Physiotherapy

As a physio and manual therapist I analyse physical and mechanical health problems and the circumstances in which they emerged and present themselves.

The complete picture doesn’t only give an indication where the balance got lost and problems occurred, it also determines how to solve them and restore the balance.

During my career as a physiotherapist, I moved from a deepening my knowledge and skills, to a widening of my perspective on health. At the start of my career I was the technical therapist that used the skills I learned in school. Along the way I started to realise how important the person behind the physical problem was, especially for the healing process. Here I really had to catch up and I think that people that I haven’t seen or spoken to after I turned thirty, probably will be very surprised if they would see how I am working no and how and in which direction I developped as a therapist and human being.

So after going deeper into the mechanical approach and learning about manual skills and clinical reasoning, the focus moved more and more to a holistic point of view towards the health problems where people consult me for. That mainly happened because, as the years passed, I noticed that my physio-manual therapeutic skill set didn’t lead to the complete solution for a lot of the muscular and joint problems. Not only were there problems that did not or insufficiently resolve after treatment, even with a wide range of training, education and experience, also people where the problems disappeared after the treatment sessions, often returned after a certain period of time with the same or a related problem. Also I saw more and more that there often was an underlying problem, where mental and relaxation components played an important role. Something that I wasn’t educated in.

It became more and more clear to me that the western medical and paramedical approach, is mainly aimed at and effective for acute problems. In this area I of course still love to help my patients and do we as physio’s have a beautiful profession with a wide range of skills. I missed something though in my skills and mainly when it came to more chronic or complex problems and that is something where the more holistic eastern medicine has more to offer.

In this period I also began to see more and more patterns with the explanations from eastern medicine for physical problems that my patients consulted me with. It already was and increasingly became an area of expertise which attracted my curiousity. And I started to really understand the importance of prevention and life style on health more and more. Not only in the physical way, also when it somes to mental relaxation and our energy levels.

By implementing my increasing amount of knowledge and training in areas outside of the classical physiotherapeutic spectrum into my therapy, I noticed pretty quickly that I was able to help people better and in a more lasting way and that they felt even more understood and helped. The more holistic approach also led for me personally to more fulfillment in my work and I now implemented it into my way of treating and approaching the problems people consult me for.

Of course people are still more than welcome if they want me to help them with an acute ‘mechanical’ problem like an ankle sprain. There also is openness for a wider approach of the physical problems though if that is what they are looking for or interesetd in. The last years I therefore work more and more with problems that need a wider approach or have an origin in stress or other forms of mental restlesness.

What can I do for you?

Physiotherapists are pretty all-round when it comes to physical health problems in relation to posture and movement. That means you can consult me for analysis, treatment and advice for a wide range of complaints in the body.

The manual therapy education gave me a specialisation in joint problems, mainly of the spine. A specific area of expertise I developed around the tailbone, something where still only few therapists have knowledge of or know how to effectively treat it. As an occupational physiotherapist I have expertise relating to work related problems and due to my many other educations and courses I have a wide range of treatment options. See below for more info.

How does it work?

Currently I am employed by Sento in the Jordaan area in Amsterdam.

The website of our practice you can find through this link.

If you would like to book an appointment with me, please contact our front desk at 020 3301 444 and you will directly get an appointment in my agenda as soon as possible.

Why can I help you?

Because of my experience and educations. I work already more than twenty years full-time as a physiotherapist and did this in the Netherlands as well as abroad (nine months in Germany and volunteer projects in Nepal, Peru, Colombia and India). Is am fluent in Dutch, English and German and able to help you in Spanish as well.

An overview of my most important educations:

• Physiotherapy at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (1995-1999)
• Manual therapy Maitland Concept (2001-2005)
• Occupational physiotherapy at the Saxion Hogeschool (2007)
• McKenzie A and B (2013-2014)
• Mulligan Concept A – B – C – treatment of pelvis (2009-2010)
• Medical taping (2013)
• Treatment of coccygodynia (2018-2019)
• Mindfulnesstraining for people with chronic pain or stress at the Hogeschool Leiden (2014)

This besides the other courses and educations I did otside of the physiotherapeutic spectrum like Reiki (master degree), many meditation courses and holistic pulsing.

Also there are the reviews that patients of mine left at the independant website ZorgkaartNederland.nl. Below you can find a few of them, on the website you can view all.