About me
Karen Gielis
I have been inspired by the difference in people from an early age. Everyone is different. That’s fine with me. I like that. I like being in contact with the other person.
I’d like to get to know you. Who you are, what drives you, what questions there are in your life or bumps in the road you experience, what is important to you, where you feel you have become unbalanced.
I like to support you in your search for your individuality, for being more yourself. Discover what you would like and what possibilities there are to realize this:
A journey in which you find the freedom where it is lost in (family/social) patterns, so that you get more balance in your life. Being your own guide, being okay with who you are, what you would like, what choices you can make and how you can support yourself in this.
Diplomas
- HBO-V
- Bachelor’s management for executives
- Health Sciences
- HBO+ Gestaltcoach
- HBO+ Gestalttherapist
- HBO+ ECP therapist
- Trauma sexology I, II, III: assistance following sexual abuse
Work experiences
I have been working as a Gestalt therapist and process counsellor for a number of years. Previously I gained a lot of experience in management, policy making and advisory positions in health related industries.
In these jobs I was always intrigued to work together with the other person who is different from me. How do we achieve our common goal and in such a way that we both feel good about it.
Because of my interest in interactions between people, I made a switch to my current job a few years ago.
In addition, I have been active as a council member in local politics since 2005 out of a sense of social involvement. And since May 2017 I have been a member of the Supervisory Board of a welfare organisation. More information can be found on my LinkedIn profiel.
MEMBERSHIPS AND REGISTRATIONS
• Member of the Dutch Flemish Association of Gestalt Therapists
• Member of the Dutch Association for Psychotherapy
• Register European Certification Psychotherapist
• Member of the European Gestalt Therapists Association
• KVK (chamber of commerce) number : 66602793
PERSONAL MOTIVATION
I want people to believe in themselves, by daring to be themselves!
I believe in people’s authenticity. Everyone is unique and therefore different. Believe in yourself, by being yourself! Daring to choose that is easier said than done. This means daring to be different and stand up for it.
The possibility of contradictions within yourself and between yourself and the other. And daring to trust that you are ok as you are and that deep inside you know what suits you and what does not. Often people are not aware of their own wisdom and individuality.
I want to make people curious about this unknown side within themselves, the ‘being different’. I want people to get acquainted with themselves, in who they are and to learn to love themselves in who they are, without losing sight of the environment (the other).
I myself have experienced how liberating it is when differences, in myself between ‘Who am I’ and ‘Who do I want to be’ and between me and the other, are allowed to be there, free of judgments and of equal values.
How free it feels to no longer be inclined to lose myself in all the expectations that are placed upon me or the expectations I think that are being placed upon my: Who should I be? What do I have to fulfill? And no longer to totally absorb these expectations unto myself, which causes me to lose my “being and feeling different”.
And also how much it has given me to deal with the difference between myself and the other and to encounter them. Precisely by working with differences, I have learned that I create, for myself, the possibility to experience the other, the new. That part of myself that I was previously unaware off.
In our society in which it is more common to talk about expectations and not ask for wishes, there is certainly enough opportunity to practice expressing one’s own wishes in contact with others. Sometimes confrontational, conflicting and sometimes even very painful.
However, it is precisely this opposite dynamic in the contact with yourself and with the other that needs attention in order to achieve more harmony with yourself, is my experience.
I would like to offer and handover my knowledge and experiences to those who want to work at more freedom and harmony in their lives, ‘simply’ by starting to appreciate their unique selves.
Believe in you, be you!