JOHANNA PHILIP

Meet your coach

For actors, musicians and leaders who wants to reach the next level

Johanna Philip - coach for actors

High energy and a safe space

As a coach, I focus a lot on creating a high-energy space with my clients, since I believe that everything looks different when you have access to yourself and your abilities.

The key factor is creating that safe space first, a domain where everything is possible.

I consider myself a great map reader, but we have to work together to reach that zone. Once we’re there, I can guide my clients in the right direction towards their goals.

I trained for years with some of the best coaches to develop my strategies for personal development and high performance in leadership. I always liked coaching myself since it felt like a focus on possibility and not limitation. So this way of looking at the world is very present in my coaching.

I follow the impulse, the free movement, since I’ve learned that the body knows how to reach your creativity and potential, but the mind sometimes blocks you. And if I follow the free movement, I can discover where you are stuck and change the direction.

I love working with clients who are dedicated to their craft and passionate about exploring new domains. But I believe that you also need a little bit of “surrender” and “letting go” to reach the next level of communication and truly connect with your audience.

It’s the classic example where you have to do the work, master your skills and then be able to let them go. To find that personal expression and deliver something extra in your performance. To be able to do your best.

5

things that changes the game

  • The persistance
  • The foundation
  • The direction
  • The team
  • The zone

"You must leap to reach the highest point of success, if there was a ladder everyone would go."

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle: Presence, Bodywork, Direction

"Write your
own story"

Johanna Philip - coaching actors

Presence

When I worked as a photographer, I discovered that all people had the same timeframe for showing their true face. It was always a similar journey, starting with high intentions, lots of love and support, fear of failure, a mini breakdown, and then a short state of giving up, where all social masks and limitations came off. They became beautiful, transparent and able to tell a vivid story in a single image. That is “The Zone” I always want to work in, with all forms of coaching and directing.

Bodywork

I’m also a skilled body therapist, which gives me an advantage. I’ve spent years reading bodies and working with different techniques on how to release physical blockages. This made me realise that the body always wants to tell you why it’s stuck, but no one normally listens. If you address the body directly, you can move past blockages at a very fast pace. The body is usually mostly relieved that someone offered a way “out”.

I focus on positive feelings, flow, breathing and navigating through difficulties with ease. I aim for high energy and a feeling of liberating the body and voice. In my coaching, I use my bodywork experience as a tool to free creativity and create better body awareness.

Direction

In my acting groups, I work with some skilled film actors who want to explore and develop their craft. I often start big with exaggeration or different improv techniques and then slowly narrow it down to small, distinctive expressions. I find that even in a subtle close-up, the energy transforms if the body is actively present and free.

I think the secret is to not go to the small expressions too fast. If you keep the original impulse, but now focus all that energy on the scene, the camera will love what you do.

It’s a full-spectrum approach.

Photos by Johanna of Divine at Stadsteatern

”Training with Johanna is like a big ‘wow’. Body, mind and heart go into a free space, where the whole system gains access to high presence, energy and a creative flow. It’s a powerful method to access your full potential.”

Johan Lidman, team/management coach and improv teacher

”Johanna has an amazing ability to make music seem to ‘write itself’. Her creativity, energy and drive bring out the creativity in me. She always has plenty of ideas, which boosts the process and the feeling is that we are recipients of a lot of music that just ‘comes’ to us. It’s outstanding, productive, and very exciting.”

Björn Andersson, artist and song writer

"They may have written the beginning, maybe even the middle - but it's up to you to write the end."