About me
Godelieve.
Thirteen years of experience with recovery. Trained as a peer support worker and active for years at a Recovery Academy. Someone who speaks the language of different worlds and has lived experience.
I don’t have all the answers. I have simply learned to surf the waves of life.
For most of my twenties and early thirties I assumed life was something you could steer. I worked hard, trained, made plans — and the plans usually held.
Then came a period that took everything apart. Psychiatry. A diagnosis. An institution. Benefits. Someone else managing my money. First I lost my grip on the practical things, and soon after on my sense of who I was.
Recovery was slower and quieter than any story about it suggests. Small days, again and again. Setbacks that felt final and weren’t. And finally a realisation: I would not get my old life back, because it no longer fitted the person I had become.
I have known great success — my dreams have come true — and I have known deep lows. I travelled the world, studied, lived and worked abroad, and spent ten years in a career in international business. After that I spent years in healthcare and the world of recovery, with all the challenges that come with it.
Why me
Lived experience adds to a diploma.
Every care professional has trained for their role. Few have been through it themselves. That added value is exactly what I bring to a conversation.
What I have been through
I live with a mental vulnerability and have gone through a personal transformation because of it, in which I had to adjust my picture of the future several times. Social decline, apparent self-reliance, culture shocks: all side effects of my disruption.
What I made of it
From my own cycles of recovery I created a model: The Surf of Life. I have listened to hundreds of people’s stories and supported them, and no situation is too strange for me.
The bridge I build
I come from the business world and did not ‘grow up’ in healthcare. That is why I speak the language of different worlds and believe in a decisive approach alongside a listening ear.
What my expertise is based on
Lived-experience expertise is a profession, not a side issue.
13
years of recovery
First my own recovery, then that of others. Five of those years in the world of recovery itself.
1.5
years of training
Training as a peer support worker at Howie the Harp in Rotterdam, including an eight-month internship.
3.5
years at a Recovery Academy
Active in various roles, alongside my own coaching programmes and therapies.
100+
stories heard
People supported through their recovery — from the first request for help to the first steps out.
You can become skilled at recovering. Anyone who has relapsed once also learns something from it: next time, recovery comes faster and lighter.
Who it is for
Adults aged 18 and over.
Anyone who has just been through a life-disrupting event and is looking for support while recovering from it. Regardless of gender, background or sexual orientation.
An event is life-disrupting when it affects your mental, physical and social stability so suddenly and fundamentally that your view of the world, your daily routine and your outlook on the future are turned completely upside down.
Clear from the start
I offer support, not treatment.
- I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist and I do not prescribe medication.
- I do not provide specific therapies such as schema therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy or EMDR.
- I don’t give advice; I offer support and we look together at what you can pay attention to.
- If I notice you need more than I can offer, I will suggest discussing it with your GP.
I stand alongside existing care, not against it.
Would you like to see if we click first?
The introductory call is without obligation and we take about half an hour for it.