Most workplace mental health specialists have never managed a restructuring across seven time zones. Most psychologists have never spent a decade inside the organisations their clients work for. I have done both, and that is what makes my work different.

For thirteen years I worked as a regional HR leader across seven countries for global companies including Analog Devices, Stryker, and Grundfos, leading people functions across the Netherlands, the UK, several ASEAN markets, and Korea. That career means I do not approach workplace mental health from one side of the desk. I have sat with business leaders making difficult reintegration decisions, with managers trying to do right by a struggling team member, and with the employee on the other end of those conversations.

I understand what an organisation carries: the legal exposure, the operational pressure on the team, the cost of a long absence. And I understand what the person carries: the strain of performing while quietly unwell, the unfamiliarity of the Dutch sick leave system, the silence around asking for help.

That is what I bring to both sides of the work, the practitioner credentials of a psychologist, registered with the Nederlands Instituut van Psychologen (NIP) and trained at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and the operational fluency of an HR leader who has lived inside the same constraints my clients are navigating.