About me
Mieke Hartwigsen
I am a person with a lust for life, a highly developed intuition, and a talent to discover patterns and provide insights. I love humanity in all its complexities and I am always looking for the deeper reasons behind every behavior. I am joyful, open-minded, and love to push boundaries. I see the beauty of people, of the world and I am a true lightworker. I love trees and plants. I enjoy reading a good book on the couch with a Yankee Candle. And also motorcycling, traveling, running, and rock music.
South Africa
Adventure and wanderlust brought me to the countryside of South Africa after my Social Work studies. Living to the rhythm of nature, the drums, and the heartbeat of Africa, I was immediately sold. I enjoyed it immensely.
In my first year in South Africa, I met the love of my life: Johan. Together we bought a beautiful house with a huge garden. It was a cozy home with our dogs, cats, chickens, birds, and reptiles that you encounter everywhere. I discovered a passion for gardening and a love for succulents. With 6000 square meters of land, it was perfect to explore just how many succulents a person can accumulate.
My old patterns
As much as I wanted it to just be adventure and wanderlust that brought me to the other side of the world, it actually wasn’t the sole reason I traveled so far from home. I grew up in a very strict fundamentalistic reformed church. And even though I had left this church early in my twenties, the old patterns remained. That which I had been taught, like who I was or my view of this world, what I could or could not do, it just didn’t change…I tried everything and it frustrated me a lot.
Somewhere I felt that there had to be a solution, but I couldn’t find it. Even on the other side of the world, the same beliefs continued to haunt me. I studied Reiki and Applied Kinesiology, learned to meditate and visualize. But still those same old patterns kept coming up.
The subconscious what?
For years I worked as a social worker and therapist at a hospice in the slums among the poorest. I specialized in loss and trauma counseling and then stumbled upon the subconscious mind for the first time during one of my studies.
A new world opened up for me. So that’s where all those emotions, patterns, and painful experiences were stored! No wonder I couldn’t change it by thinking alone. They are not stored in our brain! Finally, I realized that talking or reasoning alone couldn’t change all these experiences and beliefs.
I learned everything there was to find about the subconscious mind, studied hypnotherapy, and found out that there are different ‘tools’ to reach the subconscious mind. Slowly but surely things started to change…
But somewhere intuitive I ‘knew’: It should be easier… and faster. If traumas can occur in a split second, it just can’t be that we live with it for the rest of our lives. I continued to delve deeper and deeper and got introduced to PSYCH-K after reading the book ‘The biology of belief’ by Bruce Lipton.
What a revelation and how simple this technique was: I knew it was possible! And I continue to be amazed at the simplicity and depth of this process. My life turned 180 degrees. I was finally able to free myself completely of those old beliefs and patterns. I opened my own practice in March of 2015.
Interestingly enough, it was Johan’s passion for rugby that brought us to the Netherlands after eleven years of living in South Africa.
The Netherlands
From the intuitive life in the middle of nature back to the busy Netherlands… what an adjustment!
Once back I quickly noticed that many people in the Netherlands don’t walk but run through life. The pace here is so incredibly fast. The difference was literally palpable. I had to be very careful the first few months not to lose myself in the rat race and I found calm and peace in the beautiful forests and fens of Oisterwijk. If I want to keep listening to my intuition and heart, it’s imperative I step out into nature.
You are a human being, not a human doing.
My mission
Since it was quite a shock for me to see how people in this beautiful country keep going, I decided to open my practice here and combine it with mother nature’s power of relaxing. People just don’t take time to relax and reflect. To listen to their hearts and dreams. It’s no surprise that the burnout numbers are skyrocketing. Or that our psychiatry facilities are full.
If I had learned one thing from emigrating and re-migrating, it was that I can create my life the way I want. And if I can do that, anyone can do it.
My mission was born. I help people to free themselves so they can start creating their own authentic life. By letting go of old patterns, deep trauma, and stress. To learn better beliefs and find the glow inside, so they can enjoy the wonder of life!