Fleur van der Maaten

A conversation that goes off the rails before you realise it, topics you would rather avoid, or the feeling that you have lost each other somewhere along the way. The love is still there, but it has faded into the background for a while. That is more human than you think. A relationship has its ups and downs: circumstances change, life happens to you, and that leaves its mark. I have been with my partner for more than 25 years and we have two children, so I know this from my own experience too. It is precisely in difficult periods that you can get to know each other again, and relationship therapy can help with that.

In my work as a psychologist I meet many different people and problems. Nothing is foreign to me, and beneath all those different problems there is often the same core: we want to be seen, to be known and to feel safe with the other. Behind a reproach there is almost always a longing. In therapy we look together for that layer underneath. Which patterns are deeply rooted, and what do you need to break them?

If you come to me for therapy, I invite you to allow yourself to be vulnerable and to really listen to the other. I am down to earth and honest, and I ask the questions you may no longer dare to ask each other. At the same time, I make sure you both feel safe, even when it gets difficult. And if there is something to laugh about, all the better. Humour makes room, especially when things are hard.

The goal is not that you never clash again. The goal is that you know how to find each other again.