About Kathalijn
Kathalijn Kalawati Vergeer is a Dutch author, facilitator and speaker. She is the founder of KALA, where she writes, designs transformative learning experiences, and works with people and organisations navigating change. Over the years, her work has naturally evolved into NOHARA, an evolving body of work that will be introduced later this year.
Kathalijn is the author of Nieuw Leven (New Life), a personal exploration of identity, adoption and belonging, and the speaker behind the TEDx talk How to Play the Cards in Life. Together, these milestones reflect a lifelong curiosity about what it means to be human, how we find our place in the world, and how meaningful change begins—not by having all the answers, but by learning to see, relate and create differently.
NOHARA: Where We Learn to Meet the World Again
For more than twenty years, Kathalijn has worked with people, teams and organisations across a wide range of settings. Although every context was different, the questions she encountered were often the same.
How do we stay connected when familiar certainties begin to shift? How do new ways of seeing, relating and acting emerge?
These questions gradually became the foundation of her work and eventually gave rise to NOHARA.
The challenges we face today ask something different of us—not better answers, but a greater capacity to learn across differences, navigate uncertainty and create meaning together. NOHARA offers a space for that kind of learning.
The name NOHARA comes from the Japanese word nohara, meaning “open field.” It represents what many traditions describe as a liminal space: the space between worlds. A place where different stories, perspectives and experiences can meet without immediately needing to be resolved, and where something new can begin to emerge.
Like the constellations that help us navigate the night sky, NOHARA invites us to recognise patterns rather than follow fixed routes. Like the mycelium beneath the forest floor, it reminds us that meaningful development often begins beneath the surface, long before it becomes visible.
Through writing, Learning Journeys, Living Libraries and immersive experiences, NOHARA brings people together around the questions that matter most.
A Life Between Worlds
Long before Kathalijn became an author, facilitator or founder, she was learning to navigate different worlds.
Born in India and adopted by a Dutch family, she grew up between cultures, stories and identities. Rather than following a single path, her life was shaped by the experience of holding different realities at the same time.
A defining moment came years later, when her Dutch mother and her Indian mother met for the first time. It was not about choosing one family over the other. It was about discovering that both could exist alongside each other, each holding their own place in her life. That experience deepened her understanding of identity, belonging and connection, and became the foundation of her first book, Nieuw Leven (New Life).
These experiences continue to shape the way Kathalijn sees the world. She believes that belonging is not about fitting into one place or one identity. It is about creating the space where different stories, perspectives and experiences can exist alongside one another. The space between worlds is not something to overcome. It is often where new understanding begins.
From Change to Cultivating Life
Over the past two decades, Kathalijn has worked alongside governments, public organisations and businesses as they navigated change. Across these different contexts, she noticed a recurring pattern.
Many change efforts focused on finding better solutions, while the deeper challenge was often how people related to themselves, to one another and to the situation they were facing.
This gradually shifted her perspective. Lasting development rarely begins with new plans or interventions. It begins when people become willing to look beyond their own assumptions, engage with different perspectives and create meaning together.
Rather than trying to design outcomes, Kathalijn designs Learning Journeys and immersive experiences that create the conditions in which meaningful learning and development can emerge.
Where Paths Meet
Every NOHARA journey begins with a different question, different people and a different context. Rather than starting with a predefined programme, each experience is designed around what the situation asks for.
Depending on the question, this may take the form of a Learning Journey, an Expedition, a Living Library, a dialogue, an immersive experience or the creation of a place where people can continue learning long after the first encounter.
The form is never the starting point. It emerges from what the situation asks for.
Whether people gather around a table, walk through a landscape, meet someone with a different life story or step into an immersive experience, the intention remains the same: to create encounters that help people see more, understand more and discover new possibilities together.
People rarely learn to see the world differently through information alone. We learn through encounter, experience and the relationships we build along the way.
Looking Ahead
NOHARA is still evolving. It is not a destination, but a living practice that continues to grow through the people who become part of it.
Perhaps that is what NOHARA ultimately is: an invitation. An invitation to approach uncertainty with curiosity, to meet different perspectives with attention, and to create space for meaningful conversations before rushing towards solutions.
The challenges of our time cannot be addressed by any one person, discipline or organisation alone. They ask us to learn across differences, recognise the connections between us and shape the future together.
That is the open field NOHARA hopes to keep cultivating.
For More Features
Be Featured in The Real Edit!
Every story has the power to shape how we see innovation, leadership, and purpose. If you’re a founder, creator, executive, or changemaker with a journey worth telling , we’d be honored to help you share it.
To inquire about being featured:
Email us at: info@realedit.site
Follow The Real Edit
