Nice to meet you on my website. A first step! You are courageous. You are realising you are in trouble. The persons close to you are not able to help you to solve your problem. You are therefore looking for professional help. No problem at all, do not feel ashamed.

     Realise that anyone is confronted with problems from time to time. You may not find an       
     easy and immediate solution.

When you feel to be stuck, do not think or expect that problems will resolve themselves over time. You might be able to get out of trouble on your own. Very often, alas, you will realise that this is not working.
You may have tried  to communicate with friends or relatives. That has not been of great help or you may even feel more confused. The persons who you have been speaking to have good intentions, but they are too close to you, too much involved and they have their own opinions. Hence you cannot see the forest for the trees.

       Professional help may be recommended. I am a professional with a great knowledge and       
       many years of experience. I am deeply committed and impartial. I shall give you all my     
       attention and guide you to find your own way. You are not the only one looking for help. It     
       is really worth to express yourself.

Since 1992 I have been running my own psychotherapy practice in Leuven (Louvain). I have been guiding many clients, young adults, middle aged persons, adolescents and elderly persons. Besides the individual sessions that I offer, couples therapy has always had an important place within my practice.

Under the headings 'Who am I?', 'My own process' and 'Me as a psychotherapist', you can read more about my work and approach.


Here I shall present to you some characteristic features of a counselling process:

      The first step

      You are not crazy!

      From intake session to commitment

      There is no instant solution

       Let your symptom express itself

       Insight as a path to more well-being

       From a results-oriented to a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy

       When does a psychotherapy end?

Most clients (or patients, if you want) come and see me on referral from their treating physician, because other or former clients spoke about me or because they found me on the internet. 

Some clients present a letter of their referring physician, other ones have already communicated a few things through the contact form or they use a kind of cheat sheet. It does not matter. I simply want you to express yourself. 

That is not easy. For most or many clients that is a first time experience. Of course, you feel nervous. Other clients have gone through several psychotherapeutic treatments and are hoping  to find something more. I do not mind. I simply know that it is not easy to come and see me.

Do not think, for sure, that you are crazy or abnormal. It is quite normal that you feel a little nervous and uncertain about what is going to happen. Congrats! You have made the first step.

As I said, I prefer you to express yourself. Without lots of preliminary considerations or explanations. Take your time and tell me why you have come to see me, why you come to see me now. Just try to tell me what is going through your mind.

I realise, for sure, that it is not an easy matter. But nothing really needs to be done. I am not expecting an eloquent presentation or a systematic explanation.

I only want you to express yourself. I want to hear why you come to see me. I want to hear a person who may find it difficult to express himself or herself and has trouble finding the right words. That is exactly how you might express your concerns most properly.

It is very likely that you can hardly find the words to express yourself. 'What do I have to say? I do not know. I cannot take anymore.' You might not have a clear request for help. 
No problem. It is the reason why you come to see me. We are going to find the right words, you and I together. To name things, to name 'it'. 

I can, therefore, reassure you. The first session or intake session, let us say, to make each other's acquaintance, in general runs smoothly. My great experience as a psyhotherapist helps me to provide an appropriate atmosphere and a safe setting.

I am interested in your life story. I do not judge, I do not want to make a diagnosis as soon as possible and to communicate it to you. I do not want  to present to you my own opinion and my own solution. They just do not matter.
A good psychotherapist does not judge. I am not the standard of your desires and choices. I do not want to make you fit into a diagnosis. That might only counteract an eventual change. When I succeed in sharing my interest in your life story with you, when you start getting interested in your own life story, we have come a long way. From that point on you are going to find the right words. You are going to construct and reconstruct your life story. 

I shall guide you. I do not only listen to you. I am deeply committed and shall give you all my attention. I give all my attention to the unique person who is sitting in front of me. And I shall intervene, when it is necessary or expedient. I ask questions and try to understand. Over the years and thanks to my long experience my interventions have increased. 

One or a few sessions will make clear whether we have a connection or not. Whether we will be able to cooperate in an empathic and efficient way. Over the years and with my growing experience that has got easier and easier.
The passion I feel for what I am doing is of great help. I shall share your life story effortlessly, freely and without prejudice. Your story is essential. I cannot do without it.

I am deeply committed and I expect you to commit yourself. I expect you to be willing to express yourself. To express emotions, to speak about sorrow and changing is not easy at all. But you will experience very soon that it will do you good to express what is going on inside of you, to tell your life story, to construct it.

Clients very often do not know what they can or should expect from a psychotherapeutic counselling. They may have heard lots of things. And they want some explanation. I shall give you some explanation, for sure. I prefer, however, to limit these explanations, I do not intend to give a complete theoretical presentation. What you can read here, on my website, can go a long way. I intend to guide and help you, I want you to progress. I have no intention making you a theoretician. Do not hinder yourself from making progress. 
Interesting reading can, for sure, increase your background knowledge. I shall recommend you some good books. Anyway, over the course of the psychotherapeutic sessions things will become more clear and explain themselves.  

You must have understood by now. I cannot present to you an instant solution. There is no generally applicable and fixed counselling process or guidance plan. Every counselling process is unique, every therapist - client relation is unique. Just because all persons, all clients are unique and have a unique live story.

I cannot present to you an instant solution. And I cannot undo anything of what has happened in your life. I can guide you, however, to deal with past
negative experiences and eventually leave them behind, to enter the present and look toward the future with confidence and a new impetus.

There are, for sure, a number of precepts who apply to everyone and who are of help for your physical and mental state. It is worth considering and reflecting on those precepts. What about your eating habits and sleep patterns, taking exercise, relaxing and having social contacts?
Do you manage to get out of the rat race and to break the daily routine? Make time! Put aside your to-do list and try to be mindful of the present moment.

Sometimes it may quite be the opposite. Do you manage to awaken yourself from apathy and lethargy and to do something? To go for a walk and to buy something to eat at the corner shop?

Those rules of life often are not sufficient. Or you simply do not manage to follow them. You need something more. You may need some personal and customised guidance. Psychotherapy is a professional and customised guidance tailored to your individual needs and to your person. 
Because every person is unique and has his or her own, personal life story. 

    

You come to see me because you do not feel well. You are in trouble. You have physical or psychological problems.
There is no medical or somatic explanation or solution for them. You are not really 'physically ill'.

You might only be able to mention a symptom or vague complaint. Things are nog going the way you would like.
You really do not know. No problem. We will let your symptom to express itself.

As a psychotherapist I do not intend to eliminate your symptom as soon as possible. No! It is my job to let your symptom or symptoms express itself or themselves. Only then, it will be possible to bring about a real change, to provide insight and to improve your feelings and perception. 
Realise that your symptom or complaint is covering a genuine story.

A crisis or a heavy dip can be very painful and confrontational. It forces you, however, to find a way out. A crisis may be necessary to bring about a real change. We are going to look for it together.

We are going to find your way, not knowing yet the destination. You want to feel better, for sure. But you do not know yet how to get there.
We do not know the destination yet, but the quest itself is interesting. The less focused you are to get to a destination, the more interesting the quest will be. And the more correct your final destination will be. You are getting to know yourself, better and better.

Do not be surprised when at first your questions only seem to multiply themselves. No, that is good. We are trying to name 'it'. That is how we are getting more control of what is concerning and troubling you.
You might even feel worse at first, because all those painful experiences and memories are haunting you even more. Then it is good to know when you will have another appointment. It gives you a chance to silence what is haunting you.

You are realising more and more I do not have a recipe for contentment or an instant solution. Trying to give you one, I could only harm you. 

Most often we have to look for the underlying causes of your symptom, of your complaint. Your symptom is going to tell us, to guide us. How you turn out to be confronted with the same problems, to find yourself in the same difficult situations. We will surely end up with your life story or past. That is where we find the causes of many problems and complaints.

There is mostly not one determining cause. Even without psychological trauma or major life event you may have adopted mechanisms who will permanently complicate your life. Because of an unfortunate combination of circumstances. You may have gone again and again through the same negative experiences. Or there may have been an absolute lack of positive experiences. Those matters can have a negative effect on your life and relations until now. 

In order to 

therapeutic trajectory