My Credentials
With a university degree in cultural science, and with experience in corporate marketing, executive development and program management, and neuroscience-based coach training, I use neuroscientific tools to activate personal and creative leadership for both individuals and groups.
I have trained and been certified as a:
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Certified Coach Co-Active Training Institute CPCC
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Certified Coach International Coach Federation ACC
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Certified Trainer & Coach wingwave® Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Certified NeuroTransformational Coach CNTC (BeAbove Leadership)
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Member of the Wingwave/Besser-Siegmund-Institut Quality Circle
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Certified Trainer Easy Neuroweight (Besser-Siegmund-Institut)
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NLP Practitioner
As a coach, I combine neuro-scientific insights and -tools with creativity (find out why below!). I'm a firm believer in our ability to shape our life ambitions and set us on a path of active resilience.
...and on a more personal note
So, here's some more about me. I’m a performance oriented life coach who believes that creativity can help us speak about the elephants in the room that frighten and paralyse us. I believe that resilience and self-actualization comes from confronting these hard-to-talk-about elephants we all have in our lives.
I’ve been a coach and personal development trainer since 2006 but it wasn’t until 2012 that I learned the true power that creativity had to heal and empower. For six months I was experiencing excruciating pain in my leg. After a series of doctor’s visits, it was discovered I had a bone tumour that was eating away at my right leg. Surgery might work but amputation was hanging over my head.
I wanted to speak my mind, be myself, but I was cowered by fear. It was difficult not to feel defeated as I was carted in and out of emergency rooms and operation theatres. But at some point, I was fed up. I was done being angry and resentful and keeping silent about it. So, I decided to adopt a more creative approach to my situation. Looking around a rather depressing hospital room, I started taking photos of my surroundings. I took almost 500 photos! Something about the process was uplifting. I was giving space to the things I found scary. Then, I started drawing little cartoons around the photos, making them bolder, louder, as I found my own voice. Gradually the drawings became a way for me to speak my mind, to express who I was, and to confront the elephants in the room that were keeping me from finding peace.
This discovery had a huge impact on how I approach my coaching clients. We all have different elephants that keep us from dealing with what’s holding us back, and not confronting that elephant in the room is what inhibits personal growth and our ability to connect with others. Though our elephants might take different shapes, sizes, and temperaments, we all have the creativity inside of us that empowers us to uncover and decorate that elephant, and remove its power.
One of my biggest wishes is to connect people to their creative expression and help them find their authentic, vulnerable selves: the genuine self, the natural leader, a human being no longer afraid to say hello and decorate the elephant in the room.