My story starts before I was born. My mum studied religion. My dad developed an interest in astrology... and in her.  Spirituality, astrology and alternative healthcare became their shared passions. I myself first went off into a different direction: I started working in the field of environmental policy making.

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While policy making is important, it is but one piece of a much bigger picture. Deep down, I knew that technological advances and legal finetuning alone were not going to cut it. The ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis. We have lost connection with the earth we depend on. I left my job and started working - as an independent consultant - on 'leadership development for sustainable development'. Professionally, I really came into my own, but physically, I was getting weaker by the day, for no apparent reason. Eventually, I had to close down my business and even fell through the cracks of the system. As my funds ran out, I started looking for work, and ended up taking the least demanding job I could find. I ended up working in back-office secretarial jobs for four - rather depressing - years.

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​​During these years of isolation and desperation, I started studying nutritional science and herbalism. I had always been convinced of the importance of natural healthcare, and this was clearly an excellent time to delve a little deeper. 

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While studying herbalism, I realised that, historically, healthcare and astrology had always gone hand in hand: Back in the days of Hippocrates, a physician who did not master medical astrology was considered a quack. Because what astrology does, is provide a picture of the person as a whole, which is really the key to figuring out where the imbalance is coming from : "It's more important to know what sort of person has a disease, than to know what sort of disease a person has" - Hippocrates. I dove into my parent's library and started learning astrology with them - thanks mum! - which definitely speeded things up. My studies were fascinating and definitely helped compensate for the tedium of my day job. 

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Eventually, I did pick up the threads of my former career, first as a Talent Development Consultant and then as a Learning & Development Partner. In parallel, I started working as an herbalist and astrologer: 'De Astro-Herborist' was born. Around the same time, I started writing a column for Bloom magazine, called Kruid van de Maand  (Herb of the Month) - you'll find them under 'Blog'. This was all very fulfilling, but in a twist of fate, I seemed to be much better at supporting others than at alleviating my own health issues. Those had never really gone away and after a second big crash, I had to stop working altogether, at least as far as my day job was concerned. Since that time, I have been stuck at home. Without a clear diagnosis, let alone treatment, the future is uncertain. I tried some volunteering work, but even that was too demanding.

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I am delighted, however, to still be teaching astrology, namely through the Centrum voor Afstandsonderwijs - more info on the Services page - and to be offering personalized herbal advice - go check out the Services page. I have also picked up writing again. More on that later on.

So much for my story, which is of course still unfolding!