“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

― Viktor E. Frankl

Katlijn Demuynck

Coach - Psychotherapist

Are you looking for a therapist that suits you? Then you do well to read something about this person. After all, the most important thing in therapy is the relationship between the two people sitting there: the person who asks for help and the person who gives help. If all goes well - just like any human relationship, it has something unpredictable, it clicks or it doesn't - that relationship can be forged into a partnership and then we can go a stretch of the road together, until you are on track again.

My view on therapy

You come with a question that you will mainly answer yourself during the course of the therapy: you have to do it yourself, but you don't have to do it alone. As a therapist I create an environment where you find the necessary safety to look at your own experiences in all openness and in which I gradually challenge you to grow in the most appropriate way possible.

How long does therapy take?

Life remains an adventurous, unpredictable development journey until the end: new challenges come your way and you keep changing. That you feel the need to consult someone usually means that you feel stuck in that natural evolution. That can be something recent, but it can also be very old experiences that suddenly start to play up. You don't really know how to get up and where to go next. Once you are standing firmly and you feel that you have started growing again, you can continue without help. Sometimes this is already the case after a few appointments, sometimes the joint ride takes much longer. You decide that, in consultation with me of course.

Meet Silva de Friese Stabij

Silva is my dog. She'll be in the room with us, if that's okay with you. She is not specially trained, she is by nature very calm, affectionate and also vigilant. Always happy to see you! The presence of a therapy animal is interesting for several reasons:

They are a calming element in the sometimes emotionally challenging sessions
They can be touched, they even like that!
They sometimes react intuitively to strong emotions in the client
They are an example of what it is like to be able to stay close to yourself, to be in contact with your immediate needs and to give signals when you need something
They provide the necessary distraction and lightness in the sessions

Which therapies do I use?

I get inspiration from a lot of therapy forms and I tailor my approach to you. You have probably learned a lot and tried several things, and you are who you are. With this in mind we try out a number of strategies together. For most people it is important to coordinate thoughts, feelings and behavior better and to do this very consciously. You can learn that. In the course of that learning process, we usually notice that some old baggage emerges: minor or major trauma that requires kind attention and consequently can find peace after the necessary processing. You will also learn to deal with that old baggage, so that you can tackle it on your own in the future.

My main sources of inspiration are:

Existential psychotherapy
Internal Family System (parts psychology)
Emotion Focused Therapy
Body-oriented psychotherapy (focusing, meditation, hypnosis ...)
and solution-oriented coaching.

My resume

Trained as a cultural sociologist, I took my first professional steps in development cooperation, gaining a special life experience in Africa and Asia. Back in Belgium, I worked for many years as a consultant, coach and trainer on topics such as diversity and gender equality. Inevitably, the theme of well-being at work was also central. In addition to the social dimension, my insight and interest in the personal dimension grew: the integral well-being of people. In order to deepen my skills in this area, I followed an integral coaching course (Open Mind Ghent) and completed the 4 year Integrative Psychotherapy Training (AIHP Ghent), and further refined my knowledge about clinical psychology (VUB Brussels).