How puzzling all these changes are! I’m never sure what I’m going to be, from one minute to another.
Alice
Who is Felicia?
Since my childhood I have been an incredibly inquisitive person with a huge imagination, which naturally guided me towards research. My love for art (music, painting, ice dance) along with an appreciation of things that deviate from the norm, and my studies in biology and psychology sparked a specific interest in the reasons why people use drugs, why they prefer a certain substance/combination, and what happens when these habits start taking their toll on their health and life. Working in eating disorders research I learned how patterns of binge eating resemble bingeing on substances in giving someone a feeling of control over emotions.
While working mainly (but not exclusively) with substance users, gamblers and people with binge eating patterns in treatment, all that knowledge proved useful for helping people to better understand themselves and to make their envisaged changes happen.
The climate and biodiversity crisis has become an increasingly important issue for me in recent years. Small or big changes in this area need not only knowledge but also courage and creativity.
The ‘side effect’ of my practice and research was learning about myself.
In my sessions, I make room for more than just your substance use, gambling or eating behaviour, or for the challenge of turning your desired behaviour into a habit. These unwanted struggles do never come alone: they can be about coping with or escaping anything like daily stress and challenges, frustration, boredom, chronic illness, loss, trauma. They can be about a wish to fit in the society, a wish to be always happy, or an endeavour to be your ideal self, or from a difficult-to-understand dilemma.
I consider that with understanding yourself comes the acceptance of your and the world’s flaws and failings. And beyond acceptance there is the space for embrace. Embracing and loving your ‘imperfect’ self and the world we live in is where you start seeing chances, where you start seeing that perfection is frankly boring because there is nowhere else to go from there. Being in peace with being unhappy at times is a place you won’t NEED a substance or a game to get through, and a place from where you can make bigger changes happen.
My vision
Changes rarely happen in the therapy room but rather in between the sessions. They happen when you take something with you, keep reflecting on it and maybe take one little step on a different path.
My main priority is to make you feel comfortable talking to me, and to listen carefully to your story. We can then plan together how you will get from the sessions what you have set for yourself.
I combine established Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and/or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy interventions and coaching techniques with elements of art, music and mindfulness. I also adapt my communication style and the contents of the sessions to your preferred thinking style (verbal/visual).
My aim for each session is that you take something with you: a new thought, a different feeling, motivation for a different course of action.
My approach
Education Experience Affiliations
→ Klimaatpsychologie, Stichting Klimaatpsychologie
→ Trauma-focused ACT, Psychwire
→ Relatiecoach opleiding, Civas
→ Mental coach opleiding, Civas
→ ADHD coach opleiding, Civas
→ ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) opleiding, SeeTrue
→ MSc Psychology, (Distinction), University of East London, UK
→ Postgraduate certificate Health psychology, Derby University, UK
→ PhD Biology (Magna cum laude), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
I am member of: Nederlands Instituut van Psychologen (NIP-number: 232780)
Felicia Heidebrecht * Psycholoog in Delft, Rotterdam, Schiedam & online @ Lifeinmymind 