Meet Betty

Childhood is a period of expansion, opening, and blooming. But my own blooming was harshly and abruptly interrupted when at the age of 13, my mother died. It felt like my body, heart, and mind froze and became a rock. My whole being closed down and contracted. I started to try and control my life by hiding and protecting myself and others through defense mechanisms. I began numbing my feelings, creating an “armor” around myself to avoid being hurt, avoiding difficult emotions, distancing myself physically and emotionally from others. I was wearing a mask… On the outside, people thought I was handling things well, but on the inside, I was screaming and hoping that someone would notice that I was suffering. 

​

On my troubled path, I met a wonderful man, my life partner, with whom I discovered what unconditional love, respect, and integrity was. Slowly, my defenses started melting but it felt scary. Dropping these defenses would mean opening myself up to being vulnerable. It meant opening myself up to hurt but also to happiness. Together we lived in several European capitals: Paris, Rome, Dublin, and finally ended up creating our nest in Berlin. An open-minded, international, green, and tolerant city.

​

Eventually, when our first daughter was born, I couldn’t keep my defenses and my mask up any longer. My heart cracked open, and with it, all the emotions that I had attempted to bury. Feeling things so intensely was both wonderful and scary at the same time. All these years I had tried to avoid feeling difficult emotions, but by doing so, I was denying myself of all the wonder available to me. I had been blocking myself from feeling altogether - both the light and the dark. 

Thanks to a coaching program at the company where I used to work, I started connecting with my values and passions. I began to realize who I was. I defined my life mission: enable emotional growth in people so that they can live their lives more fully. 

 

I slowly realized that my life was not aligned with who I was. Until now, I had been in the passenger seat, living a life driven by my fears and defenses instead of love and openness. 

​

I decided to turn toward my problems by starting to heal my past wounds to become a better person, a better partner, and a better mother. I engaged in a profound developmental healing period of my life. I quit my job as a manager in a tourism start-up and enrolled in a 1-year coaching program in integral development. At the same time, I went to individual therapy to explore the healing around the loss of my mother.  My partner and I went to couples therapy to talk and face the difficulties that the arrival of a baby brought to us. Throughout this period, I started engaging in new practices such as yin yoga, mindfulness, and journaling. I started healing, blooming, and recovering my wholeness as well as opening more and more to life, people, love, beauty, marvel, joy, sadness, and loss. 

​

In June 2021, I was certified as an Integral Development Coach with Thirdspace in partnership with New Ventures West. I also gave birth to our second daughter. I fully engaged in nurturing and loving this new human to the best of my abilities and then began working independently to create my own business as an integral development coach.