European Transformation Leader

Founder & CEO GIFEW


European Transformation Leader and Founder of Global Institute for Extraordinary Women.
Now on the Board of Directors for the Association of Transformational Leaders – Europe and through GIFEW I am passionate about empowering female ‘Changemakers’ around the world to promote societal transformation.

Bea Benkova is a European transformation leader and the Founder of the Global Institute for Extraordinary Women.

Originally from Slovakia, I was raised believing that I can make a difference in the world.

At the momentous fall of the Berlin Wall, at the age of 15, I witnessed Slovakia become a blank canvas – a canvas upon which she knew she could contribute to creating a new design for her society. At this crucial time of transformation for Slovakia, my desire to understand and impact the newly developing economic system and its relationship with the international community inspired me to earn my first Masters degree in Banking and Economics.

Following various management positions in business, in 1994 I was recruited  to serve as a personal assistant to the former Slovak Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy – a woman renowned for her high levels of expertise, integrity and grounding, and a wonderful inspiration to me.

My interest in understanding Slovakia’s connection to the world grew, and after gaining an Open Society and Chevening Scholarship through the British Embassy, I moved to the UK in 1999 to study at Oxford. Consequently, I completed my second Masters degree in Risk Management at the prestigious ICMA Centre at Reading University.

For the next five years, I worked for a number of large financial institutions in the City of London and also co-founded the Slovak British Business Council (SBBC), a London-based organisation for which she served as the Chairman of the Board for two and a half years.

While working in the high-pressure environment of the city of London, I began to notice the impact of the environment on people, particularly women. I witnessed many people being unhappy, unsatisfied and burning out, and women surrendering their femininity and emotional fitness to succeed in the corporate world. My belief that that could make a difference kicked in.

When I completed a personal transformation programme on September 11, 2001, the day the World Trade Center and US Penatgon were attacked, I understood that we have to do what we authentically love doing to find fulfilment and ultimately live a life worth living. From that time onward, I have dedicated my life to finding and developing my talents and passions, living an authentic life and helping others do the same. First, as a complement to my banking career and later as my full time occupation – with the focus on making a difference to women.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive”

~ Howard Thurman ~

Since leaving the banking world in early 2007, I have inspired, empowered and guided prominent women around the world – including leading executives, entrepreneurs, politicians and artists – to discover and express their unique talent, femininity, and leadership so that they can naturally fulfil their potential and purpose, experience vitality and fulfilment, sustainably increase their performance at work, and be a valuable contribution to the organisations and communities to which they belong.

I am committed to creating programs and platforms that empower all women to naturally fulfil their potential and purpose, experience vitality and fulfilment, sustainably increase their performance at work, and to be a valuable contribution to the organisations and communities to which they belong.

“They laugh at me because I am different, I laugh at them because they’re
all the same”

~ Kurt Cobain ~

Over time I have presented my unique approach to the holistic development of women and integrated feminine leadership internationally, including the UK, Hong Kong, USA, Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as at the Harvard Business School and in numerous media. In my home country I was profiled by the leading Slovak business newspaper as a “Slovak Recipe for Success” and included in the national TV documentary about the “Successful Slovak Personalities in the World.”

I founded the Global Institute of Extraordinary Women (GIFEW) in 2012 to further expand on my vision to accelerate transformation of humanity through the aligned power of extraordinary women.GIFEW is dedicated to holistic, collaborative, transformational education of women around the world. Over the first years of its existence it has made a difference to hundreds of women across three continents, including my home countries of Slovakia and Czech Republic.

Now on the Board of Directors for the Association of Transformational Leaders – Europe and through GIFEW I am passionate about empowering female ‘Changemakers’ around the world to promote societal transformation.


In all of my individual and group programs you will experience a unique set of Araretama Extraordinary
distinctions and essences from the Atlantic Rainforest that will aid a profound emotional and energetic
integration of your transformation.

ARARETAMA – The Secret Ingredient of Your Emotional Transformation and Fulfilment

Araretama is a unique range of vibrational essences, balms, aquas and sprays that contain “drops of consciousness” collected in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, one of the biggest biodiversity environments on our planet. Sandra Epstein, the creator of Araretama, has dedicated the past 18 years to studying the information contained within the plants of the rainforest and how this information is reflected in the biodiversity of human beings – our physical, mental, spiritual and psychological environment.

I love Araretama and it works beautifully – it is the most potent and natural resource for deep personal transformation I know of and therefore, I integrate it into my work with Extraordinary women.

Sandra Epstein, Araretama creator, has created an exclusive line of vibrational essences called Araretama Extraordinary for me and for Extraordinary Women in my network who are committed to making a difference in the world, who want to go beyond walking the path to change to being the path to

I love Araretama…and it works!

Over the past years, Araretama has become the heart and soul of everything I do, empowering me as my personal and professional life continues to evolve. Araretama is the creation of my dear friend, life mentor and guardian Sandra Epstein who came into my life and caused a miracle of wellbeing with my family.

I am passionate about sharing what I have gained from Araretama with all women everywhere – and in particular with the Extraordinary Women who work with me. I trust you will love Araretama too and that it will become an integral part of who you are and what you do. So come with me and enter the powerful and exciting world of Araretama…

“The place from which the light comes from.”


Araretama Extraordinary

Araretama Extraordinary is a unique line of essences that Sandra Epstein, Araretama creator, has created exclusively for me and for Extraordinary Women in my network who are committed to making a difference in the world, who want to go beyond walking the path to change to being the path to change. Using Araretama Extraordinary individually allows for deep inner liberation and together as a group creates a new field of vibration, elevating group dynamics, integration and synchronicity.

All Araretama products work at the level of integrating and transforming each individual woman, and secondly at level of the individual woman in relation to others.

Araretama Extraordinary exclusive blends are designed to work powerfully at a third level: each individual woman, working together with a group of women, creating a field for transformation in the wider community – women who are committed to leaving a legacy.

In such groups, there is a need for each woman to be powerful in her role and to create relationships that really work in order to make the difference being sought. The capacity of each woman to optimise and balance success, relationships, vitality and wealth creation is harmonised and integrated in her foundation of femininity.


Araretama and women 

Women, like the Brazilian rainforest, carry “magical history.”

Women literally have the ability to bring new creation into the world! In spite of our scientific understanding of the process of childbirth, there remains something magical about this ability. We talk about the miracle of giving birth and often women cannot find words to describe the experience. Female psychology is also often described as an enigma – mysterious. As women, many of us desire success in different aspects of our lives – in our work or in business as well as in our relationships and personal lives. We may achieve the success we desire, in whole or in part. However, many women have the experience of needing to suppress their essential femaleness in order to succeed in the world. Araretama enables women to bring into creation a field in which the aspect of femininity is fundamental to success, however we define it, in a way that is totally integrated, balanced and in harmony, whatever our role or roles in the world.


Who is Araretama for?

In short, for everyone!
Araretama essences bring us information that helps us to integrate our inner differences, resolve our inner conflicts and synchronise powerfully with others. In our rapidly developing information age, being integrated and in harmony with ourselves gives us greater emotional flexibility that allows us to handle the increasing amounts of information we need to process in order to live our daily lives.

Whether you want to optimise your balance personally, transform your personal or professional relationships or have a vision for making a difference in your community or in the world, Araretama empowers you to optimise inner balance and harmony, personal integration, elevating your effectiveness and opening up your capacity for synchronicity with others.

Araretama extraordinary
Araretama Extraordinary is a unique line of essences that Sandra Epstein, Araretama creator, has created exclusively for me and for Extraordinary Women in my network who are committed to making a difference in the world, who want to go beyond walking the path to change to being the path to change. Using Araretama Extraordinary individually allows for deep inner liberation and together as a group creates a new field of vibration, elevating group dynamics, integration and synchronicity.

All Araretama products work at the level of integrating and transforming each individual woman, and secondly at level of the individual woman in relation to others.

Araretama Extraordinary exclusive blends are designed to work powerfully at a third level: each individual woman, working together with a group of women, creating a field for transformation in the wider community – women who are committed to leaving a legacy.

In such groups, there is a need for each woman to be powerful in her role and to create relationships that really work in order to make the difference being sought. The capacity of each woman to optimise and balance success, relationships, vitality and wealth creation is harmonised and integrated in her foundation of femininity.


What exactly is Araretama?

Araretama is a unique range of vibrational essences, balms, aquas and sprays that contain “drops of consciousness” collected in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, one of the biggest biodiversity environments on our planet. Sandra Epstein, the creator of Araretama, has dedicated the past 20 years to studying the information contained within the plants of the rainforest and how this information is reflected in the biodiversity of human beings – our physical, mental, spiritual and psychological environment.

Through her years of research, Sandra has come to understand the complex, perfect balance of the rainforest’s biodiversity, and that it has much to teach us about balance in ourselves, in our relationships, within our communities and within the planet as a whole. The rainforest is a living environment whose plants contain “information of togetherness”. Sandra extracts this live information using a method that leaves the plants intact and unharmed.

The information is very precious and especially important right now, as we are at a crucial moment in our cycle of human development. We have never been better equipped to cause maximum damage to ourselves and our planet – yet we have also never been better placed to achieve new, powerful insights into solving the challenges faced by humanity. Araretama is specially designed to enable humans to integrate our own diversity and synchronise with others, overcoming our perception of difference and creating a powerful field of togetherness.

Sandra Epstein

Araretama Creator, Educator, Photographer, and Artist

Her Mission in life is to find multiple ways and tools that enable us – Humans Beings – to build creative systems for our evolution.

She dedicated the last 19 years to discover, design and lead a revolutionary educational program called Araretama Emotional Fitness. Into this programme she has integrated principle of holistic education with the unique essences extracted from the rich flora of the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil, which is the rainforest with the highest biodiversity on this planet! The richness of this forest with its symbiosis of all plants that builds on their differences is the ecological message to inspire humanity …and practically empower people through Araretama!