Therapy in English

Welcome non-Dutch speaking visitor. You came across my website out of curiosity or because you are looking for an English speaking therapist. I also work in English and in the next few lines I will give you an idea about my method, my specialisations and who I am.

How can I help you?

I basically work from a gestalt and existential starting point. That means that I focus on the therapeutical relationship, the here and now and co-create the therapy with you. Co-creation means that you have the expertise on your difficulties and I am the to look with you and find a way out. We both spark your creativity, hence: co-create. We explore where your freedom got stuck in every day patterns and how to liberate your own creativity. This helps to form your own answer to your questions and struggles.

Therapy

This approach provides answers and ways of treating psychic difficulties like any other form of psychotherapy. In my practice I basically treat people who are:
– suffering from depression or anxiety problems
– interested in understanding their way of being in relationships or having troubles in their relationships
– experiencing the loss of loved ones
– needing to make major life decisions
– having trouble with their impulse regulation or dosing their aggression
– experiencing sexual problems
– having questions about how to live their lives meaningful
– suffering from panic attacks
– having relational problems
– dealing with burn-out
– feeling estranged or unable to live up to their potential.

Holistic approach

All psychic difficulties arise in the relation between the individual and the surrounding, which is often other people. So we explore how your default reactions are. This means that the therapeutical relationship is of an experimental and holistic nature. This means that I’m actively involved in how you react in the situation. For example I might notice that the energy in your voice or body-language increases when you talk about your father, or how you put down your eyes when talking about your partner. By giving meaning to what happens to you I help you understand your needs. It is in restoring contact with the obvious in the here-and-now that provides clarity in what is needed at the moment. In experiencing the answer to your situation this way, you learn yourself how to deal with similar situations later in life.

Relational aspect in therapy: I – Environment

To elaborate the meaning of the environment a bit further: We can only say if your responses are adjusted to the surrounding if we know the surrounding. For example if your childhood was dominated by an alcoholic father, your fear response at that moment was probably the best possible answer (thus: adjusted) to that situation. But now as an adult woman your sometimes angry husband or unpredictable boss often needs a different response than fear. The problem is that there is hardly ever one reason why we feel the way we feel. It’s often a carefully built up pattern of behaviours, thoughts, experiences and ways of doing that made you the way you are. In exploring the here-and-now we often find cracks in the way you became and this is certainly a starting point of getting out of your trouble.

This way out can be achieved by experiments, humour, personal relevations and giving ground to the pain. To put it simple: the only way out is to go in.

Who am I?

I’m Ralph Evers (1980). I work since 2006 as a therapist. I studied psychology in Groningen and later gestalttherapy in Amsterdam. I worked in addiction clinics, forensic clinics and have a long tradition in the so called first line psychiatric healthcare. My main interests are existential questions like the meaning of life and how to live a meaningful live. I also have a lot of experience with aggression and depression issues. The spark of my work is in meeting that part in the other where they open their eyes and look at their issue with a renewed energy and insight. The moment where someone’s creativity is reborn and the river starts to flow again.