How the School of Emotional Athletes trains people worldwide through PEM’s biological emotional method.
In cities like Los Angeles, Berlin, Manhattan, Aspen, and Hong Kong, people train everything—Pilates, palate, breathwork, even sleep.
But a new question is rising from film sets, acting studios, and wellness circles around the world: Can a school of emotional athletes be the next global performance revolution?
The Perdekamp Emotional Method — PEM — thinks yes.
It teaches people to handle extreme emotional states with the same precision, safety, and control as professional sports. From Hamburg to Australia to the U.S., PEM trains actors and non-actors to access emotions as physical patterns, not psychological storms.
As founder Stephan Perdekamp puts it:
“emotions are something biological,
something mechanical that we can learn, can practice,
and that we also can unravel.”
For readers moving between Chicago boardrooms, Las Vegas stages, and Miami Beach rooftops, this idea feels both new and strangely relatable. A place where your feelings become a skill—not a burden.
A Global Tour of Emotional Training
(The School of Emotional Athletes)
PEM started in Germany, but its reach now stretches across continents. In each city, cultural expectations around emotion look different—reserved in Hamburg, open in Melbourne, sharp and fast in New York—but the nervous system underneath is the same. And that’s PEM’s insight: biology doesn’t change with zip codes.
Stephan explains how the team discovered emotional “access points” in the body:
“distinct locations that we call triggers,
which if activated, create complex movement patterns through the whole body.
And those movement patterns are emotions.”
This isn’t imagination or memory work. It’s mechanics. For an upscale, high-performance crowd, there’s a sense of relief in that. No need to dig through childhood trauma before a board presentation or an audition.
No mysticism. No chakras. Just biology.
Sarah Victoria, who has taught PEM worldwide, puts it clearly:
“we’re not doing any kind of chakra work…
We’re just working purely with the mechanics of the body and the nervous system directly.”
In a world that loves relatability and a little sense of humor, PEM feels surprisingly grounded. And its students—from Berlin actors to Atlanta corporate teams—often describe an unexpected fun-loving freedom inside the work.
What Makes Someone an “Emotional Athlete”?
Just like a sprinter learns to fire specific muscles, emotional athletes learn to fire specific emotional patterns on cue.
Aggression. Fear. Grief. Joy.
Sarah shares how she learned to separate grief from aggression:
“grief and aggression was mixed for myself… when I wanted to push through and become really aggressive… I actually started to burst out in tears.”
By isolating the patterns, she gained clean control.
The kind that lets a performer cry in a Chicago theater and then enjoy dinner in River North without emotional residue. The kind a CEO might use in Washington DC to stay calm in a crisis. The kind a creative in SF uses to reset between high-stakes pitches.
Sarah describes the transformation:
“you don’t actually play the emotion.
You have the emotion in the body because you’ve trained it already…
It’s this incredible freedom.”
Freedom with flavor—the kind that makes everyday experiences feel more alive. And freedom that opens space for a more fun-loving life off the clock.
Why Emotional Athletes Don’t Burn Out
Burnout is not just for tech workers or medical residents. Actors face it, too—especially when asked to live inside danger, grief, or terror for long stretches.
Stephan explains the biology behind emotional burnout:
“stress is basically a jammed system of fight and flight responses.”
Fear wants to run.
Aggression wants to push forward. When both activate and neither completes, energy drains fast.
He continues:
“your automatic subconscious system decides that we’re not going to throw more energy on this problem.
That’s what we call burnout.”
PEM solves this by training each pattern separately. Students learn safe, repeatable drills that “unjam” the system. Their nervous system becomes more efficient—like cardio training, but for feelings.
That efficiency means more emotional room. And that room leads to better relationships, sharper work, and a more flavorful, grounded presence.
For a medical look at chronic stress, the Mayo Clinic’s guide to burnout offers a helpful overview.
Emotional Culture Across Cities
Traveling with PEM is like doing a global cultural study in real time. You learn how Hong Kong students release fear differently than LA actors. How Berlin performers access aggression with artistic precision. How New Yorkers bring intensity, while Australians bring curiosity.
And yet, no matter the city—whether a rehearsal room in Hamburg or a studio in Chicago—the same exercises work. The same access points fire. The same emotional waves move through the body. This is why PEM calls its students “emotional athletes.” They train in a universal language the body already speaks.
FAQ: The School of Emotional Athletes
Q: Do you have to be an actor to train with PEM?
A: No. Stephan notes that non-actors joined because actors became “so calm now. They’re so cool now.” PEM now trains people in many fields.
Q: Is this an outside-in technique?
A: Stephan says, “no, it’s not accurate that it’s an outside-in approach.” Muscle work is only the doorway; the real process is bioelectric.
Q: Does PEM replace therapy?
A: No. It trains biological emotion patterns. It does not treat memories, trauma, or psychological history.
The Future of Emotional Performance
The School of Emotional Athletes is more than a training style—it’s a cultural bridge between cities, professions, and emotional worlds. It shows that emotional intensity doesn’t have to hurt, and emotional skill isn’t mystical. It’s trainable. Mechanical. Human.
Whether you’re in LA filming, in DC negotiating, or in San Francisco building something new, PEM offers a way to move through life with precision, energy, and a more fun-loving presence. The world is emotional. It’s time we trained for it.
How the School of Emotional Athletes trains people worldwide through PEM’s biological emotional method.
