On May 1, 1982, I was born in a hospital in Delft. I lived with both my parents in Wateringen until they divorced three years later. From that moment on, I had two homes, which later expanded into two (blended) families; I gained two half-sisters, one half-brother, and a stepbrother.
After primary school, I attended a high school in The Hague and completed my HAVO diploma. I then started studying Business Administration, but when my mother passed away in 2000 after a very short illness, I lost my motivation and dropped out. A year later, I began studying Social Work and Services, but after obtaining my propedeutic diploma, I discontinued that as well. Eventually, I completed my degree in Commercial Economics and started working in the IT industry.
In 2006, I started a relationship with Kim, and four years later, we bought our first home together, got married, and I became a father for the first time with the birth of our son, Kick. Two years later, our daughter, Fenne, was born.
I spend a lot of my free time with my family, often playing games like Skip-Bo, Take5, Uno, and Everdell. For vacations, we always go to France, staying at beautiful nature campsites, often located by a river. I feel a strong connection to nature. Once a year, I go on a hiking trip with my brother, camping “wild” in a forest for a few nights. Besides that, I enjoy watching football or a good series, playing computer games, and painting miniatures.
In 2009, I began my career in IT. Through a staffing agency, I joined NS, and it quickly became clear that I wanted to become a permanent employee there.
During the 14 years I worked at NS, I held various positions. The common thread was that these roles made great use of my soft skills. They involved collaboration, team building, customer engagement, (complaint) mediation, and crisis management, among other things.
Then, when I turned 40, I started feeling increasingly restless, and doubts about whether I was in the right field began to take over. I decided to have a conversation with NS to explore the possibilities.
I am grateful to NS for the career development program I was able to follow, for helping me (re)discover my passion, and for funding and facilitating the next step in my journey.
The Post-HBO registered training Professional Coach has been truly meaningful. Not only did I gain a lot of knowledge, but I also experienced valuable personal growth.
I became more aware of my own values and beliefs and learned how to reconnect with past experiences so that I could process them. Safety and self-love emerged as the most prominent themes for me. Working on these has been life-changing.
By getting to know myself better, I am now able to stay closer to who I am and live more in alignment with what I find meaningful. This is exactly what I wish for all my coachees, and my passion is to guide them in this journey.
