Sophie Verbaeys-Reid
Coach: Body • Voice • Presence |
Art Therapist: Body • Voice |
Speaker | Author
Certified practitioner:
- MDH™ Breathing Coordination
- Insights® Discovery
- Estill® Voice Training (EFP)
I work with people who have a mission, a vision, a message to embody and who sense that their presence does not yet do justice to who they truly are.
Since 2011, several hundred people each year, one-to-one and in groups. Leaders, speakers, entrepreneurs, practitioners, artists and those curious about their own voice… and/or path.
An economist by training (IC-HEC, Brussels), I spent 15 years in a multinational. Meetings, presentations, negotiations: I had the words. And I also had, as far back as I can remember, something I long took for granted: a voice I loved and a body I inhabited fairly freely.
Perhaps that is why some people come back, a few years after a journey. Not because the work did not bear fruit. Because they too have understood that presence is not a destination. It is an evolving practice to embody.
What drives me deeply: enabling people to be better when they no longer know what to do.
Helping them to re-nature rather than un-nature themselves. Finding what is already there and giving it room to express itself fully. Not adding. Not correcting. Not imitating someone “better”.
I deeply believe that the human being is a wonder and that most of us (myself included, of course) spend a good part of our lives moving away from that wonder. Silencing it, smoothing it, making it presentable. Because we were told or taught that what we naturally are is not enough. That we must do differently, speak differently, carry ourselves differently.
What I offer is the opposite path. Not techniques on top of techniques. Not one more layer over what is already there. A return, to the natural breath, to the true voice, to the presence that (almost) no longer asks for effort because it is, simply, yours.
We are human beings, not human doings. And coming back to that truth, in the body, the voice and the way you inhabit space, is often far more powerful than anything we could add to it.
My approach rests on a methodology of my own: a perpetual cycle of three pillars, Listen, Attune, Express, unfolding simultaneously on five levels, from the bodily to the relational. A rigorous framework, in service of work that is alive and deeply embodied.
And when I’m not coaching…
Music did not come afterwards. It has always been there.
Lead singer in a pop-rock band for nearly ten years, then jazz caught up with me, or I caught up with it, hard to say. Since 2013, I have sung in several line-ups: as lead singer of the Odyssey for Friends big band (RIP), as a piano and voice duo in SoDa Jazz Duet, as an a cappella trio in The Carmine Sisters and in gypsy jazz with Transat Swing.
Jazz, swing, bossa, pop, intimate repertoires… depending on the projects, the places, the mood.
Perhaps that is why I speak about the voice the way I do. Not only as a tool. As a playground, a space of freedom, a way of being in the world.
And beyond all that : I am convinced that all you need in a life is love, music and songs, Nature, two children who surprise you every day and a Scottish husband who keeps your feet on the ground. My first language is the voice, my mother tongue is Belgian French and the language of my heart is English.
“Sophie is one of the people I admire most. She has been my personal coach for over six years, and I cannot emphasize enough how much she has helped me. Beyond her professionalism and knowledge, she is kind, incredibly present, and understanding. I would wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone who is ready to dive deeper into their relationship with themselves, their work, and others, in order to grow stronger.”
Kim Berkol, Growth Manager, Belgium
TRAINING & TOOLS
Today, I continue to refine my approach and my skills in several fields.
I built on my initial degree at IC-HEC (Brussels) with, in particular:
TRAINER IN STAGE AND VOCAL EXPRESSION & ART THERAPIST THROUGH THE VOICE
École Pleine Voix, France 2014 – 2016
Founded by J. Bonhomme, the school closed in 2026, after 25 years.
CONSULTANT IN AUDIO-PSYCHO-PHONOLOGY
according to the Alfred Tomatis method
APP International School
2018 – 2019
MDH™ BREATHING COORDINATION
Certified Practitioner, Level 1
2024-2025
MDH™ Laryngeal Coordination
2026-2027 (ongoing)
INSIGHTS® DISCOVERY
Certified practitioner
2019
ESTILL® VOICE TRAINING - FIGURE PROFICIENCY (EFP)
Trained by La Voix Dynamique
2019 – 2020
And ongoing, never-ending training.
Because the human voice never ceases to surprise me and I love to learn as if I were to live forever and live as if I were to die tomorrow (as Gandhi is said to have put it).
VISION
A world where each person Listens, Attunes and dares to Express themselves fully, in their uniqueness. To be better with themselves, with others and with the environments around them.
MISSION
To guide those who have something powerful to express, a mission, a vision, a message, in embodying it fully, so that their presence radiates as much as it deserves to.
VALUES
Listening
Congruence
Kindness
Uniqueness
Movement
“There are many good reasons to work with Sophie. She has an exceptional way of listening, an ability to see you where you really are and a kindness that does not stop you from moving forward.”
Caroline Delooz,
Coach, Sophrologist, Belgium
“3 reasons to call on Sophie: she has lived through the constraints an entrepreneur can face herself. She knows how to find what is really holding you back. And she does not let you give up.”
Jean-François Coutelier, Multi-entrepreneur, Belgium
PARTNERS
EASIER TOGETHER — Marianne Stas · Overijse
Some encounters simply impose themselves. The one with Marianne Stas is one of them. Our approaches are not alike, they complete each other. She works with horses. I work with the body and the voice. What we are both looking for is the same thing: bringing people back to themselves, here and now, in a presence that is full, whole, alive, natural.
Horses do not lie. They read what words conceal: tension in the body, held breath, a blurred intention… What they reveal, we can then work on together: in body, in voice, in relationship.
We work together along three lines:
- Corporate : coaching and training for teams and leaders, also combining the intelligence of the horse with body and voice work.
- Equicoaching training : for coaching and care professionals who wish to bring their horse partner into their practice.
- In body and voice with horses: a workshop open to all, rare and deeply grounding, where the horse becomes the most honest mirror you have ever had.
“Quand la voix s'accorde à la vie” (When the Voice Attunes to Life, in French only so far, sorry)
This book was born of the same conviction that guides all my work: the voice is not an accessory. It is the spokesperson of your whole body, the reflection of who you truly are. It is the sound of your instrument, coloured by your emotions and your thoughts, by your bond with others and with the world too.
My book follows the path of the voice from the beginning to the end of life, in words, in practical exercises, in invitations to pause and listen (to yourself). It is the book I would have wanted within reach at every stage of my own path.