Supervision, inter-vision, inner-vision, other learning moments

The training programme to be a Primal Rebirth® therapist does not end after having received my diploma.  Because of ongoing research and as a result of it altering insights all over the world, participation in the programme for supervision, inter-vision and inner-vision of the Training Institute AUMM  is needed. The supervisor is a psychologist with over thirty years of experience  in body work as well as inner child work.

Also, I am member of the team of assistants in the training workshops of the Instituut AUMM.

Other activities with the purpose of staying informed professionally: 

I participate in an intervision group for Systemische Struktur Aufstellungen (systemic structure constellations). Out of this group constellation platform ”Open Vloer” emerged, with its home in DJOJ, a spiritual centre in Rotterdam.

Three times I joined the international training intensive for organisation constellations, IOCTI, taking place every two years (next IOCTI is scheduled in October/November, 2022).

What effected me the most, is ”in experience, staying close to myself”. My orientation used to be outward, out of connection. Through being close to myself, I am able to sense my share in interactions, and take responsibility for them. This I had to learn, a long-term process.

Nowadays I can say: ”I am happy with me” – something  I would really like everybody to achieve in his/her life. In case you need support for this purpose, as well, I will gladly be there for you. – From my own experience I know: don’t hesitate, go for it. Because, you know … in your life there is only one hero: YOU – that really is you.

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A life lesson can present itself when we discover new versions to our once so brilliantly developed survival strategies apparently no longer work, and we got tired of seeking other ways to smoothly continue with our lives. Sometimes we already noticed somehow friendship doesn’t flow as it used to, or we just don’t understand what’s going on, but what we do notice is that something did change in an unfavourable way.

If you want to investigate what is going on, come to Karuna – coaching with life questions. Compassion and respect are available to you for everything which contributed to your development to who you are. Emotions like fear, anger, pain, sadness are very much welcomed. Consequently, you will find involvement, safety and trust with all steps in your search to the source, growth and the way out with regard to the questions you may have – in order to look for and find deepening when and where necessary. As well as warmth and understanding with everything  that you encounter regarding new impressions, feelings and sensations. All this is welcome!

Setting up a basis for the new phase in your life, you will be reconnected to your personal strength, wisdom and vulnerability. There is no good, no wrong. Everything which pops up is there in favour of you, for you only. It is going to be an interesting walk on the path back towards your essence, rediscovering what you long knew but didn’t remember any more: that you are a beautiful, gentle and sensitive human being, with special, unique, qualities. From this new point of view you can be excited again about who you are. You will look at yourself with compassion because of which there will be less space for the old judgments and ditto habits, for you will be conscious about their source. It will be normal again to live in your heart, from there opening yourself toward all other beauty life has to offer. Because, you know … it’s you who is the hero of your life!

In the nineties of last century I was already thinking about an own therapy practice. After returning from Poona (India, 2000) with my certificate of holistic masseur, I could not remain just fantasising about it. I purchased all kinds of material belonging in a full practice.

There is this one filosophy of a well-known guru in India, Osho, which is very important for me when working with people. It says that people who seem to behave differently, can’t be addressed on this behaviour – not as long as they are unconscious about the source of it. As of 2000 I am a follower of Osho: I am a sannyasin, which means ’rebel’ – rebel against all the stuff I learned to be a good person, my nowadays life is more based on openness, creativity, rejoicing life. 

To me, Virginia Satir’s quote, Osho’s philosophy, and my life experience all together form a powerful foundation to do the work. Trauma therapy and systemic work (constellations), together with some other working methods, are beautiful tools to accomplish this, both individually as well as in workshops. On your personal life path, please feel invited to contribute to making yourself more beautiful in who you are, through yourself of your environment, and yes, the greater whole, as well. With each client I am really looking forward to the steps he or she takes in this unique, really meaningful, seemingly endless process of personal development.

Bandung (Java, Indonesia) is the city where I was born (1953), second child of four, eldest of three daughters. In 1958 our parents repatriated to the Netherlands.

At that time in the Netherlands people were recovering from the German occupation during World War II. This was the case, too, with people repatriating from Indonesia, having suffered from captivity because of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia. In our family we lived with both, but it just wasn’t a subject of communication. Sometimes we had to deal with strong emotions. Although we didn’t understand them, they were an obvious part of the dynamics within our family. 

Participation in the employment market started as soon as I finished high school; it lasted forty years. Approximately ten years after having left home I began to realize that life could be different … should be different. I was convinced of the fact that if I would not work on it, I would be dead and buried before the age of fifty. What this was about? I didn’t have the slightest idea. So, I had to search for help. Which I found with this beautiful therapist, who – to my supreme surprise and later-on to my great relief – did not ask for any explanation. With her loving presence, her endless patience, her really effective skills, I learned to look inside. Together we worked on the way I used to experience life, how I used to look at myself, how I used to deal with who I was at the time, how I used to communicate with myself and others. With all gathered insights as well as realizing the impact of my therapist’s interventions I decided to be a therapist, too. More than three decades later I sense a lot of satisfaction and happiness having been able to alter the quality of my life. I remain curious towards other old habits, recognizing them, opening my heart to them and make them work in favour of me in the ’here and now’.

My intention is to work with people during many years to come; people who maybe wondering, too, how life could, or should, be different … more friendly, more free, more cheerful … In order to be able to open oneself for everything else life has to offer. Welcome to it!

Family constellations is a method which shows us what place we take in the group of relatives in which we were born, or the family of origin where we grew up. This method is helpful when we would like to pull to consciousness, for instance, old habits of which we sometimes wonder whether they are so helpful to us in nowadays life. These little, or often  not, working behavioural patters can be the cause of problems which at first sight can hardly be explained.

For instance: a father who has really high expectations with one of his daughters; a mother who maintains silence about the father’s name of her firstborn child.

A lot of questions about our life, maintaining relationships with our relatives, family, friends and spouse can be downsized to what is called entanglements in the family system. This is  about unconscious or half-conscious connections from which we can disconnect respectfully and lovingly. As a result amongst others our creativity can flow freely at last.

This method is being executed in a group. The person with the request for a constellation (about which the facilitator and the group member will have a talk), will put up other group members to be representatives for elements mentioned during the preceding talk. He/she gives every representative a place in the room, this happens intuitively, according to his/her inner picture. Then he/she will sit down on one of the empty chairs. Then, something special happens. The representatives somehow feel connected to one another, like in a family. In the developing picture the person with the question notices loyalty between two or more relatives, or the lack of connection somewhere else in the constellation. He/she witnesses what has been noticed internally, possibly for many years. The facilitator of the constellation will provide some interventions which may lead to (more) insight, maybe even to a loving and respectful solution of an until that moment figurative connection, after which the representatives and the other group members will relax notably. Thus the person with the question can recover what he/she thought to be lost until the constellation.

How this works, is unknown. In the meantime there is countless proven evidence of the workability of the method.

This working method has been originated out of Virginia Satir’s work, an American psychologist, in the 50’s en 60’s of the twentieth century. The most famous person who further developed this method is Bert Hellinger. Since then systemic work has been developed even more, in dozens of techniques, amongst which constellations for organizations, as well as sickness and health.

A recently developed constellation method is the life integration process (LIP). As life keeps on unfolding itself most of us don’t have much awareness of the diversity of successive stages of life. This is one of the reasons why we often do not realize what we have gone through in order to arrive where we are today. In the life integration process you will be working with representatives for a number of stages of your life. You’ll have the opportunity to communicate with them. Sometimes there will be no talking, then hugging may be the only way of communication needed. Sometimes it is astonishing. Often it is surprising. You will get a lot more appreciation for who you are. And that may be seen, as well as experienced, finally.

There are two ways to participate in constellation workshops: people having an issue to be looked at, and  people who are interested in the work, not having an issue. Because of this difference participation fee varies: for somebody having an issue the fee is €70, for other participants this is €40. Please note that all workshop participants can be requested to represent elements of a constellation.  

Would you like to participate in such event, and would you like to read a bit more about the method of systemic work?      

Terms and conditions for our services are to be found under Terms and Conditions.

A therapy session consists of four stages: saying hello and have a little chat, experiences of the past few weeks, formulate the question(s) which popped up, and closure. Usually sessions take seventy five minutes. 

Anything can pass by during these five quarters of an hour. It’s important to know that this is almost limitless: you’re allowed to be really angry, to show your sadness, to be confused, to be in silence. The source of the emotions you encounter will be welcomed; we will look into the idea you may have: ”Emotion is intolerable” because of which it is impossible to simply let out your emotions. Whatever happens, with us you can allow yourself to feel safe. Ultimately, we will work to the point that you can be invited to relax in your emotion. All together the whole process may turn out to be an exciting adventure.

Why would you come to Karuna – coaching with life questions? One reason could be that you have this uneasy feeling of not being really happy, it’s unfamiliar and you don’t like it. Or: every now and then this tension in your body occurs. Or: something’s changed in the relationship with your partner, or really good friends: sometimes it’s really bumpy, and that disturbs you.  – Maybe you have become used to these observations, you’re coping with the experience. Sometimes though, things may be hidden underneath which want to be seen, recognized. This may turn out to be really clarifying – both to yourself and your partner or friends, with a realistic chance of relaxation in the relationship.

The method we use is Primal Rebirth® Therapy (PRT®), developed by the Opleidingsinstituut AUMM, with a lot of attention for the way your body organizes breathing. Also: being in the moment. ’Consciously being’ will help you become aware of its being helpful in a developing relationship with other people. In sessions with one client systemic work, too, will be able to contribute to clarity. See ’Constellations’, in this website. With PRT® we often will be working with body-oriented therapy. Important additional methods with bodywork are: inner-child-work, primal somatic trauma healing, bio-energetics, neo-hypno therapy, NLP. More information about PRT® can be found by using this link. In case you also would like to know who developed PRT®, please use this link.

With couples counseling we work with one of the partners, as well as both. It is good to be aware of the fact the therapist aims for a neutral position, one without judgment. In one session there may be more attention for one of the partners, in the next that maybe the case for the other. The way a couple interacts with one another is also subject to therapy. In sessions with only one of the couple systemic work, too, will be able to contribute to clarity. See ’Constellations’ in the same section of the website. Attachment issues, too, may come up to become aware of: during our whole youth, the interaction with our parents had a certain impact on the way we interact as an adult in intimate relationships. In case you are curious about this subject, you may want to read  the paragraph Inner Child Work / Unhealthy relationships. 

Terms and conditions for our services are to be found under Terms and conditions.