What is medical coaching?

Medical coaching helps you navigate illness and stress — with attention to the whole person

Illness or ongoing stress can turn your world upside down. What once came easily now takes effort. Your body protests. Your mind races. And your heart? It can feel a little lost.

Maybe you try to keep going — for the outside world, your family, your work. Or perhaps you withdraw, because everything feels too much. Whatever your response: it makes sense. A medical event affects everything. Not just your body, but also your thoughts, emotions, relationships — and your trust in yourself.

When clarity is hard to find

In times of illness or stress, everything can hit at once. Tests, diagnoses, treatments, well-meaning advice, your own worries, the gaze of others. You’re trying to make sense of what’s happening, but barely have time to tune into what you need.

It’s exhausting. Or it leaves you feeling empty. Or on edge. And while you’re doing your best to stay in control, deep down it may feel like you’re losing your way.

I know from personal experience how overwhelming it is to process so much in a short time. The world keeps turning, yet you feel stuck. Or you’re running on overdrive. For me, those two states kept alternating — depending on what needed attention: my family, my business, or myself. Because my family suddenly had a new worry — me. And our business, too, felt the impact, as certain things simply didn’t get done. In those moments, what helped was someone simply standing beside me. Not to fix anything, but to gently ask: Where are you in all that’s happening?

That’s exactly what medical coaching offers. Someone who walks with you. Who listens without judgment. Who helps you pause, regain clarity, and make space for yourself.

Attention to the whole — not just the symptoms

Medical coaching doesn’t just look at your complaint or diagnosis. It looks at you as a whole person. Because you are not your illness. You’re a human being going through a significant, often vulnerable phase. And everything you feel right now — confusion, grief, hope, exhaustion, doubt, resilience — it all belongs

In my work, there’s space for everything that’s on your mind. Together, we look not only at your physical condition, but also at your thoughts, emotions, resilience, and surroundings. Where do you feel supported — and where not? What’s making you feel stuck? What gives you energy? What do you long for?

Opening that conversation — gently and honestly — often brings clarity. It creates calm. And direction.

A place to catch your breath

Medical coaching. It’s a form of support with you at the centre. Your story. Your pace. Your inner wisdom. Medical coaching is not therapy. It’s not a treatment plan either.

Together, we explore how you can create space again — in a situation that may have felt too full for too long. We do this with compassion and clarity. Not to ‘solve’ it, but to help you reconnect with your own path — even if the view ahead is still foggy.

What stayed with me most from my own journey is the power of being seen as more than your symptoms. As a person, with a story. That experience shaped me — and it’s now at the heart of how I work: with attention to the whole. And with the belief that you don’t have to carry it all alone.

Who is medical coaching for?

Mijn werk is er voor mensen die te maken hebben met ziekte, medische stress of langdurige klachten. Bijvoorbeeld:

• You’ve recently been diagnosed;
• You’re recovering from an intense treatment, burnout or surgery;
• You’re in the middle of an unclear medical process;
• You live with chronic complaints or unexplained symptoms;
• You feel overwhelmed, exhausted, or emotionally off balance;
• You’re looking for support, clarity or meaning in a time when everything has changed.

What makes the difference?

In the medical world, there’s often plenty of care — but little space. You’re examined, treated, monitored — but who really takes time to listen to you? To what you feel, think, fear, hope?

Doctors treat what’s physically wrong. Physical therapists, occupational doctors and case managers each focus on their own domain. I focus on what often goes unseen: how you really are. What you need to stay upright. Not to lose yourself in all that’s happening. And from there, to find the strength to keep going — in a way that feels true to you.

That’s also where your healing capacity begins: the moment you reconnect with who you are, and what you need to carry what life has brought to your door.

In closing

Medical coaching doesn’t offer ready-made answers — but it does offer a space where everything you feel, think, or don’t yet understand is welcome. Where you don’t have to hide or explain anything — not even the things you find hard to share with your partner, children or parents. Where there is space for the unspoken: what you struggle to put into words, even with the people closest to you. A place where you can breathe, feel, choose — in your own way.

Do you recognise yourself in this story? Or do you sense you’re missing space in what you’re going through right now? You’re welcome to reach out for a free and informal conversation. I’d be glad to listen.