About me
My name is Stanneke Kusters, social psychologist and coach. What drives me, in both my work and my life, is a continuing curiosity about what it means to be human. For nearly twenty years, I have guided professionals in working and leading from a place of authenticity, especially where pressure is often greatest: at work.
My fascination with the human psyche, behaviour, and the question of what truly makes a life meaningful has been a constant thread throughout my life. That curiosity not only led me to psychology, but also to myself.
Head
I grew up in an environment where reason and pragmatism were highly valued. My spiritual and existential questions were there too, but they were given less space. Like many people, I learned to adapt to what seemed logical, sensible, or expected. For a long time, I relied primarily on my mind to guide my most important choices.
Yet my interest in people always remained stronger than my need for certainty. I initially studied Business Administration, but over time I felt it was taking me further away from what truly drove me. I decided to stop and chose to study Psychology instead. During my studies, it became increasingly clear that I wanted to guide and support people — not only from an interest in behaviour, but from a deep desire to create space for what wants to be seen, felt, and lived within people.
After graduating, I began working as a facilitator and coach. It did not take long before a painful yet valuable insight emerged: I had the knowledge, but not yet the lived experience to practise this profession in a way that truly felt right to me. I realized there was still something I needed to live through myself first.
Heart
I left my job at McKinsey & Company and booked a one-way ticket to Delhi, beginning a three-year inner and physical journey through India and Indonesia.
I immersed myself in Eastern philosophies, spent long periods in silence, taught yoga and diving on a tropical island, and founded a diving school. For the first time, there was space to discover who I was outside the expectations of the world around me.
But gradually, it became painfully clear that changing my surroundings had not changed my patterns. A control freak in Amsterdam was still a control freak on the Gili Islands.
I discovered that freedom is not a place in India. Freedom begins with awareness: seeing the patterns you have come to inhabit, and having the courage to take responsibility for them.
Work as a mirror
After returning to the Netherlands and resuming my work as a coach, I began to notice something more and more clearly:
Work has a way of bringing old strategies to the surface. We adapt, hold ourselves back, take on too much responsibility, avoid conflict, or lose touch with what is essential to us.
That is precisely why I see work as such a meaningful place to guide and support people. Not despite the dynamics, but because of them. Work reveals where someone loses themselves, where energy drains away, and where growth becomes possible.
In my way of working, I have been, and continue to be, inspired by Alexandra Tompkins, Susan Christensen, Ram Dass, and Elvis Presley. I have also learned immensely from Danielle Schiphorst, William Wilson, Morten Hjort, and Wietske Jansen Schoonhoven.
People I enjoy working with
Sometimes a situation calls for a second opinion or additional expertise. These are professionals I trust and enjoy working with.
Contact
Curious whether I might be able to support you?
Feel free to get in touch for a no-obligation conversation.