Ana Bernardes

In 1998, I started dancing and studying Psychology, and I walked these 2 paths separately until they began to intertwine.
As a Vocational Counsellor and Trainer, my career started in 2004 and focused on developing soft skills. This brought me into human resources consulting, training organisation, facilitation, and project management.
After several years working in the corporate setting, in 2013, I entered the field of social entrepreneurship and experience design. Among other events, I co-founded a festival for innovation in education in Vienna (stEFFIE – Experimental Fun Festival for Innovative Education).
In 2019, I started working at a game design agency, where I was responsible for people management, finance and organisational development, as well as creating and hosting events and developing game concepts for companies.
In what felt like a parallel world, my first class as a dance teacher was in 2000. For ca. 20 years, I taught social dances, mostly ballroom and salsa, and I’ve learned many more partner dances, such as tango or kizomba. In 2017, I came across Biodanza, which was the first step in using dance as a way of expression and healing.
In recent years, I’ve added to my skills several embodiment and dance practices such as Social Presencing Theater, Authentic Movement, Embodiment Coaching and Holistic Dance.

Detailed CV

Education

09/1998 – 07/2003

Degree in Psychology – Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal)

Work Experience

DATE

Organisation

Job Role

DESCRIPTION

Since 06/2021

Self-employed (Vienna, Austria)

FACILITATION / EMBODIMENT TRAINING / EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Design of learning programs for personal and organisational development mostly based on embodiment, somatics and non-linear thinking. Training, facilitation, experience design and event organisation

From 05/2019 to 05/2021

Playful Solutions (Vienna, Austria)

Executive manager (replacement)

Operations Management: People Management, Finances, Office Management and Organisational Development. Experience designer, workshop facilitator and game designer. Project Management in B2B projects and projects funded by the Vienna Business Agency.

From 08/2017 to 04/2019

Out of Context

Founder

Support to individuals and organisations in changes related to the Future of Work, mostly focused on promoting a local network to support remote workers in Portugal.

Hardware City (Aveiro, Portugal)

Event Manager

Support to individuals and organisations in changes related to the Future of Work, mostly focused on promoting a local network to support remote workers in Portugal.

Self-employed (Portugal)

Trainer & facilitator

Corporate training focused on the topics of Leadership and Interpersonal Relationships; personal development workshops using tools from Theory U, Social Presencing Theater and Art of Hosting; dance teacher

Total Fun (Coimbra, Portugal)

L&D Consultant

Development of corporate events in the MICE department of a travel agency.

12/2016 – 07/2017

Erste Group Services (Vienna, Austria)

Training Organisation

Organisation of training programmes for the Erste School of Banking and Finance, part of the Group Talent Management and Learning from Erste Group, which serves its employees in Austria and Eastern Europe.

08.2015 – 07.2016

Ajado GmbH (Vienna, Austria)

Event Manager (02.2016 – 07.2016)

Executive Assistant to the CEO (08.2015 – 11.2015)

Organisation of business events developed by ajado GmbH. Support for the Digital Marketing Consulting department.

Support to the companyʼs management, namely Accounting, HR and Office Management.

01.2014 – 01.2016

dieLICHTFABRIK (Vienna, Austria)

PROJECT MANAGER, EXPERIENCE DESIGNER, FACILITATOR

Participation in the general management of the association dieLICHTFABRIK, namely in developing the business plan, and support to the accounting process. Event Design and Facilitation of events based on social experience design. Graphic design.

CO-FOUNDER AND PROJECT MANAGER – stEFFIE Festival

Development of stEFFIE Festival – a yearly event for Innovative Education in Vienna, which aimed to showcase and further develop projects with a disruptive intention in the field of learning. Organisation of monthly crowdsourced learning events (stEFFIE talkinʼ).

10.2009 – 12.2012

Klim Consulting (Aveiro, Portugal)

SENIOR CONSULTANT

Business Unit Manager (Leadership and Coaching department) – project management, development and implementation of methodologies in Talent Management, Performance Evaluation, and HR systems. 
Consultant: Support in the areas of Business Strategy and Innovation. Trainer: mainly focused on soft skills (leadership, communication, time management) and people management. 
Event manager: development of off-site events for our clients and seminars.

04.2009 – 09.2009

VLM Consultores (Aveiro, Portugal)

BUSINESS UNIT MANAGER

Project Manager: development and management of a training business unit (Academia VLM) focused on the development of top executives. Recruiter: Recruitment and selection in internal processes.

07.2008 – 04.2009

Advance Station (Portugal)

TRAINING COORDINATOR / ASSESSMENT & DEVELOPMENT. CONSULTANT

Training coordinator: Pedagogical coordination of the company courses in the centre of Portugal (15 schools). Management of trainer pools. Consultant: development and implementation of Assessment & Development Centres.

06.2007 – 05.2008

Randstad (Portugal)

HR ASSISTANT (in-house services)

Management of flexible worker pools; recruitment plans development; selection; workersʼ support and performance evaluation; administrative management of the flexible workers’ contracts and legal aspects; CRM.

10.2006 – 03.2007

Alert Life Sciences Computing, S.A. (Portugal)

TRAINER / ON-SITE FACILITATOR –

Trainer and on-site facilitator of the clinical software Alert ® in the emergency departments of Portuguese Hospitals.

02.2006 – 09.2006

Soporcel Austria Gmbh (Vienna, Austria)

MARKETING AND SALES ASSISTANT

Support to the Marketing and Sales office, working with Central and Eastern Europe.

09/2005 – 12.2005

Leonardo da Vinci Project “People” (Vienna, Austria)

INTERN

● karriere club: Insight into the following areas: single consultation, diagnostics for professional selection, personnel development, personnel selection and communication techniques. Participation in the field of international projects.
● Waldorf Schule: support to the classes of Eurythmy and Music Therapy.

09/2004 – 04/2005

Centro De Formação Profissional De Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal)

TRAINER

Preparation and delivery of the classes of “Citizenship”, “Learning to Learn” and “Interpersonal Relationships” in groups of Vocational Training.

10/2002 – 06/2003

Instituto de Emprego e Formação Profissional

INTERN

Vocational Counsellor – cooperation in the selection of candidates for the Vocational Training groups. Development and implementation of a Cognitive Promotion Program with Vocational Training students.

Certified Skills

LANGUAGES

Mother Tongue:

Portuguese

Other languages:

  • English – Level C2 (“Certificate of Proficiency in English”)
  • German – Level C1 (B2 – ÖSD Prüfung 11/2014)
  • Spanish – Level C1

MOVEMENT

Holistic Dance
(Vienna, Austria)

Holistic Dance and Movement Pedagogy Teacher Training (2020-2021)

Teachers Training Advanced Seminars:

  • Healing (2021)
  • Touch (2021)
  • Nature (2021)
  • Intimacy (2022)

Authentic Movement

Authentic Movement Circle – Alas, Barcelona and Madrid (98 hours – 2023-2024)

Authentic Movement Deepening Circles – Betina Weissman, Madrid

  • March 2025
  • November 2025
  • March 2026

Movement Analysis

Introduction to Bartenieff Fundamentals – Susanne Montag-Wärnå (18,5 hours – 2025)