Practical and interactive sessions on living between cultures, family dynamics, resilience, and re-entry. Focused on awareness, preparation, and strengthening personal, relational, and educational skills. Suitable for teams, organizations, sending agencies, and companies.
Substantive and inspiring talks about living and working across borders, the impact on families, and the importance of good preparation and careful aftercare. With practical examples and space for recognition, depth, and open conversation. Suitable for teams, organizations, churches, sending agencies, and companies.
Personal guidance for those living between cultures, at any stage of the journey. Before departure, while living abroad, upon return, or when you’ve been back for a while. I am here to walk alongside: to think with you, listen, and offer a safe, calm space. A place where there is room for what you’re experiencing, for reflection, and for growth.
Sometimes it’s necessary to pause and look back. After an intensive period in your life, it can be helpful to consciously reflect on what you’ve experienced. By processing your experiences, space is created to acknowledge loss, change, stress, and reorientation, so that what you’ve lived through can continue to work in a healthy way in the next phase.
“I learned to embrace my identity between cultures.”
As a Third Culture Kid (growing up in Africa), I thought returning to the Netherlands would make me feel at home. Yet connection remained difficult. With Maaike’s help, I began to better understand my identity and experiences. I received tools to deal with changes and to connect my different worlds/cultures.
“Finally I had words for what I always felt”
From age twelve to sixteen, I lived in Africa. Years later, back in the Netherlands, something didn’t feel right but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maaike introduced me to the world of TCKs and thereby opened something I had long been unable to name. She helped me see that grief over a life between cultures is allowed to exist, and gave me concrete tools to grow as a person.
Born in Kenya and raised as a mission kid, with experience as an intercultural counselor and trainer in Portugal, England, and Uganda. This international background forms the foundation for intercultural sensitivity and the ability to guide people in diverse contexts.
At World of Understanding, organizations and teams are trained in supporting missionary families and Third Culture Kids. In addition, Third Culture Kids are counseled and coached, helping them put words to their experiences and supporting their identity development.
In this work, mutual understanding and being seen are central. Real growth happens when people feel safe, feel heard, and have space to share their story.
As a married mother of three Third Culture Kids, life between different cultures is understood from the inside. With enthusiasm, empathy, and intercultural insight, people are helped to function resiliently and firmly in international environments.
“Seeing a person as they are meant to be.”