Body-oriented therapy for neurodivergent adults

Perhaps you recognise this

You have become good at analysing yourself. By now you understand a lot about your own patterns. Yet little changes in how your body responds.

You have tried what you could: talk therapy, self-help books, perhaps a diagnosis that finally explained why things always felt heavier than they did for others. And still you get stuck in the same places.

You notice that talking about it no longer changes what actually happens. As if your head has long known what should change, while your body is still somewhere else. Getting stuck in even more analysing has started to feel like a dead end.

That is exactly where this program begins.

Who I am

I am Karolien Koolhof. With a bachelor's degree in psychology, and currently a master's in Clinical Psychology in Rotterdam, I bring knowledge of how patterns arise and persist. I also work with ACT: how do you relate to difficult thoughts and feelings, so that they get in your way less. Through my training in body-oriented therapy I also work with what happens in your body, the place where many of those patterns hold on, even after your head has long seen through them.

That combination is no coincidence. For many people who have masked for years, insight is not the problem. Letting the body change along, and learning to deal differently with what is stuck, is where it usually stalls. That is what I focus on.

More about me

How the program works

A fixed program of three phases:

Understanding

Together we map which patterns are at play and where they come from. Psycho-education is the foundation here: how does a neurodivergent brain work under chronic pressure to adapt, and how are the patterns you now run into a logical consequence of that, not a shortcoming. The basic principles of ACT come in here as well: how avoidance and attempts at control (constantly trying to get rid of thoughts or feelings) often keep in place exactly what you want to lose.

Feeling and processing

With body-oriented therapy we work with what happens in your body: old patterns, held tension, reactions that are faster than thinking. This is the work that changes what talking alone cannot change. Where needed we use techniques such as acceptance and defusion to make room for what comes up physically, without it sweeping you away.

Integrating

The translation to your daily life. We explore what really matters to you (your values) and how you can act on that concretely, even when old patterns still flare up. How do you recognise your limits in time, how do you divide your energy, how do you stay connected to what you found in the earlier phases, not in theory, but in what you actually do.

Who this is for, and who it is not

This program is probably right for you if:

You are gifted or neurodivergent (for example autism, ADHD or AuDHD) and have been masking for years
You have sought help before, but notice that talk therapy alone does not change enough
You are ready for a program that takes both your mind and your body seriously

This is not (yet) the right place if:

You are in an acute crisis and need immediate psychiatric care
You are looking for a short, solution-focused program

Not sure? An introductory call is exactly for looking at that together.

For those who would rather flourish than survive