Life Says Yes

There has been a certain quietness in my work this year.

Perhaps you have noticed that I have been offering fewer workshops, that my website has changed very little, or that I have simply been less visible than before.

That is not by accident.

Sometimes life brings us to a place where something so fundamental is changing that it cannot be rushed. It asks for time. For stillness. For listening to what is quietly emerging.

That is where I find myself now.

Over the past months I have realised that not only I am changing, but my work is changing with me. Not because I am leaving behind what I have built over the past twenty years, but because I am moving closer to the heart of why I began this work in the first place.

Bert Hellinger once said:

“Life says yes.”

These simple words have stayed with me.

Throughout my professional life, I have been searching for ways to help people reconnect with the deeper sources of strength that allow healing, growth and transformation to unfold.

As a psychologist, I learned to understand the human mind and the impact of life experiences. Family constellations taught me to recognize the hidden dynamics that connect generations. Systemic Ritual showed me that healing is not only about revealing what is entangled, but also about reconnecting with the people, qualities and forces that nourish life. More recently, my work with Ancestral Connections® has deepened this understanding through embodiment, movement, community and our relationship with the supportive ancestors who continue to accompany us.

Looking back, I realize that not only has my work changed; my understanding of healing has changed as well.

For many years, my work—as is true for much of systemic practice—focused primarily on pain, trauma and what needed healing.

That remains deeply important.

But I have come to see that it is only part of the story.

Life does not ask only to be healed.
It asks to be lived.

Increasingly, I find that the deepest transformations happen not only when we meet our pain, but also when we reconnect with joy, beauty, creativity, music, movement and dance. When we feel supported by our ancestors, by one another and by life itself. When we remember that we belong to something greater than ourselves.

Perhaps, in systemic work, we have spent a long time listening to the tears of our ancestors.
But our ancestors left us far more than their suffering.

They also gave us their songs.
Their dances.
Their laughter.
Their craftsmanship.
Their courage.
Their love.
Their remarkable capacity to embrace life, even in the midst of hardship.

That, too, is our inheritance.
That, too, deserves to be remembered.

For me, joy is no longer the reward that comes after healing. Joy is a source of healing.

This insight is gradually transforming everything I do. Whether I facilitate family constellations, Systemic Ritual, ancestral workshops or professional trainings, my intention is no longer only to help people understand what holds them back.

I want to create spaces where life can be felt again.
Spaces where vitality, connection, creativity and inner movement can naturally arise.

I believe more and more that we are not here merely to recover from life. We are here to participate in it. To love. To create. To grieve when grief is needed. To celebrate when life invites celebration. To be supported by those who came before us while taking responsibility for those who will come after us.

In my workshops and trainings, I want to make space for the whole of life.

For silence and music.
For sorrow and joy.
For reflection and dance.
For depth and lightness.

Perhaps that is why my work has become quieter this year. Not because less is happening. But because something new is developing.

Traces of this can already be found in my work, and will this grow?

Will you journey with me?

In the autumn, the course *Connecting with Your Ancestors* will take place again in Amsterdam.

Discover the power and gifts that come to you through your ancestors.

Will you be there?

Prior to these live days in Amsterdam, there are also ONLINE circles around this theme.

See for more information, the leaflets below:

For this blog, I gratefully used AI as a conversation partner—an external resource that helped me find words for what was already unfolding within me.