Madelanne Rust D’Eye on—Power and the Group Body

Revealing the embodied patterns that create power and how we can change them Madelanne spent a decade supporting senior leadership teams to work with power, enabling greater collaboration and shared decision-making across their organisations. What she learned is that the biggest obstacle to changing power in our group cultures lies within ourselves. While changing the structures and systems of power is essential, bringing to life a more interconnected ethos also requires addressing the inner attitudes, perceptions, and mind-body states that make power feel how it feels, and that make its patterns seem true and obvious. In this interactive talk, she explores practices for shifting power from the inside-out. Drawing on her perspectives as a somatic psychotherapist, on interpersonal neurobiology, and on her work with groups and leadership teams, she reveals a truth hidden in plain sight: our neurobiological design gives us an innate understanding of interconnection, which can guide and energise a new paradigm for power if we learn to listen to it. Madelanne is a senior leadership and team development consultant, group facilitator, and somatic psychotherapist in private practice, working across the UK and internationally. She is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she lives with her husband and her small dog Lily. She holds an MA in Counselling Psychology, with specialisations in Body Psychotherapy and Dance/Movement Therapy, from Naropa University (2012). She is a Registered Member of the BACP and a Master Somatic Movement Educator & Therapist with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA), where she also serves as an active Trustee. Madelanne began working with third-sector organisations in 2016, enabling shared governance and emergent strategy initiatives. In 2019, she became a leadership and team development Consultant with RISE Beyond Consulting, serving as a Managing Partner from 2020 to 2024. She has led numerous short- and long-term collaboration and culture initiatives with technology, engineering and hospitality organisations, supporting senior and executive leadership teams and is the founder and lead facilitator of Body-Informed Leadership, a community of practice dedicated to transforming our collective embodiment of power from the inside-out