Heart and Soul Coaching for Chronic Illness

The Early Years

Born in the Netherlands (1960), a fairly adventurous youth saw me travel-work throughout Mediterranean Europe.

My journeys eventually brought me to South Africa in 1984, where several years later I began my career in the clinical healthcare sector as a hospital nurse in Cape Town. Some years later, in answer to my wish to broaden my knowledge and experience in overall healthcare, I worked for Weleda South Africa, I trained as a therapeutic masseur and underwent the Reiki initiation.
In 1994 I moved to the small village of McGregor in the countryside of the Western Cape, from where I was employed as the in-house therapist at an upmarket retreat, and in addition, provided private patient care.

A Life Ends

This all changed dramatically when, in 2008, the aggravation of a spinal injury caused by a much earlier MVA, resulted in sudden impairment and severe chronic pain, forcing me to abandon all my hands-on care work. This was a big crisis in my life, not in the least because of the lack of a clear future prognosis regarding my functioning.

Thus started a decades-long, agonizing journey of losses, therapies, hopes, disappointments, interventions, remedies, medication, and experiments.
Notwithstanding all efforts and time and money spent, I still find myself in varying degrees of physical pain and associated impairment, requiring constant tweaking and adapting of activities. It is for this reason that during our video meetings, you will find me lying down, since my condition doesn’t allow me to sit, and I hope you find this acceptable.

A Life Begins

Any limitation brings its equivalent depth of experience, and any new step inward makes possible a new step outward.

Thus, my changed circumstances and abilities pushed me into bringing my extensive experiences and knowledge together in a re-formatted medium. After certification with New Insights International Coaching, I established my practice Heart and Soul Coaching in 2011.

Continued trainings ( Counseling Dip. Blackford Inst. / Counseling Dip. Complementary Therapists Accreditation Association / Depression Counseling Advanced Level Dip. Accredited by the International Association of Therapists / Psychology of the Elderly & Gerontology Certificate Accredited by the International Association of Therapists) enabled me to specialize my practice as Coaching for Chronic Illness, Pain and Disability.
This in-depth, compassionate support is offered as easily-accessible online sessions, facilitated programs as packages, email courses, and additional, in-session workshops.

What I want you to know about me

A chronic health condition may have presented a threshold in your biography. On the other side lies an as-yet unknown room, for you to decorate. Don’t give up because you cannot be who you were. Don’t give up because you cannot be who you want to be. Rather, discover and commit to the person you can become. And that potential lies hid in the often-bleak space that separates what you want from what you can. In truth, there exists a reciprocal relationship between the severity of the restrictions you encounter and the caliber of transformation that is possible.

What I want you to know about me is that if you decide to go forward into the unknown, I will be with you every step of the way.
Please do not doubt your strength and abilities. This may not be the life you ever thought would be yours, certainly not the life you’d have chosen. And yet it is yours. Not because you don’t deserve any better, but because you are the only one who can make something of it. No matter your circumstances, you can always recommit to your life, even if that has to be a day-by-day step.
And I will help you do that.