You are successful.
You have influence.
And something about it no longer feels right.
Power is not complete
as long as the feminine aspect is missing from it.
Stop adapting.
Leave the prescribed form behind.
Inhabit your own power.
What happens when the form that made you successful
has become too small for the woman you are now?
The system did not just shape you. It made you successful.
Yet this success comes with an unspoken condition: you continue to fit in and do not leave the place allotted to you within the existing order.
You have learned to read political dynamics, hold conflicting interests together, carry responsibility and remain capable of acting under pressure.
These abilities have taken you far.
And at some point, something can begin to shift.
You adapt, even though you no longer want to.
You carry more than you want to carry.
You have influence, but do not feel that you are truly leading from within yourself.
You grow tired of a form that works on the outside while becoming increasingly constricting on the inside.
I call this form the trellis.
It shapes what a woman considers normal. What she believes is possible. How much she should carry. How visible she is allowed to be. How she secures belonging. How she proves her worth. How she avoids or withstands conflict. What she believes “good leadership” is supposed to look like. And, of course, how power is lived within that structure.
A structure that supported a woman for a long time can eventually become a corset.
This is exactly where my work begins: making visible what still binds a woman to the trellis, and loosening her attachment to that form.
Leaving the trellis does not necessarily mean leaving a position or a system. It means no longer allowing its expectations and limitations to define the measure of her own authority.
Only then does the missing feminine aspect of power become accessible and inhabitable again.
So that a woman no longer has to achieve more, carry more or adapt herself more in order to stand in her power, while moving further and further away from herself in the process.
The trellis does not bind through external rules alone.
Its expectations live on as internal standards:
in what a woman perceives, what she discounts, and which judgment she ultimately gives weight to.
This is where the path to her own authority begins.
From the Trellis to Your Own Authority
The trellis describes the structure in which women have learned to succeed, and what continues to shape them from within.
What still binds you to the trellis
The trellis consists of more than visible rules and structures. Over time, its expectations can become internal standards that shape your actions, even when no one explicitly demands them anymore.
Which expectations still shape how you lead, show up or take up space?
Which loyalties bind you more strongly than you realise?
Where is your actual responsibility greater than the space you allow yourself to occupy?
Which idea of how a woman is “supposed” to lead still limits your own authority?
What can change
When these expectations, loyalties and internal standards no longer determine how you act, you stop mistaking the system’s limits for your own.
Your authority no longer has to fit within the prescribed form.
You can carry responsibility without holding back your own authority.
You can take up space without constantly having to secure your sense of belonging.
And you can act from your own power without becoming increasingly disconnected from yourself.
Stop adapting. Leave the form. Inhabit your own power.
Who I Work With
I work with entrepreneurs, founders and women in senior leadership roles across business, governance and politics.
They know how to succeed in demanding environments. But there comes a point when simply functioning within the existing structure is no longer enough.
That is when their own authority becomes the reference point, rather than belonging, adaptation or approval.
My work begins where traditional consulting reaches its limits and coaching alone does not go far enough.
It brings together the external dynamics of power with the internal loyalties, patterns and attachments that may still keep a woman bound to that system.
I know power from the inside
My knowledge of complex systems comes from having carried responsibility within them.
For more than three decades, I worked in international leadership structures, made decisions and carried responsibility for them, navigating owner interests, institutional expectations, formal authority and informal power.
I know the value of such systems. And I know the price a woman can pay for succeeding within their rules while gradually leaving more and more of herself behind.
For many years, I have also worked with inner and energetic structures. With inherited loyalties, deeply embedded patterns of adaptation and ties that cannot be resolved through analysis or strategy alone.
I hold both levels at once.
You can read more about my path and the background to my work on the → About me.
Work With Me
If you want to leave the trellis and act from your own authority, you will find the right next step here.
Private Advisory
Personal 1:1 advisory for women who want to step outside prescribed forms and define their own scope for action.
Together, we make visible where loyalties, expectations and existing power structures are still overriding your own authority.
Power Talk
A free confidential conversation for when you sense that something no longer fits and want to understand what is actually at work beneath your current situation.
Together, we look at your situation and whether my work is the right next step for you.
"What distinguishes Renate’s work is her ability to get to the heart of complex situations quickly. In our conversations, it was not simply about quick solutions, but about decisions that could truly be carried forward."
Dr. Tanja Abwa
Managing Partner & CEO
Scheelen Institute for Talent Profiling and Development
18-month collaboration
A First Step
The free e-book Wenn niemand Ihnen die Entscheidung abnehmen kann (When No One Can Make the Decision for You) shows which loyalties, expectations, questions of belonging and personal consequences are at play in a difficult decision.
A clear framework for recognising what is actually shaping your decision.
The e-book is available in German only. You can read it online and download the PDF from there.
Orchard Letters
Every two weeks, through the Orchard Letters, I open a space for reflection for women who want to free themselves from the trellis and allow their female power to unfold in a form of their own.
I write about female power, inner authority and what happens when women leave the place allotted to them within the existing order.
The Orchard Letters reveal where loyalties, expectations and power structures restrict a woman’s room to act, and what it takes to lead, act and exercise power from her own authority.
They draw on my international leadership experience and my work with women who have influence and no longer want to shape their own scope for action around existing expectations, loyalties and power structures.
👉 The Orchard Letters are published every two weeks in German on my Blog. and as
a newsletter on LinkedIn Orchard Letters.
#OrchardLetters
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