ONLINE PSYCHOTHERAPY
On this website you can find details about the online therapy that I offer as a psychologist.
The sessions can be in Dutch or English.
Why online therapy? - The benefits
No Waiting List
Therapy can start right away - no waiting line. You choose the meeting time
Safe and discrete
Get therapy from your safe and discrete environment.
Worldwide availability
Ideal for expats who want to speak in their mother tongue.
Online therapy or coaching can be very useful when you feel like you are not making the most of your life or when you suffer from mental stress in any way. There are many benefits and comforts to doing this online: you can improve your personal wellbeing from the comfort of your home, you don’t need to travel anywhere (for those who are housebound)
When you travel a lot or live abroad, you can just take your psychologist along with you. Due to the coronavirus crisis many people have been obligated to continue their therapies online and so online therapy has become mainstream. Due to my lifestyle as a nomad I have been working online as a psychologist since 2016, so this is not new to me.
Therapeutic Techniques
I am using and trained in many different technics from acceptance & commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness (MBCT), CBT, EMDR, yoga, schematherapy to TRE, a polyvagal & somatic approach for chronic stress and trauma, creative consciousness coaching and breathwork.
According to your complaints or reasons for seeking help I set up a treatmentplan that reflects what technics are best to be used in your specific situation. I also believe that a holistic approach works best. In some cases that means that seeing a doctor, dietician, physiotherapist etc could be supportive in addition to the sessions you will be having with me. Sometimes this means that we will also give attention to your lifestyle in our sessions, by for example focussing on developing a healthier sleeping pattern, exercise, daily routines or eating patterns.
Fields of expertise
As a online psychologist I have experience with supporting people who want to get more out of their life or who are suffering from mental health problems like for example stress, trauma, anxiety, relationship problems, anger, sadness, low self esteem, eating disorders (binge eating/ weight problems), bad habits, addictions etc. Or traits like high sensitivity or highly empathic.
Either way my style as a therapist is to focus on your quality of
life and not just on reducing your “symptoms”. In other words I see these mental health problems as quite human, it is normal to be sad, angry or scared at times, but what is most important is that we find effective and healthy ways and at the same time are moving in our life in a direction that is valuable to us, despite those difficulties. If we
start doing that, then often as a side effect those “mental problems” start to reduce. I also see myself as project under construction. Of course I have followed many retreats and courses and have worked on myself, so I have gained some wisdom by my own practice and I’m also still working on my own struggles that come with being human. An onion with several layers. At the same time I try to define my long term values on a regular basis and commit to them. This is what acceptance & commitment therapy is about. I try to live and embody this therapy.
If you notice that you can’t handle your complaints by yourself it is actually healthy that you are looking for support here. However I think that online therapy is not helpful for everyone at any moment in life. Some people really need someone close to them or a mental health care service to fall back on if for example a severe depression, addiction or psychosis comes into their life. In those cases I think online therapy is not such a good idea, because I can’t offer you what you need. If you are not sure the problems you are dealing with can be improved with online therapy, just contact me.
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a way of dealing with your life and the complaints you have in a different way than you might expect. The acceptance part is about understanding your coping strategies and how they might be helpful on the short and the long term and what they cost you. The acceptance part is also about developing tools to deal with difficult thoughts, feelings and situations in your life in helpful ways. One of these ways is for example allowing yourself to feel what you feel in your body. Or for example learning to understand who you really are. The commitment part is about increasing your life quality by learning to find ways to live the life you love to live despite the difficulties that might come up on the way.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is about changing your believe & behaviour systems that are no longer useful for you. If you are stuck in panic attacks, depression, binge eating the exposure and activation technics from CBT are very useful.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training, I help clients activate their natural healing processes.
Schematherapy is a form of therapy that helps you to understand that you wear some glasses that alter your way of seeing the reality of who you are in relationship to other people. We are often not aware of the fact that we wear these glasses, but when we do we are often not able to change our behaviours because of the emotional load that these glasses bring. Schematherapy is a way of giving you insights in you life patterns in relationship with other people and the emotional components bounded to that. You learn to understand your self on a cognitive level and you learn to work with that on an emotional and behavioural level.
More information:
The four main concepts in the Schema Therapy model are: Early Maladaptive Schemas, Core Emotional Needs, Schema Mode, and Maladaptive Coping Styles.
The 18 Early Maladaptive Schemas are self-defeating, core themes or patterns that we keep repeating throughout our lives.
Early Schemas relate to the basic emotional needs of a child. When these needs are not met in childhood, schemas develop that lead to unhealthy life patterns. Each of the 18 schemas represent cpecific emotional needs that were not adequately met in childhood or adolescence.
Maladaptive Coping Styles are the ways the child adapts to schemas and to damaging childhood experiences. For example, some children surrender to their schemas; some find ways to block out or avoid pain; while other children fight back or overcompensate.
Schema Modes are the moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses that we all experience. Often our schema modes are triggered by life situations that we are oversensitive to (our “emotional buttons”). Many schema modes lead us to overreact to situations, or to act in ways that end up hurting us.
The main goals of Schema Therapy are: to help patients strengthen their Healthy Adult mode; weaken their Maladaptive Coping Modes so that they can get back in touch with their core needs and feelings; to heal their early maladptive schemas; to break schema-driven life patterns; and eventually to get their core emotional needs met in everyday life.
Consciousness Coaching is an advanced method of coaching that creates shifts in your consciousness, empowering you to influence your destiny and create the future you choose to design. As a human being, you are inherently resourceful and have within you all the tools you need to be successful, to be powerful, to be happy and to generate prosperity. This methodology asks the right questions from a place of wisdom, rather than promoting second-hand knowledge. Consciousness Coaching® is powerful in that it allows you to create the life that you want. It helped me to create a life that I want to live.
I am trained as a creative consciousness coach (master 1, 2, 3)
Technics from Deb Dana based on the polyvagal theory in therapy has really opened my eyes on bringing all the other therapies and my experience in yoga together. Therefor I use some of her exercises to help people to come back into a state of balance.
Helping you to improve your lifestyle with technics from yoga to relax more, eat differently, using your breath as a way to self regulate and intergrating for example some simple streches or meditations to improve your mood and relationship with your body and yourself.
Based on my own experiences I have learned ways to deal with high sensitvity (HSP) and use my empatic nature as a strenght. However it is easy to get overwhelmed, therefor I think it is important to adapt your lifestyle.
Because body and mind are strongly connected I use breathwork technics that will help to alter the state of your and make more life energy availble
How to book an online session
The first appointment we can make by email. The sessions will take place via Zoom in a normal call or a video call dependent on what you prefer. At the end of the first session I will share a treatment plan with you.
You can decide how many and how often you like to plan a session with me and you can stop the therapy whenever you want.
Also if I feel that I can not help you further I can maybe get you in touch with a psychologist who has a different specialization then me or give you some tips that help you on the right path.
The sessions can be held in Dutch (my mother tongue) or in English.
Session Rates
For an online therapy session of 45 minutes the session rate is 118,- Euro. After each session you will receive an invoice that has to paid before the next session.
If you cancel within or later than 24 hours before the planned session a fee of 50% of the session rate is reimbursed.
I give you the possibility to start a trial session with me on Skype for 20 minutes free of charge.
Please let me know before the beginning of the initial session if this applies to you.
ANY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS FOR YOUR INDIVIDUAL THERAPY?
A first contact for solving specific questions and a 15min trial-session is for free