Letting go of trying to be nice
What the fear of abandonment means to me, is an internalized conviction that people won't like me, unless I try really hard to be nice. It shows in behavior I often barely notice myself. Pausing, to notice what the other wants, and then 'suddenly' want the same. Being...
How not to let emotions escalate
I'm slowly getting more clarity on how emotions can escalate without reason in my head. It starts with unease in the body. I may feel down, restless. There may be a reason for that: feeling a bit lonely, waiting for a message from a loved one, practical decisions...
Co-regulate first
Coregulate first... When there is something between you and your partner, or someone you love, and it's possible, coregulate first. The talk can feel urgent, words may burn to leave your mouth. But when it comes from a place of an active trigger, whatever you say may...
Dealing with an insecure, activated, nervous system
If you are insecurely attached, in this case, anxious or disorganized (aka the worst of both worlds), time separated from your partner(s) can be hard. Especially if there is trauma or harm involved too. My partner is gone for two weeks. Here's a bit on how I'm...
The Flip Side of Anxious Communication (spoiler: it’s a pitfall)
A pitfall in healing anxious attachment patterns. Feeling safer and more secure in my own body and life is a big topic for me. As the pain around it is connected to other people, healing also takes place in the interpersonal space. That makes it exciting, but also...
Our Choice of Words Matters
The words we choose to talk to ourselves and others with, matter. Over the last weeks, I kept saying that I didn't want a relationship and that when I met the Wizard I went in kicking and screaming. Until he, wisely, mentioned that I linked him to something I didn't...
Boundaries are always valid to have.
Boundaries are always valid to have. It is an ideal idea that boundaries come from a place of calm, centeredness, and knowing our deepest truths. But boundaries coming from fear can be just as valid. Especially when we are recovering from a past of harm and trauma, we...
Dealing with Emotions when Close Relationships Change
As I am moving through the processes of letting people go and letting people in, I realize again: emotions don't come in a linear fashion. Emotions come in waves, and those waves follow patterns. Now I see it, the pattern isn't very hard to recognize: when there is an...
How to Increase our Capacity to Receive Pleasure
What impacts our capacity to experience pleasure? I believe it's about noticing what our senses register, noticing how that feels in the body (interoception), and letting go of any thoughts, conditionings, shame, fear, etc that may limit pleasure. And when that's...
I’m in Therapy and Not Ashamed
I'm in therapy, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not sure how it is in other countries, but here in The Netherlands, there's quite a stigma about it. 'When you're in therapy, something is wrong with you.' Well, we all go through things in life, and those things mess...
Turning Situations into Workshop Exercises
"If this situation was a workshop I carefully designed for myself, what is the lesson I can learn from it?" I love this question from Jamie Catto's 'Five Golden Keys for Alchemy'. It's all about turning a situation that is happening to us around, into something we...
eFlyer Retreats 2023
Red Flags in Workshops: Bystanders
Bystanders: they are there but don't do anything. Why is that problematic? Check the full brochure on different roles in situations of harm here.
Red Flags in Workshops: Enablers
What are enablers and how do they operate? Are you accidentally an enabler? Enablers are people who actively support a perpetrator, e.g. by organizing for them, opening their venue to them, co-teaching with them, assisting them, etc. Enablers may also shame or blame...
Red Flags in Workshops: Apologists
What are apologists, and why do they annoy me so? Apologists may not play an active role in harmful situations, but they are part of the problem and potentially perpetuate harm or abuse. It can be hard to stop apologizing and start listening to stories of targets...
My Insecure Attachment System Gives You the Benefit of the Doubt
The way my (disorganized) insecure attachment - the ways in which I relate to people - works is that I doubt myself a lot. Whether I'm too much, not enough, boring, demanding, avoiding, clinging, etc. Whenever I'm in a confrontation with someone, something in me sends...
Team pride
COFFEE & CANES, LAUGHTER & RAINBOWS That's my team, before and after a weekend of Exploring Kink. Another sold-out room with such a lovely group from all over the world. Two days. Many experiences. Tears, laughter, and Belgian pralines. I keep telling how I...
Notes: Boundaries
Notes from your #intimacyactivist I can understand you without tolerating your actions. My compassion doesn't mean I have no boundaries. Over the last weeks, there have been many examples in my personal life and surroundings where these sentences felt like a guide. I...
Notes: Manipulation
Notes from your #intimacyactivist My last weeks have been marked by relationships defined by manipulation. Blaming someone too young to understand electronics for not asking for the right machine is gaslighting. Facilitators offering sex in exchange for trauma therapy...
Why I, as a Facilitator, don’t want People to Simply Copy my Work
Short answer: because it can be dangerous and expose your participants to potential harm. A longer answer: over the 10+ years of being a facilitator I have seen many people being inspired by my work, all the way up to copying workshop titles, complete frameworks for...
Happy Pride Month!
It's not my first pride month as part of the LGTBQ+ community, but 2022 is the first though where I'm visibly queer, as I'm in a relationship with another woman. It's funny how different things are, compared to being in a straight-presenting relationship. Just a few...
The Undirected Responses of Our Body to People We Don’t Trust
Do you recognize that? That when you meet people you had intense and complex relationships or experiences with, your body still responds in an emotional way? I do. Sometimes it's someone I had a short but intense uncomfortable experience with. Sometimes an ex-partner....
HPV awareness
HPV is considered an STI in some countries, but not in others. As more research is done, more is known and measures are changing. HPV is a virus that can cause warts and different kinds of cancers. Most people get it sooner or later, and in most, it doesn't manifest....
What I don’t like about Tantra
The world of (neo) tantra can be amazing. There are teachers that have high standards, bring amazing workshops and whom I wholeheartedly trust. But there are also dynamics that I don't like. The cultural appropriation, copying a guru culture badly, and of course, the...
The Solution for All Relationship Challenges
It seems to me that the solution for every relationship challenge is really simple: to ask for the need that is underlying the emotional response, whether that's safety, a hug, being heared or something else. That doesn't mean relationship challenges are easy to deal...
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