Coaching, counselling and/or therapy
for English-speaking expats in NL

  • Utrecht city-centre private practice
  • For adult individuals and couples
  • Focused, effective personal guidance and
    psycho-emotional care
  • Warmly empathic, non-judgmental understanding
  • No waiting list — appointment within 1 to 2 weeks
  • Daytime sessions Monday to Thursday
  • Evening sessions Monday to Thursday for clients who work or study in the daytime

What guidance do you need?

At various stages in life, for various reasons, everyone struggles with troublesome thoughts, emotions and/or behaviours, with tough challenges, or with difficult interactions or relationships. People go into coaching, counselling or therapy not just because they have a problem (who doesn’t these days?) but usually because they have been struggling with the same – seemingly unsolvable – problem for too long without finding a way to overcome it. They therefore feel stuck, become demoralised and need external guidance. It can happen to anyone, but when you’re living and working as an expat in a country with a culture that isn’t always easy to understand and assimilate into, the chances of getting seriously demoralised increase.

As an expat myself, who’s lived and worked in the Netherlands for 44 years, I know how difficult it can be to fit in here, to feel that you belong and to establish meaningful, fulfilling relationships with ‘the natives’: the Dutch. The essence of ExpatCare4U is my warmly empathic listening and understanding, and my supportive guidance through the challenges of adapting, adjusting and finding successful coping strategies.

The work we do together may also include some necessary healing of old emotional wounds and some positive reframing of old negative assumptions about yourself. You’re not judged by me but empathised with as an equal, as a fellow traveller through life’s challenges. In your struggle with your current problem(s), you are understood on your own terms, as you wish to be understood. The key question we address together is how you can help yourself, so that you can achieve your personal goals in your own special way, at your own tempo, using your own internal and external resources.

What care is provided?

Individual coaching, counselling and/or therapy

In individual face-to-face sessions we focus on the core of your problem, as well as on your immediate and future concerns. Our exchanges are based on an empathic working alliance of mutual trust that stimulates personal insight, healing and growth. The work in each session is focused and goal-oriented, so that the process of change is as effective as possible.

Relationship counselling and therapy for couples

In couple sessions we focus on the dynamics of interactions between the love partners and how they tend to get stuck in negative cycles. The counsellor/therapist acts as an impartial witness, mediator and process guide who holds up a clear mirror to the partners, enabling and encouraging them to understand how they break or make the connection and how they can empathisise with each other’s underlying feelings and needs. This is the key to developing healthy and effective communication. If this eventually proves impossible, we may have to focus on the painful process of separating, though hopefully in a way that is least damaging to all concerned, especially your child or children.

Family counselling and therapy

Sessions between family members address specific issues that affect the psychological and emotional well-being of each person, such as conflicts, major life changes and illness, and the family as a whole. In the emotional safety of the practice room, emotional support is given, feelings are identified and openly expressed, conflicts are resolved without psychological, verbal or physical violence, problems are understood and reframed, and appropriate strategies are developed to resolve them. The goals may be interactive, such as desired behavioural changes, better co-operation or improved communication, or personal, such as increased self-esteem and confidence for one or more family members.