Elena Franz

The story

From performance to presence.

For over 8 years, I worked in international consulting and management. Constantly moving, living in new cities, thriving on pace, performance, and social interactions. I loved it. Until the winter of 2022.

Sent to Chicago for an expansion project, I found myself unable to arrive. Travel, novelty, movement - the usual ways of restoring no longer worked. In that emptiness, I discovered meditation, then yoga, then sound.

A one month teacher training in Indonesia confirmed what I already knew. What followed were months of deepening in India and Germany, each training bringing me closer to what I wanted to share. In April 2024, I founded Spiral Origins to bridge the gap between the high-performance world I knew intimately, and the practices that had quietly changed my life.

Today I design and lead experiences for individuals, teams and leaders across Europe: workshops, retreats, offsites and leadership programs that translate neuroscience, sound, breathwork, movement and Taoist philosophy into something people can feel. My consulting years taught me how organizations think; my practice taught me how people change. Grounded enough for the boardroom, deep enough to matter.

Experience design has always been part of my life. As co-founder of Project Playground, a Berlin community for culture, arts and music, I've spent years creating gatherings and journeys, from city events to a trip across Mongolia. It taught me that the setting, the rhythm, and the people shape an experience as much as the content does.

Because real change isn't explained. It's experienced.