Confidence Club History: From a Yoga Mat in Berlin to a Community in Amsterdam

Written By Aleks Kop

Welcome to Confidence Club.

If you found your way here through a class, a journal page, a sound journey, a workshop, or a friend’s recommendation, you’ve already felt what matters most in this work: confidence isn’t a performance. It’s presence. 

Confidence Club didn’t begin as a brand strategy. It began the way most meaningful things begin — through consistency, real conversation, and the slow accumulation of trust. In a time when “community” can look like something you build overnight, this is a different story: one shaped over years, across cities, and through lived practice.

This is the history of Confidence Club so far — from Berlin to Amsterdam, from yoga classes to a wider ecosystem of breathwork, sound, journaling, movement, and connected mentorship. 

What Actually Builds a Community (and What Doesn’t)

A lot of people think engagement is one event away.

That if you get the right venue, the right lineup, the right aesthetic, the right partners — suddenly “community” appears.

But what creates real engagement is much quieter:

  • showing up consistently

  • staying in relationship

  • listening before scaling

  • letting the work evolve with your people

  • choosing depth over speed

Confidence Club was built through those choices — long before it had a name. (And honestly, that’s why the name fits.) 

The Beginning (from 2016): Practice Before Brand

Confidence Club started in 2016 with one yoga mat in a Berlin studio. 

Before “Confidence Club,” there was Aleks Kop Yoga — teaching movement in a grounded, accessible way and building the kind of atmosphere where people could exhale. Over time, the work expanded beyond physical shapes into the deeper questions that live underneath them: self-trust, emotional regulation, and how we return to ourselves when life gets loud.

Between 2016 and 2024, Aleks’ path evolved from yoga teaching into body-centered coaching and mindfulness-based mentorship, shaped by a wide range of training and study. It began with a 200h Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Training in India and Hotpod Yoga Berlin certification, and deepened through advanced programs such as the 100h Yoga Life Awakening Mastermind, multiple Mastery Mentorships with Cari Merriam, and the 50h Yogi Mentorship Teacher Training. Her practice expanded into meditation, hands-on assists, and Jivamukti philosophy, culminating in the 16h Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy Workshop, integrating mindfulness, somatic therapy, developmental psychology, and Eastern wisdom. 

These weren’t random additions. They shaped the foundation of the Confidence Club approach: body-first, emotionally intelligent, and grounded in what is actually sustainable.

Foundations (2018–2020): Early Creations in Berlin

As Aleks Kop Yoga grew inside Berlin’s wellness scene, the work started to take on a creative identity beyond weekly classes. 

Two projects in particular became early markers of what Confidence Club would later be known for:

Ambient Yoga

Is an immersive yoga experience curated for more than 5 years in a row, where movement, live ambient sound, and contemporary art come together to support nervous system regulation and embodied presence.

I first developed the format in music-led cultural spaces like KMA60, and later brought it into gallery settings such as Quantum Galerie, using atmosphere as an active part of the practice.

Rather than performing yoga to music, Ambient Yoga invites deep listening, slower movement, and sensory awareness shaped by sound and space. Selected sessions welcomed the wider audience of the MAE Community, allowing the experience to unfold within a broader cultural context.

Across all formats, Ambient Yoga reflects the heart of Confidence Club: creating immersive experiences through different mediums, always with one intention — to foster presence, authenticity, and a felt connection to self.

The Gentle Confidence Journal (with Gentle Temper)

Created with Gentle Temper (publishers of Take Me to the Lakes), The Gentle Confidence Journal brought the work into written form: reflection, self-trust, and practical emotional clarity. 

Both projects were less about “content” and more about creating containers people could return to — again and again.

The Connected Confidence Method (2021): See • Feel • Bloom

In 2021, years of teaching and coaching crystallized into a signature framework: See • Feel • Bloom. 

The Connected Confidence Method holds a simple truth: confidence isn’t something you achieve. It’s something you practice — as a relationship to yourself, to others, and to life. 

  • See: honest awareness (without self-judgment)

  • Feel: emotional literacy and nervous system repair

  • Bloom: action that comes from clarity, not pressure

This method became the backbone of Confidence Club — across coaching, events, community, and brand collaborations.

The Club Forms (2022–2023): Beyond the Mat

In 2022–2023, the work expanded under the name Connected Confidence, growing into workshops, retreats, and coaching — and moving beyond yoga into voice work, journaling, breath, and community. Sound journeys and creative rituals began drawing together founders, leaders, and seekers across Berlin and Europe. 

This was the phase where something important became obvious: the community already existed. It didn’t need to be invented — it needed a name that could hold it.

From Practice to Brand (2024): Confidence Club Becomes a Name

In 2024, Confidence Club was born — transforming Aleks’ personal practice into a collective brand. 

Collaborations with lululemon, 1331 Berlin, Gentle Temper, and Sunday Naturals set the tone for a conscious lifestyle movement rooted in presence, craft, and community. 

That same year, Aleks became a lululemon ambassador, representing mindful confidence and community leadership across Berlin’s wellness landscape. 

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a brand feel “real,” it’s often this: the brand isn’t trying to manufacture meaning. It’s naming meaning that already exists.

The Launch Year (2025): Berlin to Amsterdam, Depth Across Contexts

In 2025, Confidence Club expanded from Berlin to Amsterdam. 

The Clärchens Ballhaus event in November became both a farewell and a beginning — a full-day celebration of conscious creation, sound, and movement. 

The same year, workshops with Vogue Germany, Wallar, PwC, and creative studios highlighted the wide spectrum of the Club’s impact — from high-performing teams to creative collectives. 

What mattered most about this year wasn’t the scale. It was the integrity: bringing the same nervous-system-led work into different spaces without diluting it.

What Confidence Club Is Here For

Confidence Club exists to make the tools of connected confidence — breathwork, sound, journaling, and movement — accessible to individuals, teams, and brands that lead with purpose. We are translating authenticity and presence to your most powerful currency!

And it exists as a reminder of something simple:

Confidence doesn’t begin with achievement.

It begins with arrival. With coming home to yourself. 

Every decision from there is easy, non wavering and truly YOURS.

FAQ

  • Confidence Club grew through women’s community in Berlin, but the work itself supports anyone who wants to build self-trust through presence, body-based tools, and honest reflection. (If you want, we can tailor this FAQ line to match how you position gender in each offering.)

  • It’s the framework behind all Confidence Club work: See • Feel • Bloom — a blend of emotional intelligence, nervous system regulation, and somatic confidence to train you to be most present, authentic & confidence version of yourself.

  • Most people start with one of three entry points: a class/event, the journal practice, or 1:1 coaching — depending on whether you want community, structure, or personalised support.

A Gentle Next Step

If you’re new here: explore the community, read the method, and choose one practice you can return to. If you’ve been here for a while: thank you for building this with us —you being here matters!

If you’d like to work together, the most direct next steps are:

Aleks Kop
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