I have always been curious about why we are the way we are.
Why do we repeat the same patterns, even when we understand them?
Why can we know exactly why something affects us and still feel our body reacting before we have even had time to think?
Why do some experiences seem to stay with us physically, showing up as tension, holding, overwhelm or ways of responding that have become so familiar we barely notice them anymore?
That curiosity has followed me through very different parts of my life and eventually led me to the work I do today.
I was raised by a Dutch mother and a Colombian father, who taught me about the body, mind, meditation, energy and yoga from a young age, and who now run a yoga studio together in the Netherlands.
I’ve also lived in several different countries throughout my life before eventually making Portugal home. Living across different places and cultures has probably contributed to my curiosity about people — what shapes us, how differently we can experience the same world, and where we feel we belong.
My own journey into this work has taken me through yoga and meditation, Reiki, EFT, Matrix Reimprinting, somatic work and eventually CranioSacral Therapy.
It hasn’t been a perfectly straight path.
But looking back, there is a very clear thread running through all of it.
I want to understand what is happening beneath the surface.
And I want to help other people understand it too.
My Path Wasn’t a Straight Line
Before working as a therapist, I spent years working as a school teacher, and later moved into the corporate tech world.
On paper, these parts of my life can look quite separate from what I do now.
In reality, I use much of what I learnt from them every day.
Being a school teacher taught me to notice the difference between something being explained and something actually being understood.
Later, working in quality, training and leadership made me even more interested in patterns, systems and what happens when something within a system isn’t quite working as it could.
I’ve always been someone who wants to know:
What’s actually happening here?
What are we missing?
What is the pattern underneath this?
And perhaps most importantly:
What does this particular person need?
Eventually, those questions brought me back to people and the body.
Sometimes Your Mind Understands Before Your Body Does
This is probably one of the most important ideas behind the way I work.
You can understand yourself incredibly well and still find yourself repeating something.
You might know why you struggle to set boundaries, yet still feel your stomach tighten when you try to say no.
You might understand where your anxiety comes from, yet your heart still races and your shoulders still brace.
You may have done years of personal development and be able to explain exactly why you react a certain way, while your body seems to respond before your conscious mind has any say in the matter.
Sometimes your mind already understands.
Your body just hasn’t caught up yet.
I have always been fascinated by the subconscious, particularly the beliefs, associations, memories and protective patterns we can carry without being consciously aware of them.
And I am interested in how those patterns can also show up through the body.
A belief might exist somewhere underneath the surface, but it may also have a physical expression.
Holding your breath.
Tightening your jaw.
Making yourself smaller.
Bracing your stomach.
Freezing when you want to speak.
Automatically preparing for something to go wrong.
Over time, some of these responses can become so familiar that we don’t consciously notice them anymore.
During CranioSacral Therapy, people can sometimes move into an extremely deep state of relaxation, somewhere between waking and sleep. This is sometimes described as a theta-like state, referring to the slower brainwave activity associated with deep relaxation, meditation, imagery and the edges of sleep.
I find that space fascinating.
The thinking, analysing part of us can become quieter, while sensations, emotions, images, memories or associations that weren’t necessarily at the front of our conscious awareness may sometimes emerge.
And because we are working through the body at the same time, we can also become curious about where and how those patterns are being physically held.
This doesn’t mean every tight muscle contains a hidden memory or that every physical symptom needs a subconscious explanation.
But it does mean I am interested in more than what we consciously know about ourselves.
Sometimes we don’t need another explanation.
Sometimes we need enough space to notice what the body already knows.
Why CranioSacral Therapy Brought So Much Together for Me
CranioSacral Therapy gave me another way of listening.
CST is a light-touch form of bodywork that works with the craniosacral system, fascia, tissues, fluids and nervous system.
What fascinated me was how much information can become available through the body when we stop trying to force it to change.
A jaw that never quite lets go.
A shoulder that braces.
A breath that stops at a particular point.
An area of fascia that seems to be holding.
A body that begins to move or unwind when given the space to do so.
Sometimes these patterns are primarily physical.
Sometimes they seem connected to stress or the nervous system.
And sometimes an emotion, image or memory emerges alongside a physical change.
I don’t decide in advance what something means.
I get curious about it with you.
For me, CranioSacral Therapy brought together many things I had already been interested in for years: the physical body, fascia, the nervous system, the subconscious, emotions, patterns, awareness and the parts of our experience that aren’t always easy to put into words.
If you’d like to understand more about the therapy itself, you can read What Is CranioSacral Therapy? The Ultimate Beginner Guide.
Where Science, Intuition and Energy Meet
I don’t see evidence-informed work and intuition as opposites.
I am fascinated by anatomy, fascia, the nervous system and the physiology behind what we experience.
I also believe there are parts of human experience that we do not fully understand yet.
Energy work has also been part of my own learning for many years, including training in Reiki. I don’t necessarily separate everything I have learnt into individual modalities when I work. Over time, I have taken elements from different approaches, combined them with my own experience and intuition, and allowed them to become part of the way I naturally work.
At the same time, I don’t want to explain every sensation or change through energy.
When I am working with someone, I am paying attention to what I can feel through the tissues, fascia and craniosacral system. I am noticing breathing, movement and nervous system responses.
And I am also listening to my intuition.
For me, those things can exist alongside one another.
I don’t need everything to be purely clinical.
And I don’t need everything to be spiritual either.
I am much more interested in what is actually happening for the person in front of me.
I’m Interested in Patterns, Not Just Symptoms
If you come to me because your jaw hurts, of course I am interested in your jaw.
But I am also interested in when it hurts.
What else is happening in your body?
Do you clench when you’re concentrating?
Does it become worse when you’re stressed?
What is happening through your neck and shoulders?
What does the fascia feel like?
Is there a recurring pattern around holding things in, pushing through or not saying what you really want to say?
That doesn’t mean every physical symptom has an emotional cause.
Sometimes a sore jaw is a sore jaw.
But I think it is worth being curious about the whole person rather than only the place that hurts.
The same applies to emotional patterns.
If you repeatedly find yourself becoming overwhelmed, shutting down, people-pleasing or struggling to set a boundary, I am interested not only in why you think you do it, but in what happens in your body when you do.
What tightens?
What disappears?
What do you feel first?
What have you learnt to override?
Often there is more information there than we realise.
I Don’t Believe My Job Is to “Fix” You
I don’t see therapy as something I do to you.
And I don’t want you to leave believing that I somehow understand your body better than you do.
My role is to listen, notice, ask questions, offer support and sometimes help make something that has been difficult to see, feel or understand a little clearer.
One of the threads that has followed me through almost everything I’ve done professionally is understanding.
Not simply giving someone information, but noticing when something hasn’t quite landed yet.
Helping translate something complicated into something that makes sense.
Finding the missing piece.
In my therapeutic work, that often means helping bridge the gap between what you understand intellectually, what may be happening subconsciously and what your body is communicating.
Sometimes that happens through conversation.
Sometimes through touch.
Sometimes through a physical sensation you suddenly become aware of.
Sometimes through an emotional release.
And sometimes through simply being quiet enough to notice something that has been there for a very long time.
What It’s Like to Work With Me
I am warm and compassionate, but I can also be direct.
If I notice a pattern, I may gently bring your attention to it.
I may ask a question that makes you stop and think.
I am not interested in telling you what your experience means. I am interested in helping you become curious about it yourself.
There can be a lot of silence in a CranioSacral Therapy session.
There can also be conversation.
If an emotion, memory or recurring pattern comes up while we are working, and you want to explore it, we can.
My wider therapeutic training means I am comfortable moving between physical bodywork, nervous system awareness and emotional exploration when that is what the session calls for.
Your body may also begin to unwind spontaneously as fascial tension changes. You may sigh, yawn, move, become emotional or simply become deeply relaxed.
Nothing particular needs to happen.
There is no “good” CranioSacral Therapy session you need to achieve.
We work with what is there.
If you’d like to know more about how that actually looks in practice, you can read What to Expect in Your First CranioSacral Session.
The Different Approaches That Shape My Work
Over the years, I have trained in and explored different approaches to the body, mind, subconscious, emotions and energy, including:
- CranioSacral Therapy
- Yoga and Meditation
- EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
- Matrix Reimprinting / Hypnotic Inner Child Work
- Reiki and energy work
- Somatic and nervous system approaches
- The Rite of the Womb (Munay-Ki), as a Womb Keeper
I don’t see these as separate boxes that I need to choose between.
Each has given me a different way of understanding people, patterns and the relationship between our physical and emotional experiences. I take what resonates, continue learning, and bring those different perspectives together in a way that has gradually become my own way of working.
The foundation of a CranioSacral Therapy session is still CranioSacral Therapy, but I don’t leave everything else I have learnt at the door.
CranioSacral Therapy in Estoril, Portugal
I practise from the beautiful therapy rooms at HUMA in Estoril, with sessions primarily in English.
Having lived across different countries and cultures myself, I know how important it can be to find a therapist with whom you can express yourself naturally, particularly when the work moves beyond physical symptoms into something more personal.
You don’t need to know exactly what you want to work on before you come.
You may have a specific physical issue.
You may be feeling stressed, burnt out or disconnected from your body.
You might recognise a recurring emotional or behavioural pattern but not know what to do with it.
Or perhaps you’re simply curious about what your body might have to say if you give it the space to be heard.
We can start there.
For more about the relationship between CranioSacral Therapy and the nervous system, you can read CranioSacral Therapy for Vagus Nerve & Nervous System Regulation.
A lot of my work comes down to something quite simple:
Helping you notice what has been difficult to see, feel or understand, and creating enough space for something different to become possible.