I am Cécile, a French woman, mother of two, living in Netherlands, a few minutes biking from beautiful Amsterdam.

I am a traveler who grew up and worked on different continents and countries (West Africa, France, Spain, Morocco, Netherlands), which fueled my curiosity for individuals, cultures, and how we manage our personal struggles in different environments.

I interact with people from a place of compassion, openness, trust, playfulness – I build a safe space in which I can connect with people and, more importantly, in which they can connect with themselves at a deep level.
I have always seen people beyond how they present themselves to the world. My deep belief is that we all have power, strength, healing capacities – and I enjoy bringing the light onto it, empowering people session after session. It’s never too late, we are never too broken – there are always so many possibilities.

Being diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases in my early 40s changed my life.
For years I had ignored my body and my emotions – physical pain and discomfort, chronic stress and anxiety, treating it as something I needed to control, overcome, master. This diagnostic, or more accurately the ensemble of symptoms it described, was the fire alarm that I needed to reevaluate how I handled life in general – work with my body and my feelings instead of against them.

I used the analytic, organized and resourceful mind that a career in finance gave me to research and study how I could become healthier and happier.

 

After training in Transformative Coaching, I started to work with clients who were in so many different paths in life – meeting them where they were, carefully choosing in my toolbox what would serve them was the most fulfilling part of my work.
I kept on reading, studying, being open and curious – when I found out Gabor Mate’s work, I immediately signed up for the year long professional training in Compassionate Inquiry, followed by the mentorship. Many pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall in place !
Today I see myself as a wounded healer, and always a work in progress. And I am resilient, grounded, peaceful ( a growing portion of the time).

I am passionate about using Compassionate Inquiry to bring healing, peace and connection.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Cécile

On Social Media

About Compassionate Inquiry & coaching – in French 

 


It was a pleasure to talk with Emilie, in french, about how Compassionate Inquiry can help us bring flexibility and freedom in the way we react to life events.

With Clint Paddison

 


Meet the wonderful and inspiring Clint, a must see on TEDxBondUniversity (Video; 18 minutes). He talks about his experiences battling Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms, and explains what has worked for him. This kind of strategy is very powerful at improving physical well-being, giving room to work on the root cause with other modalities.
I had the pleasure to be a guest in three episodes of Clint Paddison’s podcast. Clint is Australian, he struggled for years with a very aggressive Rheumatoid Arthritis and when he achieved to be pain free, meds free, he decided to share his findings with anyone who would be interested. Working with him has been a break-through in my health journey.

Prednisone and Rheumatoid Arthritis

 

The pros and cons in 45 minutes

What you can expect in this podcast


While I consider RA drugs an absolute life savers for many of us, which gives us the room to heal while preserving our mobility, I have a different take on the long term usage of corticosteroids. Dealing with the side effects of those drugs is not easy, the challenge is to keep in mind the long term picture and find the balance regarding what is acceptable. We should never take anything for granted and be in full alert mode without letting it get in our head. With Prednisone I went to the deep understanding in my body and mind that it was dragging me down on all levels, mental and physical. Weaning it off after two years was an enormous challenge; it was hard to accept to take it slow but I am sure it was a big part in my success.

Why a change in diet alone is not enough

 

A lifestyle strategy in 17 minutes

What you can expect in this podcast


In this podcast, we discuss :

The enormous task at hand which requires more than just food adjustments

Other parts of an effective strategy that can be overlooked by the huge change in diet

The importance of physical exercise

The special case of Bikram Yoga

Interactions between diet and drugs

Plant-based supplements

Mental health & motivation; your inner voice

The right minsets in 24 minutes

What you can expect in this podcast

 

In this podcast we discuss the winning mindset:

Changing the inner voice that often holds us back

Strategies to prevent negative thoughts and mental loops

Managing stress and identifying its sources

Meditation for acceptance and freedom

Approaching doctors the right way and appreciating their role

Becoming the CEO of our mental health

With Wendy Walrabenstein

 


I had the pleasure to meet Wendy Walrabenstein in my health journey. She was the dietician I turned to when I decided to transition my little family to a plant-based way of eating. Little did I know I was about to meet a dedicated researcher! Of course, we ended up working together. This interview was recorded (2018) as an inspiration for people who want to improve their lifestyle, for example because they have arthritis. In particular, it is used for the program Plants for Joints. Reade, an Amsterdam based clinic specialized in the treatment of rheumatism, is currently investigating the effect of this lifestyle program on patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Wendy has a series of video’s on het website where she gives tips and advice on dieting, some of them produced together with Libelle TV. Check out her series here.

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