Sessions

I offer you a space where you can express what you feel be true, where you can say out loud what so far has remained unsaid and where you can practice finding new ways in connecting to yourself. Together we look at what your question is, what moves you, what you desire, what hinders you and especially what helps you. In some sessions we spar, in others we support and above all we deepen.

Conscious embodiment and connection with ourselves and others happens through experiencing. I therefore combine top-down and bottom-up approaches. A top-down approach starts with thoughts and emotions. A bottom-up approach begins with the body, felt sensations, and instinctive reactions. In body-centered sessions we talk, and we take body signals serious to find access where no words are.

A session is a creative proces we shape together and which is also informed bij knowledge and science. The effective ingredient is safety in contact. People change through moments of meeting; we develop and grow when we feel seen and met. A first session is meant to find out if there is enough safety in the contact between us.

Bodymind Integrated Psychotherapy

Bodymind Integrated Psychotherapy (IP) takes the body as the entry point for psychotherapeutic inquiry. This adds a lot; the body provides direct and effective answers. IP sessions bring visibility to your physical, mental and emotional blockages, and you develop concrete tools to experience more vibrancy and opportunities for self-expression in your daily life. It teaches you to recognize strategies you use in daily contact to be loved, but which can actually get in the way of deeper contact. It uses the framework of Reich and Lowen’s character styles.

An important element of this 4-year course is the dynamics around distance and closeness. What feels too close for one person, experiences someone else as too far away. By exploring the narcissistic and co-dependent layer of your own character, you can place yourself on this spectrum. This helps you to be able to direct this difficult dynamic in the contact.

Components of the teaching program include Group Dynamics, Bio-Energetics, Bodydrama, Breathwork and Body-centered Communication. In addition, I learned about the understanding and importance of the therapeutic relationship and my personal input into it.

NARM (The NeuroAffective Relational Model™)

“Paradoxically, the more we try to change ourselves, the more we prevent change. On the other hand, the more we allow ourselves to fully experience who we are, the greater the possibility of change.” ~Dr. Laurence Heller, Founder.

NARM is a form of trauma therapy that focuses on healing relational, attachment and complex developmental trauma (C-PTSD). In NARM sessions, we work with survival patterns that create lifelong difficulties in connecting with ourselves and others. These early unconscious patterns get in the way of connection and are linked to a variety of psycho-biological symptoms.

The patterns emerge around five life themes that we all encounter in our development: connection, attunement, trust, autonomy, and love-sexuality. NARM places less emphasis on why someone is the way they are, and more on how the survival style distorts what the person is experiencing in the present moment. The here-and-now way of working is based on ‘somatic mindfulness’ and increases our capacity for self-regulation. Thus we create more capacity to be present with ourselves and with others.

Somatic Experiencing (SE)®

“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.” ~ Peter Levine, grondlegger SE

Somatic Experienc ing is a form of body-oriented trauma therapy. SE is a scientifically based method for working with physical and psychological symptoms of stress, shock and trauma (PTSD). SE incorporated the Polyvagal Theory of Stephen Porges into a healing modality.

SE focuses on completing the natural responses to traumatic events and making feelings of helplessness and despair understandable. Unprocessed traumatic experiences disrupt the natural rhythms, the regulation of the nervous system. Resilience then decreases. This can lead to a variety of physical, emotional and psychological symptoms. Integrating that stored survival energy restores the vitality and resilience originally present. In SE sessions, the body’s natural self-regulating systems are addressed by i.a. increasing somatic awareness, slowing down, processing traumatic experiences in small steps, finding resources, the breath, movement and touch.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about. ~Rumi

Rates & Reimbursements

A first session is an intake. This is intended to meet each other, to clarify what it is that you wish for yourself and to check whether you are in the right place with me. Sessions last 60 min.

The session rate depends on your income.

€ 80 with a gross income lower than € 1200 per month

€ 90 with a gross income between € 1200 and € 2800 per month

€ 100 with a gross income higher than € 2800 per month

€ 130 (ex 21% VAT) is the business coaching rate

Sessions are partly reimbursed by most insurance companies as complementary care under the additional insurance, an overview can be found here. Cancellation of an appointment is free of charge until 24 hours before the start of the session, after that I charge the full amount.

Unfortunately, there are times where I don’t have space for new people. You can find more info on that here.