About Troubles in Paradise.
My name is Steven, and in 2013, I left my homeland, Belgium, in search of my paradise. As a diving instructor, I thought I had found it. But I soon realized that paradise comes with its own set of challenges—different from those I knew back home. That’s how Troubles in Paradise was born. Still, I have never regretted my search for paradise. On the contrary, I believe my life truly began the moment I left my hometown. As the saying goes, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” I took the leap, embraced a new adventure, and since then, I have experienced things I never imagined—both beautiful and heartbreaking.
No one can predict the future. No matter where you are or how much you try to control it, life unfolds in its own way. I learned this in the hardest way possible when my amazing little boy drowned in a swimming pool at 1.5 years old. Despite everything I did to prevent it, it still happened. And no matter how much we wish otherwise, we cannot change the past.
What we can change is how we perceive our experiences and how we respond to them. Our true strength lies in our ability to shift our perspective. The things we can control exist within us—abundant, infinite, and free. They shape who we are. Know yourself, and you are golden forever.
What I do.
I listen to your story. To what you can produce in words from your experiences. We can talk about anything. From there we will see. Where do you want to go? What would you like to do? Checking your mindset is probably what we will start with. Simple as that, it’s about going on a mental journey with a third person (someone who doesn’t know you but who you can trust as a friend).
How does the first session look like?
We make an appointment, we sit down and start talking. Everything is confidential, even if there’s no follow-up appointment. The most important thing is that we figure out what you want to accomplish or what is bothering you and that you feel comfortable during our sessions. If the latter is not the case, so be it. No hard feelings. You must do what feels right for you.
Education and training
I have a degree in IT and worked at several companies. After that, I worked in restaurants for several years and followed an education to become a chef at a Michelin-star rated restaurant. After I moved to Bonaire, I worked as a diving instructor. And for the past two years I have been working for a firm in Amsterdam that designs apps for people with a speech impediment. A lot of experiences.
Currently I am a part-time student Psychology at the Open Universiteit in the Netherlands. This doesn’t make me a psychologist yet, however. The word ‘psychologist’ often scares people off. In my part time practice I would like to start implementing my personal life experiences combined with what I’m learning, as a means to help people in need. Furthermore I finished a course in REBT-therapy (or RET-therapy, Rational Emotive Therapy), which is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy, a philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy. It attempts to use reason and rationality to recognize self-defeating cognitive processes, and learn to emote more appropriately. It’s one of the theories I’m holding on to as a guide. For couples therapy I make use of Gottman’s method. For more details, see the page Couples Therapy.
Feel free to ask me any questions if you need any information about psychotherapy.
