I was born and raised in The Netherlands and moved to the UK in my twenties. I got married and qualified as a Counselling Psychologist in the UK.
I have worked with a large variety of clients, from all walks of life, ages and backgrounds in different therapeutic settings including NHS, private practice and the not-for-profit sector. I have experience and am accredited in working with severely mentally ill individuals to people who are going through a difficult patch in their life.
‘I qualified in 2007 at which point I set up my private practice and offered clinical supervision to the not-for-profit sector. I started working in NHS mental health settings in 2009 but started specialising in clinical health psychology in 2011. This branch of psychology tends to be based in hospitals and health clinics as the clinical health psychologist is often part of the medical teams. I have worked with a variety of health problems including COPD, pain management, general medicine and women’s health. As a clinical health psychologist, the emphasis lies on recognising and working with the reciprocal relationship between mind and body. This makes it a holistic i.e. ‘whole person’ approach in which the psychologist focuses on helping the client manage and adjust to the change(s) in their life that their illness or injury has caused.
For the last 7 years I have specialised in women’s health treating women in a maternity and gynaecology service. I have become particularly interested in gynaecological conditions such as Endometriosis; a condition that is causing 1 in 10 women pain and debilitation affecting every domain of their lives. I talk about the psychological impact of Endometriosis in my webinar for Endometriosis UK, have written an article on this and am regularly holding talks/presentations on this topic to both medical professionals and Endometriosis sufferers.