About me
Hi there, I´m Britt Broekhaus! (she/they)
I’m an astrologer, somatic coach, and longtime teaching assistant to Kelly Surtees. My work lives at the intersection of astrology, embodiment, myth and storytelling, and parts work. I’m based in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and I work with clients all over the world.
I came back to astrology during a time of deep personal upheaval: a classic Uranus transit with eclipses shaking up my 4th and 10th houses. After burning out in academia, I found myself questioning everything I thought I wanted. Astrology became the first language that helped me make meaning of my inner crisis. It gave me permission to turn toward the forgotten and disowned parts of myself, and to honour the gifts and wounds that had been shaping my path all along.
But as a Scorpio rising and Cancer Sun, I didn’t just want to understand my chart. I wanted to feel it. To really live my birth chart, and help other folks live theirs.
That’s why after 5 years of client practice, my work has evolved into what I now call Somatic Astrology: a grounded, body-based approach to astrology that supports long-term transformation, not just short-term insight.
Today, I help thoughtful, sensitive seekers explore their inner worlds through astrology in a deeply embodied, relational, and emotionally supportive container. My work is both mystical and practical: rooted in ancient astrological techniques and myth, and shaped by contemporary frameworks like parts work, attachment theory, trauma-informed coaching, and somatic practice.
When I’m not busy stargazing or reading symbols,
you’ll likely find me snuggling with my son while learning about the weirdest ocean creatures, singing to my cat, or listening to the trees during a long walk. I love a good oat cappuccino (and a vegan snack!) as much as the next person, and warm bowls of noodle soup or hearty dhal on grey days. I’m a sucker for melancholic and dreamy films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remains a favourite even twenty years after first seeing it) as much as I love clever comedy. Listening to post-rock and shoegaze while it’s raining outside is pure bliss to me. So is soaking in a hot bath, seeing the world reflected in Mary Oliver’s poetry, or getting lost reading about world mythology. 23 is my favourite number, and I daydream often about my next trip to Japan, a country I have a special soul connection to. I practice drumming. I dance. I sing. I bike (gotta live up to the Dutch stereotype!), hike, and love camping when the weather allows. I happily spend entire days in bookshops. Memes are my love language. Especially if they’re weird or existential. Send them my way.
About somatic astrology
This is astrology you can feel.
My approach is built on the belief that astrology becomes most powerful when it moves beyond the intellect and into the body. Rather than staying in the realm of abstract insight, I guide you to feel, explore, and integrate the chart: in real time, in your real life.
I call this Somatic Astrology: an approach where your birth chart becomes a living map, animated through story, sensation, emotion, memory, and personal experience.
This work is trauma-aware, justice-oriented, and rooted in anti-capitalist values. I believe healing is relational, and that astrology can be a powerful tool of reconnection: to ourselves, to our ancestors, to time, and to the more-than-human world.
My practice is queer-affirming, inclusive, and committed to accessibility. I offer some sessions on a sliding scale (email me!) and aim to make this work as welcoming and spacious as possible for all bodies, all backgrounds, all lived experiences.
Web of relations
This work doesn’t happen in isolation.
I see my work as part of a much larger web, woven from the teachings, traditions, and lineages I’ve been lucky and privileged enough to study, and shaped by the people, practices, and places that continue to inspire me.
My approach to astrology and embodiment is deeply relational. I can’t isolate my own thinking and creating from work of the teachers who’ve come before me, the many systems of knowledge I’ve studied, and the lived, everyday experiences that continue to teach me what it means to be human.
This is an incomplete but heartfelt list of some of the thinkers, teachers, and lineages that have shaped my practice:
Educational background
While I work as an astrologer and somatic practitioner, I carry with me the sensibilities of a critical thinker. My academic background is in cultural analysis and I credit this foundation with shaping my ability to think relationally, to sit with complexity, and to ask better questions. In a way, my animist world view has its origins in the object-oriented ontology work I first read in 2012. Turns out spending all that time reading Timothy Morton still pays off!
I have obtained a certificate in coaching and counselling basics from the Academy for Counselling in 2023.
My work is also shaped by a constellation of thinkers, activists, and spiritual teachers whose ideas live in my body: adrienne maree brown, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Tara Brach, Pema Chödrön, Josh Schrei, Eve Bradford, Bayo Akomolafe, and many others whose teachings braid together social justice, myth, ecology, and deep embodiment. Finally, as an avid reader of poetry and fiction, my work is informed and inspired by the writings of Mary Oliver, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ursula Le Guin, and J.R.R. Tolkien, to name a few.
Astrology
I started my formal astrology training after two years of self-study, and completed the comprehensive Astrology Training Program with Kelly Surtees, whom I credit for most of what I know. Kelly’s warm, generous, and accessible teaching style is truly unique, and I feel immensely grateful to continue learning from her. Since 2021, I’ve had the privilege of serving as a teaching assistant in Kelly’s Planets, Moon Phases, and Transit courses, supporting hundreds of students on their own learning journeys.
My practice is also deeply informed and inspired by the work of Demetra George, Jason Holley, Adam Elenbaas, Austin Coppock, Chris Brennan, Diana Rose Harper, Maeg Keane, Claire Gallagher and many others who keep the tradition alive in curious, critical, and embodied ways. I also want to thank my colleagues Larry Arrington, Michael J. Morris, John Uhlig, and Mallory Hennigar for the stimulating conversations we occassionally have in our catch up calls, and for always inspiring me to be a better astrologer.
Somatics
My path into the body began in 2018, when I started extensive hatha yoga teacher training at Saswitha, the oldest accredited yoga programme in the Netherlands (sadly, now closed). Over the course of two years I have completed over 450 hours of yoga training, including yin yoga and yoga nidra, and spent several years learning and teaching while also deepening my own somatic awareness. These practices gave me not just tools, but a homecoming to myself. I have also completed a Reiki 1 training in 2019.
I’ve been inspired by the power of Internal Family Systems (IFS)—having completed the IFS Circle programme in 2023— and have also taken multiple courses through The Embody Lab, including Integrative Somatic Parts Work (Levels 1–3), Mind-Body Coaching, and Somatic Attachment Therapy. These frameworks now form the backbone of how I support clients in meeting the many parts of themselves.
After being a fan of The Emerald Pocast for some time, I joined Josh Schrei’s yearlong course The Mythic Body in 2024-2025, and plan to carry on my studies with Josh and his course facilitators in the years ahead. The mythosomatic practices I’ve learned in the course have become important cornerstones in my life and will continue shape my astrology practice. My thanks goes out to the worldwide community of mythic explorers. I have finally found my people.
With her gentle directness and empathy, she creates a sense of safety so you can look deeply into yourself and see what might be ready to shift.
Britt is much more than an astrologer. She is a therapist, coach, and counsellor by training, but really, it’s all second nature to her. Astrology is her tool, and she uses it with great skill and care. But even without astrology, Britt is your go-to for deep insights into your psyche and behaviour. With Britt, you’re in dialogue. You don’t get a one-way message like: “This is what your stars say and this is what you should do.” She prefers to explore, in conversation, how you might use your talents differently or more effectively. Where are you sabotaging yourself? Where could you be gentler with yourself? What’s causing this, and how might you approach it differently? She asks the right questions—sometimes the tender ones that press on the pain—at just the right moment. With her gentle directness and empathy, she creates a sense of safety so you can look deeply into yourself and see what might be ready to shift. Britt joins you on that journey of discovery without needing to have all the answers. With her loving curiosity and kind heart, she naturally finds her way to the right questions. And so, a beautiful, transformative synergy arises. You truly want to go on this journey with Britt.
Nele C.