. You will increase focus, reduce reactivity and build greater stress resilience.
Practices: meditation, dispassionate observation, empathy practices, heart opening, emotional expression & regulation,
Reflective Practices
The Mind is a mirror through which experiences become transformation.
Build self-understanding through guided reflection, structured journaling and dialogues. These practices bring awareness to your patterns, thoughts and responses, helping you identify what drives your choices and how to shift them.
Consistency in reflective practices fosters perspective, mental clarity, accountability and internal coherence. They give structure to insight and offer practical tools for navigating complexity. You will be encouraged to track patterns and test beliefs with more coherence and agency.
Practices: mindfulness, inner peace guidance, journaling practices, inner-voice awareness, mental clarity & focus
Exploratory Practices
The Soul brings depth to your development - solidifying the work.
Explore the unseen dimensions of the Self through creative, intuitive and symbolic methods. These practices guide you toward meaning, purpose and a deeper connection by inviting imagination, spiritual inquiry and the development of inner orientation.
Our exploratory practices open access to insight beyond logic. You learn to trust your inner signals, explore metaphors and make sense of the intangible by encouraging your creative and artistic potential.
Practices: stillness practices, intuition attunement, creative expression nature and solitude practices, meaning & higher purpose
The deeper insight: what brings most people here
The Four Pillars are not four separate domains.
Most people who discover The Four Pillars begin by working on them separately. Body in the gym. Heart through meditation. Mind through journaling. Soul through prayer or purpose work. This is a good beginning and more than most people will ever do. But there is another layer that reveals itself over time. A fundamental recognition that changes the nature of the work entirely.
They are four expressions of the same underlying essence.
Each pillar contains the other three. Which means that any genuine practice, fully inhabited, contains all four simultaneously. For example, the gym session, met with full presence, is not just the Body. The physical practice can be done in a meditative and mindful manner, being in a state of presence and conscious awareness. Or the client meeting, can be done with a grounded presence, aware of your breathing, emotionally present and a mind of inner peace, aligning attention with intention.
This is the shift from maintaining four practices, to living one integrated life. What transforms practice from discipline, to integration and coherence.
We offer the oversight relationship that takes you on this journey. From recognising the pillars, to developing them and walking alongside with you until that integration becomes your own lived experience.
About the Founders
Essentience is founded by Tarik Elmetaal and Sebastiaan Kerckhof. Two different life paths, operting from the same core principles of The Four Pillars. Between them they span two generations, two continents and four decades of combined experience across healthcare, corporate advisory, embodied practice and integrative coaching.
What people consistently say to find the most valuable is the experience of being seen as a whole, by two people who look at the same person through genuinely different lenses and bring what they see into one coherent picture.
Tarik Elmetaal
An experienced coach with embodied wisdom, bridging his paths of medicine, movement and integrative wellbeing.
"With two decades of experience in the NHS, I witnessed firsthand the human vulnerability and the power of a holistic pursuit of health. From cardiac arrest teams to various wards, I saw how patients can be struck with disease. I noticed how positive thinking, spiritual practice, physical strength and emotional regulation influenced the outcome of recovery.
Throughout my life, I’ve taken unconventional paths in search of meaning, creativity and independence. I’ve had my share of self-discovery journeys, which have helped me form a deep understanding of what we strive for with Essentience. A severe back injury that nearly led to surgery and amputation, a life-changing journey through India and eventually becoming a personal trainer, yoga teacher, husband and father of six - each chapter shaped my understanding of holistic health.
In 2010, I brought that vision into the corporate world, becoming a wellbeing coach in a large organization in London. That work revealed to me that when wellbeing is embedded into the culture of a business, it becomes a source of strength, resilience and purpose."
Sebastiaan Kerckhof
An executive coach weaving physical awareness and emotional depth into meaningful leadership.
"The thread running through my career is a playful and interdisciplinary approach, which led to a personal training business, coaching people for Ironman triathlons and the opening of an Arts & Movement studio in Rotterdam.
In my journey of self-discovery, I competed in several Ironman triathlon races, which became a metaphorical tool for personal development. Alignment of mind and body in combination with discovering a higher purpose, led to emotional resonance.
Through a softening approach guided by spiritual teachings, it helped to shape a foundational belief at the core of Essentience: that lasting personal development can only be achieved when approached holistically.
In 2021, I joined Gartner, where I worked as a senior advisor to CIOs and leadership teams in support of shaping their digital transformation strategies and create lasting business value. My ability to bridge business intelligence with emotional clarity and grounded presence became an authentic approach of inspiration."
