What People Are Saying
Niels works instinctively, which is his strength. That is really necessary with someone as rational as me. He listens well and challenges me to do more soul-searching, to continuously combine head and heart. This is effective. It gave me new insights that are very useful to me now.
Niels comes up with very insightful and original out of the box questions, which help me to think broadly and widely. His curiosity and connection in the conversation pushed me to go deeper and deeper. That was good and confronting at the same time.
It has led to the fact that I can now better direct my career and that is super nice!
Niels is highly recommended if you want to break free from your own (thinking) frameworks and are looking for a way to listen to yourself differently.
I was immediately impressed by the way Niels can release a shift with few words. Namely, from thinking to feeling. There is a “fear” voice that often screams loudly that I need to get to the bottom of problems and solve them right away. Niels made me shift the focus to what I feel about certain issues. I discovered that I can do that very well and know just fine what I want and don’t want, if I take the peace to listen to it. I cancelled everything I felt stressed about and created space for new opportunities. I even decided to move because I didn’t feel relaxed there. From there, I decided to go in a different direction with my career. One that would give me much more peace and space. And it worked out! I have found a new job and am really looking forward to it!
Niels is a special man. Because he does not try to appease me, I feel that he takes me seriously. This builds enormous confidence in me, allowing me to reveal things that I normally would not readily expose.
For me it is enormously effective because I am placed directly in a difficult situation in a safe way. This allows me to look closely at my behavior (for example, my desire to be liked) and choose to do something with it.
He leaves me in control, through smart questions and personal research methods. Even though I sometimes want his help, he makes sure that I go inside myself first and see what is really going on. So he is not a rescuer of a victim, but truly an “enabler.”
What I learned from Niels is for the rest of my life. I’ve changed.
I can feel my feelings again
I have my energy back and time for creativity
I can dream my life and shape my own experience.
I make conscious choices, based on what I do and don’t want
Am aware of the influence that my physical muscle tension has on my mental state
New friendships and better balance between time with my friends and family and time on my own
My posture helps me guard my mental and physical boundaries
And I experienced how my thoughts helped me with physical recovery
I can keep intrusive men at bay
I eat less sugar (reassurance…) and more vegetables.
In short, I’ve learned to consciously tune in on how my feelings and needs. As a result, I have the choice to act accordingly. I can do this even in stressful situations.
My coaching has led to a positive change in our team. I have created balance between my attention to my personal goals and those of othere. As a result, I do much more of what suits me and the contribution of each member became clearer..
And I have realized my dream of doing a World Clean-up with our company and colleagues worldwide. We collaborated from the mountains of Taiwan, to the parks of the Netherlands, to the beaches of San Diego.
Niels can miraculously hit the essence like a sharp needle. My development emerged in a natural and sometimes magical way. I was stuck in standard structures of thinking and working. Now I’m closer to myself.
I can highly recommend this if you want to achieve concrete results from inside out.
I have had tremendous results: especially self-confidence. For me, Niels is incomparable to previous coaches. I got to know myself well, and how our brain works.
At first I was afraid of another woolly coach. Niels is concrete and understandable and that gives me enormous peace and confidentiality. In the end I found that ‘woolly’ approach the most fun and valuable.
My challenge lay for example in the contact with people who expected something from me. I remained too rational and got in the way of myself. Through meaningful in-depth conversations, I now have insight into my own limiting thoughts. The applicable exercises still help me every week to communicate more effectively.
Niels coached our tight group of ‘Young Professionals’ in a long-term program, and me individually as well. You get to know yourself and others well and understand why people can react in a certain way.
I can definitely recommend Niels if you want to get more out of yourself and your skills. In your work or private life. If you open yourself up, you can make huge steps.
With Niels you enter into a collaboration with someone who is sincere. He is very attentive and that is also his strength. He rarely just says something for the sake of saying it. Often everything has a message, and if you open yourself up then you can definitely grow. What you put in you get out.
I am enormously grateful for everything he has taught me, and apply as much as possible in my daily life.
Since working with Niels, I am able to make better choices. In my professional career, but also outside of it. I noticed that in the workplace I often had the urge to “want to be everywhere”, looking for recognition from others. In retrospect, I was not happy with the choices I made because they were not in line with my passions and talents. With Niels I learned to recognize these situations. It prevents me from getting carried away in the moment and helps to make conscious choices.
The great thing about Niels’ approach is that he makes you aware of the underlying factors that determine your behavior. He doesn’t teach you to fight the symptoms. He helps you to see things differently, to operate from your needs and from what matters most to you. Together we discovered that I often reacted the same way outside of work. Because of this approach I am also much more effective in my private life.
The sessions with Niels have been a kick-starter for my personal development. It has laid the foundation on which I now steadily build. Sometimes critical and confrontational, but always constructive, friendly and very informative.
In my first conversation with Niels, something struck me: his integrity. That immediately won me over to do a clarification session. He did not try to convince me that I needed a coach – or him, for that matter.
That integrity is what makes Niels special to me. He believes that coaching only works on the basis of intrinsic motivation.
During the Clarity session I felt that again. He listens and watches and observes really well. And because of that we came to surprising insights together.
My most important lesson was deceptively simple: I am my own brake.
This was an answer to the question for which I mainly came. How to turn my ideas into actions, without doubts, guilt, distractions. How to find the courage and dare to take enough space to actually carry it out.
After that session I immediately took action and experienced that I can release that brake as I wish. I’ve created a new workshop, something I’ve been postponing for a while.
Through (Niels’) coaching, I learned to recognize when I do something out of strength or out of guilt, shame, compensation or validation. For the first time I’m a version of myself without ifs and buts.
My sessions with Niels gave me tools to ground myself in my self-development journey. As a result I am more centered, and became more efficient in my work and less stressed.
Not only did we uncover solutions to current issues. We also found new ways to expand my work, track progress and transform myself.
Niels is always surprising, he analyses things in a way that pushes me in a different direction. He’s exploratory, unrelenting and insolent. I stopped reacting to ‘urgent’ matters and started creating from my own values.
I came to admire Niels’ ability to think laterally and his approach to problems. This is both penetrating and expansive, and always supplying new perspectives.
If you want to grow as a person I can recommend a partnership with Niels. This is for people who want to truly understand the issues they face in their professional life.
His ability to see through things is a great gift for me. It opened new avenues to approach issues in my work. I could not have reached this with such speed and clarity on my own.
I always leave a session with Niels feeling lighter and more aligned to my truth. It helped me to preserve energy and increase my productivity in a more sustainable way. Niels’ best talent is to connect deeply.
His presence and support bring me a lot of new information about myself. Like finding a better balance in priorities and recognizing my boundaries. He is a warm, sharp thinker and a great listener. His ability to reformulate my words with empathy makes me feel heard.
He asks powerful questions that allow me to reach a higher level and helps me gain valuable insights. Like knowing what matters to me and operating from it.
To me, self-exploration is not always a comfortable path. But it is necessary find my own limitations or wounds, so I can grow.
To keep it light and practical, we do various exercises adapted to my circumstances. Niels has valuable acting skills that help me put my new insights into practice. This is both playful and confronting. Without his help I would not have reached this depth, nor would I ever dare to face those deeper issues.
I certainly recommend him to those who like to learn about themselves. And to the seekers who already searched different levels but started to stagnate. He’s a perfect guide during those adventures that lead deep into your soul and have you come out with ease.
I have learned to accept myself more. I haven’t seen such rapid progress in my personal development since college. I’m reaping the benefits of that now. I am much more relaxed during a difficult conversation, which makes things go better.
The most important thing I learned from Niels: not to see my insecurity as a problem. I accept who I am and how things happen. Niels gave me mental and physical exercises to help me with this.
I stopped punishing myself when a conversation doesn’t meet my own expectations. Sometimes I feel insecure and afraid to say much. The funny thing is-since I accept this-I speak out much more!
Niels was my coach during a Young Professionals year. I started with preconceptions and thought “working on personal development again”. What was so different about this program? That quickly turned out to be coach Niels.
Niels has a refreshing way of coaching that I have never experienced before. Niels always helps you discover what YOU need. So that you can grow on your own terms. Besides the good tips and exercises he adds.
Through his coaching, I found that I ended up helping myself. With a strategy I can commit to, instead of a solution imposed by someone else.
During sessions with Niels, the atmosphere is always cheerful and relaxed. This dares everyone to open up. I follow this program both individually and with colleagues. Now we help each other with stumbling blocks. Beautiful things have been created.
I would definitely recommend Niels to anyone who wants to grow.
I have become much more proactive. And I am much more visible within the organization (not on the Internet…).
Asking for help or calling external parties is now a much smaller threshold, for example. This is because I have a different mindset.
In addition to my professional growth, I have also achieved results in my private life. I can deal with new situations in a much more relaxed way. My perfectionism and the urge to know everything 100% before taking action have also become much less.
I am quite a down-to-earth person and coaching had a negative connotation in my experience. I was afraid it would be fuzzy. It soon became clear that Niels gave me very concrete and useful tools.
We did not use a uniform “method,” but Niels invited me to shape my own development. That took some getting used to for me, but all the better. He helps you figure out which strategies and methods suit you.
During one of our last conversations I discovered that I had been looking at things differently for a while. This is what I liked most about the sessions. I had changed unnoticed.
Should you be struggling with something in your work or personal life, I highly recommend coaching with Niels. Even if you are skeptical about it. I definitely underestimated the personal growth I realized with it!
Niels helped me move from a wait-and-see to a proactive attitude. He recreated my work situation in such a way that I gained insight into the effect of my behavior. Confrontational and therefore valuable. Then I could practice with different styles, which I now apply.
Niels lets you experience, without judgment. His guidance balances between soothing and encouraging. He speaks from himself, feels you well and tells you what is needed. He lets me solve it. As a result, I feel trust and he creates autonomy. I sometimes think about that as a manager.
I have become much more effective in conversations and collaboration. Niels helped me experience my vulnerability and from there my strength. He mirrored me during a role play. This is how I learned to use this in a difficult situation. This allowed me to grow from an authentic place. Very valuable.
Because of Niels, I am more aware of my energy level and how I feel. I also realize that I should listen more to my body. I have a better sense of when my energy starts to run out and when I need to take a rest. As a result, I cross fewer boundaries which help my energy levels to stay high. For example, I decided to start working 36 hours instead of 40. That extra time I spend on resting and having time for myself.
Now that I have more energy I am able to continue hiking again, and I started biking. I also see the possibility to take up other sports again in the future. So I see improvement in many different areas.
I came into coaching with two major issues: Making better use of the limited energy I have and I wanted to figure out what I want in my current work.
I would definitely recommend Niels’ coaching to others. Especially those who want to work on themselves. Those who rationally know what to do, but emotionally aren’t able to do so.
During the process I got so many insights I wasn’t aware of. Niels was triggered by my choice of words and made it open for discussion, which sometimes resulted in amazing new insights. There have been many successful moments, and because of the coaching, I am much more aware of them. Overall, This gives me a lot of positive energy.
After Niels’ coaching, I’m finally able to let go and enjoy life. This is still so special to me because I always saw myself as a perfectionist. Now, I know that things will work out anyway. Making myself more vulnerable makes me so much more robust while staying close to myself.
The people around me can’t believe the change! They even say, “Wow, you’re such a different person than you were a year ago.”
By being more in touch with myself and operating from my core values, I can connect more with others and help them in their quest. That gives me energy.
My biggest obstacle was feeling a void in the daily grind. You get dragged along and just do it, but without much energy. The drive just wasn’t there. I often changed assignments/employers. This was OK for a while, but soon I felt like I was missing something again: I was missing a purpose.
Now I have learned to radiate more calmness and create more balance. I am also more present and more confident. At work, I was able to express what I want and it lead to great success (to becoming a scrum master). I also look more realistically at my own critiques/obstacles.
Niels taught me to connect with myself first before the rest.
That’s what distinguishes Niels from other coaches: How he helps you to connect with yourself.
Niels looks for answers instead of using the standard techniques and tricks that I often recognize in other coaches. Niels gives you space and peace, which helps to reach as deep as necessary. He also gives you the confidence to be able to say anything, because no judgment follows. He just asks the question: Where does it come from?
With Niels, I feel safe and seen. He calls me out with genuine curiosity when he notices a difference between what I tell myself and what I actually do. I love how he challenges me.
He sees my dreams and brings them into the middle of the conversation. He gives me space and helps me find practical steps to ‘just do it’. He does all this with love and compassion. One of the outcomes for me is now enrolling my coaching clients with ease.
He brings his superpower: to read between the lines and give people full agency. This means that I have a choice and it’s up to me to decide if I want to go there or not.
He always checks the boundaries throughout our conversations, whilst following what’s emerging. And he widens the scope for me. When I talk about my preoccupations, he invites me to step into a different perspective. To see how what I am doing affects the wider world and how it could be a legacy for many future generations.
He helps me to acknowledge my fears and be bigger, and take up more positive space in the world.
He models this in his own being. In how he challenges himself in his relationships and business. I love how he brings his expression of kindness, openness, and playfulness to the fore on his own.
I feel more relaxed and much happier. I have found a job that gives me more satisfaction. I have learned to listen more to my feelings and think less about the future. This allows me to trust my body and have my gut as my guide.
I wanted a coach because I missed meaning, growth, and fun in my previous work. It was also costing me more and more energy. I was always living in the future, wanting the next goal in my life, to grow again and become even happier. Instead, this made me feel rushed, dissatisfied, and feeling stuck in the so-called: “Rat race”.
Niels showed me how slowing down and being aware of the NOW helps me move forward. This has allowed me to start accepting, instead of restlessly looking around for the next thing. I developed myself as a person.
Instead of being result-driven, I think my family, taking care of others and health are way more important. I am more satisfied with what I do have and not dissatisfied with what I don’t have yet.
The collaboration was powerful because during each session we looked at what I needed right now. Furthermore, the contact was very pleasant. Niels’ great strength is sensing what I need as a person. Through his in-depth questions, we really got to the core. I can definitely recommend Niels! I think it’s good for everyone to pause for a moment, when you slow down, you actually see more.
I have gone through a transformation over the past few months of coaching. Mainly in terms of my mindset on how I function.
Where in the past I tended to stay in the background to see what the other person wants and give in to that, now I am more present and stand up for myself. I feel more powerful and get a lot more done. Have a better connection with myself and my environment. I notice that in general, I am happy with myself.
The power of delay has given me a lot. I have much more energy and I am better at prioritizing what is most important at the moment. I have also become aware of my power to connect with people. I am very proud of that!
The reason for the coaching was my role at work, which requires a large degree of autonomy. I noticed that I tended to accommodate others without listening to myself. I was overstepping my boundaries.
What I have learned is to recognize tensions in my body when I cross my boundaries and how I can remain true to myself in conversation with someone who is quite intimidating. Also in business, I can now clearly state what I want and handle confrontations.
I experienced Niels as a very pleasant coach, who listens well. He does not focus on the past, but on what is happening now.
Because of Niels’ coaching sessions, I feel much calmer and more strengthened. I have more agency in my own life. I love going on new adventures and I’m not feeling pressured to constantly achieve. I feel less pressured about what others think of me. I was even able to negotiate a higher salary and engage in difficult conversations with colleagues. I have more insight into how I want to develop myself.
And I’m not the only one who’s noticing the difference. My boss complimented me on how much I developed as a leader. On a more personal level, my girlfriend says I am more relaxed.
My problem was that I always automatically responded to certain situations. I would get stressed and do anything I could to feel more secure.
Niels showed me how to not always act based on some self-learned reflex anymore, but to consider what I feel, notice which emotions come up, and then choose how to deal with them.
The three aspects that are powerful about Niels’ sessions:
1 – It’s always about here and NOW. How I feel in the present moment.
2 – It’s about the connection between the body and the mind.
3 – Niels cut right through my bullshit. Sometimes I didn’t know about the constructs in my mind.
Anyone who feels that they are putting pressure on themselves or that they experience stress due to external factors:
You can benefit from Niels’ coaching. He creates a truly safe environment. It is sure it helps you in many areas of your life.
You will learn to stop being a plaything of your circumstance, and how to rise above it.
I’m more in contact with myself. My relationship with my girlfriend and colleagues has improved. My results have improved.
In short, everything has become effortless.
No need to overthink before I act. This all happened within 6 months.
My issue was that I was constantly restless, constantly thinking about the next steps I should take or thinking what I should have done. My restlessness didn’t just have a major impact on me, but also on my environment. I also didn’t dare to be vulnerable. I was afraid people would hurt me, so I built a wall around myself.
I decided to fully dedicate myself to the coaching and fully trust Niels. I trusted him to take me on a journey and I told him everything that was on my mind. Niels provided the means of looking in the mirror at the right time, reacting empathetically. He gave physical tasks that helped with breathing or literally standing still and seeing what was happening to my body.
All these helped me during the week to realize and acknowledge: What’s happening now? What does it mean? Do I have to listen to it or not?
Answering these questions can help you to make the right choices and, eventually, this leads to change.
Now I know what steps to take toward my dream. And, after Niels’ coaching, I know that I can do it. Ultimate “Wow-moment”. And sometimes you have a fallback, but that’s okay. You know what to do and how to handle it now.
So, yes. I would recommend doing coaching with Niels!
I definitely achieved my goal! I have discovered that my job suits me exactly. I had been doubting this for a while. Now I don’t.
As a result, I have proactively attracted fun assignments that suit me. As a result, I am more engaged in my work. I also have more insight into what I want in the future.
Niels is empathetic and focuses on emotion and underlying values. The active exercises are very helpful for me and fun to do. I would recommend this program to people who have doubts about their work. Especially if they want to look at what suits them from a broader perspective.
My goal was to become more assertive. I absolutely achieved that. I have become more aware of many things and can move forward with the results. I now dare to open my mouth or ask for help when needed. That saves me a lot of frustration and stress.
What Niels did worked very well for me. It is a combination of awareness and concrete tools that I can apply immediately. Moreover, I get a lot of space to fill it in myself. That gives confidence.
In the beginning I was skeptical about coaching. Yet time and again it turned out that I had achieved a lot in practice, more than expected. From the first meeting I had a good feeling with Niels. It has remained that way.
I can now trust my own voice better and follow my intuition. Very valuable in my work.
Niels is a fine professional coach and beautiful person! His non-judgmental attitude makes me feel safe and I dare to open up. This way I come to my own feeling level. Something I am not always willing and able to admit to myself.
Niels understands the meaning behind the words, so with him you don’t even have to say that much. Another quality is his unbiased attention and presence: he is completely there. That invites me to be present too.
