Leave a message and I will contact you as soon as possible.
Linda | Counsellor/Coach, Bsc Applied Psychology
Online Holistic Health Coach
Are you struggling with body image challenges, disordered eating/eating disorders or emotional eating?
I'm Linda, a Dutch qualified Applied Psychologist and Holistic Health coach with more than 6 years of experience of helping people to go from where they are now to where they want to be, and with a special interest in eating and body image difficulties.
I see children, youth and adults with a wide range of (complex) social issues and use strength-based, therapeutic and practical approaches.
Eating and body image difficulties
- Are you ready to rebuild your relationship with your body and food?
- Do you want to overcome the out-of-control and shameful feelings around food?
- Are you so over hating your body and obsession about your weight?
It is my mission to help people ditch diet culture and food guilt & heal their food, body and exercise relationship.
Is this you now?
- You think constantly about and plan what you eat
- You do not feel in control around (particular) food
- You’ve tried almost every kind of diet and none have ‘worked’
- You feel uncomfortable in your own skin
- You tell yourself that once your body changes, you will be happier
- You are overwhelmed by negative self-talk and anxiety
- You want to stop thinking about food all the time but you don’t know how
And is this what you desire?
- Eating ‘normally’ without dieting and with total self-trust around all food
- No longer obsessed with food and weight loss – able to focus on bigger, better things in life
- Feeling comfortable, confident, and at home in your body – no matter what it looks like
- Feeling confident and happy again
About me
I hold an Applied Psychology degree and I have spent the majority of my career on supporting children, youth and adults in the area of emotional health and well-being.
I love self- development, travelling, mountain biking, full-body workouts, Yin Yoga, tennis and sharing my humour!
What will you achieve from my help?
- Be able to eat foods with moderation, without restricting, binging or emotional eating
- Silence your inner mean voice and respect and love yourself again
- No more stress or guilt around food
- Moving your body because it feels good, not because you have to
- Believe that your body is good exactly as it is in the here and now
- Get out of the all-or-nothing thinking trap
We will do this by focusing on the emotional factors behind your habits and together work on building a healthier mindset and lifestyle.
Our conversations will go beyond food, seeking to bring balance to important elements of your life such as relationships, career, and movement.
I will empower you to take charge of your health and provide ongoing support and guidance as you set goals and make sustainable changes that improve your health and happiness.
I’m there for you every step of the way!
Find out more & start your journey by scheduling an initial FREE 20-min discovery call.
Online therapy
Online sessions from the comfort of your home. It's for anyone who has limited access to support, time constraints or other obstacles. Online sessions are also very effective for those who are anxious about seeing a professional, see below a snippet from a parent.
“Online coaching has been a lifesaver. We started with camera off, lying on the bed together with me answering questions at first, and then my daughter gradually building up trust to participate. Each session it was decided if the camera was on or off - useful for the days that my daughter just wanted to lie down.”
Next to
Qualifications and registrations
I hold an Applied Psychology degree and I have spent the majority of my career on supporting children, youth and adults in the area of emotional health and well-being.I'm a New Zealand registered Social worker.
I offer therapy in
Specialisations
- Body image coaching & therapy
- Eating disorders coaching & therapy
- Disordered eating coaching & therapy
- Emotional eating coaching & therapy
- Binge eating coaching & therapy
- Over-exercising
- (Chronic) dieting
- Intuitive eating coaching
- Food freedom
Therapies offered
Areas of counselling I can help with
- ✓ Abuse
- ✓ Anger management
- ✓ Anxiety
- ✓ Being a perfectionist
- ✓ Being assertive
- ✓ Bereavement, grief, loss
- ✓ Body image
- ✓ Bullying
- ✓ Burnout
- ✓ Communication
- ✓ Self confidence
- ✓ Covid-19 Anxiety
- ✓ Depression
- ✓ Eating disorders
- ✓ Eating Problems
- ✓ Fear
- ✓ Feeling lonely
- ✓ Food addiction
- ✓ Insecurity
- ✓ Jealousy
- ✓ Low self esteem
- ✓ Panic attack
- ✓ Parenting
- ✓ Performance anxiety
- ✓ Relationship issues
- ✓ Setting boundaries
- ✓ Sleep problems
- ✓ Social phobia
- ✓ Stress
- ✓ Weight loss
- ✓ Workplace stress
- ✓ Worrying too much
Fees
You can choose between a package of 8 or 12 sessions depending on where you are at. Be aware that your unhelpful relationship with your body and food including limiting beliefs didn’t appear overnight, so it will take some time to reprogram them.
In our free discovery call, we’ll discuss which package option is the best fit for you.
Children/youth between the age of 5 and 25, I can access partial funding for the first 2-4 sessions.
Low income earners may be eligible for WINZ to cover a significant portion of the counselling fees. You do not need to be currently on a WINZ benefit to qualify for the counselling subsidy. WINZ can subsidise up to 40 payments per year at $70.04 each week. Just ask me and request your doctor to complete the WINZ Disability Certificate - Counselling Form.
Payment plans are available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I am working with a child/young person, sometimes it becomes necessary to work with the family around the child/young person and in that case, I can do family therapy or offer separate sessions to parents/caregivers.
All packages include 24/7 email/text support between sessions for any questions or concerns that come up in between our sessions.
Photos
Location
Reviews Online Holistic Health Coach
Below you will find reviews about Online Holistic Health Coach - LindaRating of 5 out of 5
Based on 34 reviews
In our sessions, I've gained an understanding of my thoughts and emotions, allowing me to tackle life's challenges with greater confidence and resilience! Once again, thank you for everything!
We both feel Linda has been such a help and given her some good techniques to guide her through and start to gain her old life back again.
I have been so grateful to Linda. I think she makes such a positive influence in others' lives and I honestly didn't know how I was going to get through this with my daughter so having Linda for Ashleigh to talk with was a true blessing.
The main positive change I have noticed is in my mental health and attitude towards my body. Being stripped back to the basics to learn healthy and sustainable habits and allowing myself freedom from food rules has been the largest positive change. Learning to love myself and my body, and realizing that my self-worth isn't determined by how healthy I eat or how much exercise I do, has been the most wonderful gift I could have given myself for my mental health.
I loved the strategies we worked together to create. As someone who had done quite a lot of research into binge and emotional eating and had tried strategies at home already, I found working with Linda far more successful. Linda was open to the strategies I had tried and was able to rework them in a way that had a more positive effect.
I feel like we unpacked areas of myself and my influences that I wasn't aware of. For example, you helped me realize that I don't process my emotions, and that, to me, was a huge eye-opener in how I tick. That realization has helped me move forward massively.
I won't forget any of the vital lessons and recommendations - I will continue to practice and keep them as a part of my life.
Yes! It is hard to put into words the feeling that comes from opening up about what I was going through for a long time and never talking about it. With your service, talking to someone who had experienced the same things firsthand was hugely beneficial. Feeling understood and empathized with was massive for me. As I said above, I tried to help myself a lot with many strategies and intuitive eating practice before using your services. And although we worked on strategies within your service, at the end of the day, having someone tell me that when I have a bad day, it's actually okay, and that I am allowed to forgive myself, was so important for me!
This experience has taught me not to take things so personally, to dedicate some self-care time as well as be kinder to myself.
I found Linda to be extremely thoughtful, empathetic, & caring to my situation, which is what I needed and made it easier to talk / trust her.
I would definitely recommend Linda to anyone that needs help how to manage a life that has become too hard and overwhelming.
Thanks, Linda!
I can identify pretty well when I’m in a low mood spiral from my depression (and not just generally feeling sad) and have strategies that can help lessen their effect.
I can deal with bigger life changes in a much healthier way.
I am far more patient with my friends and family. I can recognize when I’m internalising my worries and letting them manifest badly towards others. Instead of allowing that to happen, I can stop and reflect and figure out what I need to do to move past these worries or make them less impactful.
I can also tell when I’m being kind to myself and when I’m just trying to make excuses and avoid doing something I know I should do/ pushing myself out of my comfort zone.
Counselling has helped me be more open with my close friends about things I’ve always been too afraid to burden them with in the past, and in turn, they can be more open with me about similar things.
As cliché as it sounds I wish I had found Linda sooner because she really made an immensely positive impact on my life, and I am incredibly grateful for her guidance and the effort she puts into making each session valuable!
Linda never made me feel ashamed of what I have been through and she always validated my feelings. Linda is understanding and compassionate. She is passionate about what she teaches and she shows that she truly cares. She is always an email away and tries to comfort others as much as she can. Once again, thanks so much!
The positive changes to my well-being are phenomenal. I no longer am consumed with the shape and look of my body. I would say that 90% of the time I no longer am consumed by “diets, what I can and can’t eat”. When I wake in the morning my first thought is not about food, it’s about my day. When I have negative thoughts, I can use the Tools that I have experienced through the counselling sessions to work through them.
Linda took time to know me as me, not as a number or person to fix. She nudged me in the right way: to enable me to reflect on a lifetime of negative thought processes and to live my life in a positive way. Linda enabled me to come to terms with some confronting issues and work through them.
I think that the biggest gift that Linda has given me is that I no longer dread life, I can enjoy food, and I no longer live in a state of deprivation or negativity!
Linda took her time to really get to know my daughter well. Linda had a lot of empathy and took her issues seriously. Linda spoke openly about having gone through similar issues as a teen which was very very helpful.
My daughter was not keen on starting therapy but Linda was able to keep her interested and engaged for 3 months.
My daughter has gained a lot from the sessions. She is a lot more open to her (new) friendships. She now has the tools to approach new people and be less shy. She is much happier and has gained a lot of self-confidence!
Many thanks for your help!
Working with Linda completely transformed my relationship with my body and my relationship with food. She took me back to the beginning of my eating and got me in touch with my natural needs. What I had been doing was not working for me and Linda helped me transform my relationship with myself and my body.
I am finally free from the prison I’ve subjected myself to over the last 30 years and for the first time I feel beautiful and ALIVE and above all else I have FREEDOM and happiness. I have started to truly live my life focusing on how I want to feel.
I’m more confident, kinder to myself and happier than I’ve been in so long (if not ever).
Growth is uncomfortable and to be honest at the start I couldn’t have even imagined being where I am today as at all seemed just impossible to me!
Seeing Linda once a week for 12 weeks and then a further 3 sessions over 2 months was CRUCIAL for me and it opened my eyes to how much of a chronic dieter I’d become and how low my self-image and confidence was!
I really wish I had bigger words than THANKYOU to say to Linda I honestly do.
You were very personable and easy to talk to. You encouraged me to explore different positive narratives to tell myself. You suggested some helpful strategies and ideas without being too pushy. You also listened really well.
I would recommend your service and I already have! I said that I found you to be really easy to speak with. Also, you helped me to be more confident in my own abilities and skills, and to be kinder to myself.
We had quite recently arrived in NZ after almost 12 months in lockdown in the UK and the pressures of that coupled with international relocation, loss of friends and trying to fit into a new school had all become too much for my son. We were referred to Linda through the school's Mana Ake programme.
His weekly sessions with Linda have become fundamental to his personal confidence and have helped him find creative and effective ways to achieve and sustain calm and work through the issues that challenge him. In working with Linda, he has begun to understand and like himself better, realising that he may be different to other kids and deal with things differently but that doesn't make his way wrong.
Linda's patience, acceptance and close relationship with my son has been the foundation of this for him and her hints, tips and toolkit of activities has also helped me to help him and to support and sustain the good work they do together.
I can absolutely recommend Linda and her work to support tamariki and their whānau to meet the many challenges we all face now properly equipped, prepared and supported.
We loved that Linda allowed us to create our journey of what we needed to be supported with and we appreciated that she’s cultural sensitive!
Linda has helped us to think differently and enabled us to be more accepting of what we look like and how we view our relationship with food and our body. We now accept ourselves from the in- and outside and realise that happiness is greater than anything!
I contacted Linda when I was at the lowest I’ve ever felt in my life and no matter what I did to try to change that on my own nothing was working. I really needed help to improve to feel a lot better.
Linda is calm, caring and genuine! Her strategies work and really changed my life! I’m forever thankful she’s helped me change this. I’m so glad that I had the therapy with her because it’s really helped me feel stronger and back to feeling like myself.
I would definitely recommend Linda and I would use her services again!
Lola and I loved having our sessions with Linda and you definitely helped us both! You have given us some great understanding and tools on how to move forward.
Linda built such a great relationship with my daughter and myself. It usually takes a long time for L. to open up and show her vulnerable side so easily and you got to show that very quickly.
You knew what to focus on and what the underlying issues are.
You listened to what I had to say with my opinion on her behaviour and I never felt judged in my parenting or made to feel stupid.
You had a genuine warmth and friendship with L. which was so lovely.
L. was sad to finish our sessions with you, even though she found the sessions challenging.
You always followed up with the session notes and an email checking in with us!
I feel it is a miracle to have forgiven myself for the past habits, and each day I make the choice to keep going. I have never experienced this level of commitment to myself before.
Thank you Linda for your time and energy on my journey!
Linda formed a lovely rapport with me, is a great listener and is non-judgemental. I felt very comfortable sharing things with Linda that I had never voiced aloud previously.
I now have awareness of restrictive food habits that I hadn’t given much thought to previously, I can now approach and undertake intuitive eating and have a different view of health as more than just body size, food intake and exercise.
Thank you Linda for all your help and guidance over the past few months. It's helped me more than I can say. I will use the skills you have helped me to develop for the rest of my life.
Linda is really good at making you feel comfortable and safe to open up about anything and everything! A lot of the time it felt like I was having a zoom call with a close friend giving me advice.
Linda has amazing empathy skills and also has an awesome sense of humour! Linda always knew the right questions to ask to make me look at my thought patterns with a different perspective, and that ultimately led me to having more balanced thought patterns in the long run.
Since working with Linda, I understand the root cause of my emotional eating. Instead of numbing my feelings with food, I now acknowledge them and work through them and honestly can’t remember the last time I ate until I was sick, which is a huge win for me.
To put this into perspective, I’m currently going through an extremely challenging time with a ruptured Achilles as well as an endometriosis diagnosis with fertility struggles (in other words, this would have been prime emotional eating time for me in the past) and I haven’t once turned to emotional eating to regulate myself.
I can have photos taken of me without freaking out or feeling like I need to edit or delete them! I love that I can look at photos as a whole instead of zooming into parts of myself.
I’ve let go of food labels and instead listen to what my body feels like - and know that my body has different needs every day and that’s okay! I’m embracing gentle nutrition and focusing on movement I enjoy.
I don’t get upset if clothing is too small for me anymore, and I don’t find clothes shopping as stressful as I used to. Clothes are meant to fit me, not the other way around!
I’m still working on this one but I’m feeling more comfortable with letting go of the perfectionism trap. I’ve learnt that perfectionism is just another way of restricting myself.
After this being my goal for so many years, I can finally say that I’m now focusing more on how I FEEL rather than how I look.
Linda has helped me address more than just the things I contacted her for and has helped me make some real tangible changes (I’m still going to the gym every week and while I have lost no weight at all, I’ve become way stronger – exactly what I wanted).
Linda created a space that felt safe and judgement-free and in which I was able to admit things (out loud and therefore to myself, as well), which I would normally not dare to admit to others.
Linda challenged me to redefine the things which I regarded as flaws and to describe the person I want to be in new words. Those were my favourite exercises.
I’ve become kinder to myself, both regarding my “failures” (for example by not seeing them as such) and self-criticism.
I am more accepting of the way I look now and I am better able to avoid comparing myself.
Fun fact, the two things I wanted from my wedding dress were to hide my arms and my belly but I went for a form-fitted, sleeveless dress and really like the way I look in it!
I feel like I can rely on things we discussed, it’s like having a safety net to fall back on.
I was so sick of having my life literally revolve around food. Every thought was constantly consumed by food, how many calories I was eating and then subsequently burning through exercise, what I “should” be eating and avoiding (really, the list could go on forever).
Linda helped me through a process of being so fearful of all foods to being able to genuinely enjoy everything. Linda helped me feel more comfortable with who I was. That I am not what I eat, that food isn’t just for nourishment, but also something you can use to connect with people et cetera. I had always thought that food had no real purpose.
I also learnt that there are NO rules around food. I am now free with food with no judgement and total trust in my body. I now know that I am more than my weight. My body will go through changes, but the type of person I am will stay with me forever.
This work I was doing for myself will help my children in the future. I can also teach them how to listen to their bodies and nourish them. Working with Linda was truly a life changer!
I find Linda approachable, attentive and caring without judging. I liked how Linda counselled me and I felt comfortable even though I was terrified to start with.
I liked how Linda listened to me intently and actually helped me articulate what I needed to say. Linda was warm and sincere. She brought me back to the subject when I rambled on about other things. Linda made me feel comfortable talking about the issues I had.
I’ve learned to be myself while framing my words in a different way. I am now finding compromises between the way I speak to people and the way they perceive what I say. I am able to leave the past behind and focus on what I can change. I am able to give my girls space to live their lives and to stop criticising what they do, it's their life. I am now better at setting boundaries for myself and communicating this to others in a positive way.
I would get in touch with Linda again without hesitation if I needed to. I’ve been to other counsellors before who left me cold and not wanting to return but Linda made me feel listened to and cared about.
Linda is empathic and understanding, with a strong body-positive focus. Linda is flexible, which meant that I felt able to talk about what I needed to.
Linda helped me become aware of and work through my hang-ups around exercise. I now do yoga reasonable regularly and I am also still managing to eat with enjoyment (without bingeing), despite needing to replace a few things due to a medical diagnosis.
Linda was/is a fantastic coach as she has been through some similar experiences and really understood where I was coming from and how I felt. Linda has a great sense of humour and is able to create a very safe environment to share. She is excellent at helping give another perspective and at showing the difference between what you may perceive to be true versus what is actually real. She provides consistent, calm and straightforward advice with no judgement and really believes in you.
What I've gained from the sessions (apart from feeling like my whole life is different!):
- A different perspective on what I eat and how I feel about it. I no longer feel shame or guilt towards food and eating (woohoo!!). It's something that I genuinely didn't think was possible to achieve before this and my whole attitude and approach to food is different now. I now want to nourish my body rather than judge or feel guilty for everything I am putting into it.
- I don't feel resentment towards my body like I did before. Linda's sessions have helped me to come to more peace with how I look and feel in my body. I used to be hyper-aware of how I felt in public situations and worried about everyone's opinions but through working with Linda I have learned tools to change my perspective in these situations.
- I feel more confident in myself!! Prior to coaching, I hadn't worn shorts in public in about 4-5 years at least and now I am the proud owner of a new pair of shorts which have been worn in public on multiple occasions.
Linda did not treat me like a number, which is the case at many other places where you can find help for eating disorders. She is kind and takes the time to really listen and find solutions that suit my situation.
Linda makes time for you and listens very well. She is kind and makes sure you feel comfortable. She is honest and shares excellent tips. I have gained insight into why I have struggled with food, I am more honest about my struggles and have found more freedom around food!
Linda has helped me to understand why I sometimes turn to food for comfort and now that I have that awareness, I can make different choices.
The process has been really freeing for me. It is a great feeling to have no restrictions on the types of food I eat. I now eat delicious food at nearly every meal (but sometimes life gets in the way!).
I have been getting mentally stronger around food and the way I see myself. My self-talk is much kinder than it used to be as I no longer berate myself for my food choices. I have also noticed that I have more energy all throughout the day and generally feel much happier.
I have changed my reason for exercising too, it is now for the way it makes me feel instead of burning calories. I love it so much more!
This isn’t a quick fix. There is still work to be done to undo the 35 years of mental and physical damage that diet culture has instilled, but I know that I have great support in Linda.
I find myself being more positive about myself and feeling so much better in general. I’m now able to go days without thinking negatively about my body, rather than thinking about it and feeling upset 24/7.
I am able to accept how I am right now rather than feeling like I have to lose weight.
I now feel freedom around food and exercise. I understand that I do not have to force myself to exercise which has brought back my motivation and my enjoyment. I now focus on exercise for how I feel, rather than trying to change how I look.
I would recommend your service to others, it has honestly been transformative in my life!
She really understands what it's like to struggle with food and body image. I have a completely new perspective on life.
Linda made the sessions fun and lighthearted but also provided a space for me to be vulnerable and to feel the emotions I was feeling.
Linda provided me with strategies that have already made such a positive difference in my life.
I can now have snacks that I enjoy in the house without feeling as though they are ‘bad’. I eat them when I feel like it and enjoy them more because I no longer have the mindset that all ‘unhealthy’ snacks have to be eaten on my one ‘treat day’ a week.
My mindset around exercise is a lot less fixed. I exercise when I feel like exercising and for an amount of time that I choose on the day. I can now recognise when I am thinking in a way that is negative or unhelpful and the majority of the time I am able to interrupt those thoughts and replace them with more helpful, positive ones.
Linda has helped me massively and has provided me with strategies that I know I will be able to use for the rest of my life!
Linda was great at making me feel comfortable to be completely honest/open with her.
I struggled with this with the clinical psychologist I had previously worked with.
Linda has helped me to form new habits with food and understand more about intuitive eating. Food is now NOT the first and the last thing on my mind! I feel more in touch with myself and have strategies to help me deal with my emotions.
Linda also helped me to see that my worth is not in my appearance!!!
The coaching sessions with Linda has honestly been transformative in my life.
Linda has helped me accept how I am right now rather than feeling like I have to lose weight. I’m now able to go days without thinking negatively about my body, rather than thinking about it and feeling upset 24/7.
I now feel freedom around food and exercise. I understand that I do not have to force myself to exercise which has brought back my motivation and my enjoyment.
I now focus on exercise for how I feel, rather than trying to change how I look.
Contact me
Do you want to make an appointment or do you have a question?Send a message
( No, I will search some more )
Leave a message and I will contact you as soon as possible.
- ✓ 100+ Counsellors
- ✓ In New Zealand
- ✓ Face-to-face & Online