RAJO LAUREL top. Photographed by Colin Dancel for the April 2025 Issue of Vogue Philippines
Katrina Razon talks about the journey that prepared her for motherhood and transformed the way she works.
“If I could birth a baby, I could do anything I want,” Katrina Razon says. She considers bringing her son into this world the single most transformative experience of her life. “It did something to my self-esteem that was unshakeable at that point. I gained a huge confidence in myself afterward.”
The 33-year-old gave birth to her child, River, last September, inside a moving van on the Rama IX Expressway in Bangkok, Thailand. “There wasn’t any pain,” she relates her completely unmedicated, physiological delivery. “I didn’t even push, he just came right out just through exhaling and toning.” Trusting her body’s natural ability, instead of resisting the surges, she leaned into the intensity of each. “In that intensity is when the old version of you dies in order to rebirth yourself as a mother because it’s not just the child being born, it’s the mother being born in that same process,” she adds.
At no moment was she afraid and rightfully so, because this common fear of such a natural life process was the first thing she confronted as soon as she discovered she was pregnant. She delved into literature, studied the different stages of labor, signed up for various courses on breathing techniques, and sought guidance from highly regarded Bali-based Filipino midwife Ibu Robin Lim. “It’s all about reframing, rewiring, reprogramming your mind,” she says.
After giving birth, Katrina stayed home for six weeks. She made it clear to her circle that she could only accommodate short visits from family and would need a lot of time to rest, reflect, and integrate. “It was extremely important not just for my physical recovery but for our baby’s spiritual, physical, emotional integration outside of the womb because in those 40 days, the baby does not understand that it’s a separate being from you.”
As a parent, she describes her approach as heart-centered and intuition-focused. “For me it’s all about creating the environment and providing him with unconditional love, safety, and security in order for him to thrive however he interprets that to be.”
“It’s all about reframing, rewiring, reprogramming your mind.”
On her way to becoming a mother, she was led down a path of letting go. “Children trigger in you what needs to be healed within yourself because they are the mirror of that. I felt that the more I work on myself, the more that I let go and release emotions that have been trapped in my body that were not serving me, the more I’m going to set myself up in the best way to raise a child in this world.”
Yoga also played a significant part in preparing her for the role. “Yoga really allowed me to explore the depths of my consciousness and to surrender into doing this kind of inner work. It is one of the practices that allows you to have sacred realizations with your oneness with all life,” she reveals. She honed her practice during the pandemic lockdown, enabling her to unlearn ingrained patterns. Now, she is no longer reliant on external validation or caught in the cycle of people-pleasing, her sense of self-worth comes from within.
Razon, who started her career as DJ Katsu at the age of 16, has improved how she shows up for herself, speaking to herself with more kindness and compassion. She has ceased relentlessly chasing achievements without pause. “I was raising my own vibration, and it attracted a whole set of new friends, new opportunities, my soulmate, and everything around me started to fall into place simply because I’ve reprogrammed my mind to say that everything is working to my advantage. So, I was no longer a victim of circumstance but rather to take ownership of everything that I was experiencing.”
These days, she can comfortably welcome every type of emotion, making sure she does not suppress any that might create disease in the body. “I’m a facilitator of the Sedona Method, so I’m able to quickly recalibrate myself because it’s been embedded into my practice,” she explains. The Sedona Method is a technique to naturally uncover and let go of any painful or unwanted feelings in the moment. She teaches this along with yoga lessons on her YouTube channel.
Her transformation has trickled into every aspect of her life. She noticed that many of her best friends were also beginning to work on themselves and recognize old patterns that needed to be released.
As a venture capitalist at the helm of KSR Ventures, she has become more intentional on what she agrees to. “I’m looking more into businesses that shift the consciousness and not necessarily involved in extraction and consumption.” When making business decisions, she relies on her gut, and it has never let her down. “I’m very intuitive and I don’t work with financial experts or anything. This has been purely through the feminine power of the intuition,” she maintains.
Even Wonderfruit has been influenced. The annual festival in Thailand, which she has been co-producing with her partner Pete Phornprapha since its third year, began as an event centered on eco-consciousness and sustainability. Over time, it has evolved into a venue for people to explore culture, play, celebrate, and experience healing through food, yoga, music, and other touchpoints. It is a space where attendees can let go and simply be themselves. “It really is a beautiful expression of what we love in our hearts, exploring the relationship of mind, nature, sound, and just putting it out there,” she details.
As for her DJ work, it is on hold until she finds the time to dig for music and prepare sets, but music continues to be an outlet. Since she has been doing a lot of her inner work and healing, her taste has changed dramatically. “Music also has certain frequencies embedded to it; you can heal a lot of different things out of your body and in your soul through frequencies. I’ve been on this really fun journey of discovering what is highly calibrated music. I’m rediscovering all the old classics with my baby and my partner, which is so magical in itself,” she says. So for now, what Katrina wants to do most is to play for her special audience of two.
