Working With Me

Reaching out for therapy takes something. Even if you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for, or whether therapy is right for you, I’d encourage you to get in touch. The initial consultation costs nothing, and there’s no obligation to proceed.

What I ask of the people I work with is only this: a genuine willingness to reflect. The rest we work out together.

Before we begin, I offer a free 20-minute consultation by phone or video. This is a chance for you to tell me something about what’s brought you to therapy, and for me to explain how I work and answer any questions you have. It is also — frankly — an opportunity for both of us to get a sense of whether working together feels like a good fit.

Therapy depends on the quality of the relationship between therapist and client. That cannot be assumed from credentials alone. I would rather you take the time to find the right person than commit to someone for the wrong reasons.

If you’d like to arrange a consultation, please use the contact form or send me an email. I respond within 24 hours.

Arrange Your Initial Consultation

My Approach

I work integratively, which means I draw on different therapeutic traditions depending on what will be most useful for you. I am not dogmatic about method. What matters is that the approach fits the person, not the other way around.

The three main traditions I draw from are:

Psychodynamic

This approach works with the relationship between past and present — how early experiences, significant relationships, and unconscious patterns continue to shape how we feel, relate, and respond. It is slow, careful work. It pays attention to what is not said as much as what is.

Humanistic

Here the emphasis is on your capacity for growth, self-awareness, and genuine connection. I work from the belief that you already hold the resources needed to understand yourself more fully — my role is to help you access them, and to offer the kind of relational presence that makes honest reflection possible.

Existential

This perspective engages with the larger questions: meaning, purpose, freedom, mortality, and choice. It is particularly relevant when people are facing transitions, questioning direction, or confronting the kind of uncertainty that can’t be resolved by simply thinking more clearly.

Who I Work With

I work with adults. Beyond that, I don’t believe in rigid categories — people are rarely reducible to a presenting problem. That said, there are certain kinds of experience I have particular insight into, and it is worth naming them directly.

Anxiety and depression are among the most common reasons people come to therapy, and also among the most misunderstood. They are not simply problems to be managed or symptoms to be reduced — they are usually signals. Something in the way a person is living, relating, or understanding themselves is asking to be looked at. I have extensive experience working with both, and I am as interested in what anxiety or depression is communicating as I am in helping to relieve it. For many people, understanding the roots brings a shift that no amount of coping strategy can.

Many of my clients — whatever their background — share one thing: they have been managing, coping, and holding things together for a long time. For others, for work, for family. They are capable and caring and often the person everyone else leans on. Therapy offers something they rarely give themselves: time and space that is entirely their own.

I spent twenty years working in and alongside senior professional environments. I understand the pressures of leadership, the identity questions that arise in demanding careers, and the specific difficulty of seeking help when you are used to being the one who provides solutions. Burnout, the gap between external success and internal experience, questions of purpose, and the emotional cost of high-performing roles — this is territory I know well, both professionally and personally.

Questions of meaning and direction often become most urgent in midlife — when the structures that once organised a life begin to feel inadequate, or when a loss or change forces a reassessment of what really matters. I am drawn to this work, in part because I have done some of it myself.

I work at the Royal Academy of Music, where I see students navigating performance anxiety, perfectionism, self-doubt, and the emotional demands of a career built around a craft. I am also a pianist, and I understand from the inside what it means to have your confidence and your sense of worth tied to an instrument or a performance. If you are a musician, performer, or artist, you will not need to explain the particular shape of your world to me. I already know something of it.

Loss takes many forms — bereavement, the end of a relationship, a change in identity or circumstance that leaves you unsure of who you are now. Grief is not a problem to be resolved on a schedule. It asks to be felt, witnessed, and understood. I work with people who are carrying loss, in whatever form it has arrived.

I am Dutch by origin, have lived and worked internationally, and offer therapy in English and Dutch. I understand what it means to navigate life across different cultural contexts and expectations — and I bring that sensitivity into the room.

Some people come to therapy to feel better quickly. Others come because they want to understand why they keep finding themselves in the same place, or why the same patterns repeat. I work well with people who want the latter — who are willing to go beneath the surface and do the slower, more searching kind of work.

What We Work On

I work with a wide range of difficulties, including:

Anxiety — generalised, social, health-related, or performance-based
Depression and low mood
Burnout and work-related stress
Relationship difficulties — romantic, professional, or familial
Loss and grief — bereavement, relationship endings, identity loss
Performance anxiety — in musicians, performers, athletes, and professionals
Low self-esteem and self-criticism
Life transitions — career change, relocation, becoming a parent, retirement
Identity and purpose — questions of who you are and what you want
Feelings of being stuck, unfulfilled, or living at a remove from yourself
Cultural adjustment and the experience of living between different worlds

Contact Me

How Sessions Work

Sessions are 50 minutes and take place weekly, either in person at my practice in West London (W12) or online via Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet. Some people work with me short-term — six to twelve sessions focused on a specific difficulty. Others prefer longer-term, open-ended work. We discuss what makes most sense for you at the outset, and revisit it as the work develops.

I offer a free 20-minute initial consultation before any commitment is made. There is no pressure and no obligation.

Fee: £75 per 50-minute session

Payment by bank transfer before each session. Cancellations with less than 48 hours’ notice are charged at the full fee

If anything on this page has resonated with you, I’d encourage you to get in touch. You can use the contact form on the homepage, or email me directly. I respond within 24 hours.

Taking the first step is often the hardest part. After that, we work it out together.