One year later: What an unexpected ending taught me about identity, resilience and inner change

September 1st, it will be exactly one year since my role came to an unexpected end due to organisational changes after more than twenty years in the same international organisation. It was intense, emotional, and yet a departure on good terms. I left feeling grateful for the journey, the growth, and the people and friends I'd made and still see today. 

But none of that changes what it does to you when the thing you've built your identity around for two decades suddenly isn't there anymore. It shakes you to the core.

I didn't know then that this year would become one of the most transformative periods of my life.

A year of shock, recovery and anchoring

The first months were raw. After that many years, my identity had become intertwined with my role and my employer. So I had to learn how to land again, slow down and feel. I needed time to self-reflect.

"What should I do next?" was the wrong question. The real one was messier: Who am I really, without the role? Who do I want to become, professionally and personally? What have I been telling myself that isn't true anymore? What am I holding onto that I need to let go of?

Inner change asks something different than "What should I do?". It asks: Who do I need to become to meet what's changing around me? A harder question because it requires us to witness ourselves more closely.

Investing in growth: stress & burnout, systemic coaching, officially graduating

During this year, I chose to invest deeply in my development. I completed my Stress & Burnout Coach certification, started my systemic coaching training, and familiarized myself with the Belgian legislation around reintegration and Terug-Naar-Werk. In the second half of the year, I started building my own business and website, which became a home for my voice, my work, my identity.

Slowly, my sense of self began to shift. Not away from who I was, but toward a version that felt more aligned. One key moment in that shift happened during my official graduation from Ashridge, which I wrote about earlier. Putting on and taking off my graduation gown was metaphorical and transformative in many ways.

Today: standing fully in my identity as executive coach

Today, I stand here as an Executive Coach. Not because I needed a new title, but because I finally feel this is who I am.

My way of coaching is uniquely mine, shaped by the training at Ashridge, the learnings from peers and supervisors, enriched by more than twenty years in highly confidential environments, supporting internal and external clients through complexity, pressure and change, and helping them reconnect with who they are.

I look ahead with curiosity and excitement to what lies ahead, whether it is 

• as an internal coach within an organisation 

• as an independent coach supporting patients from healthcare practitioners around resilience, stress and burnout, and working directly with individual clients who seek support themselves  
• as an external coach with organisations guiding leaders and teams through executive coaching and systemic awareness

This year confirmed again what I also experience when working with clients: no identity is fixed. It moves. It expands. It deepens. And sometimes, an unexpected ending is exactly what is needed to become who you were meant to be.

If this resonates

If you find yourself at a crossroads, searching for clarity, direction or resilience, I invite you to read more about my services. Perhaps this is also your moment to explore who you are becoming.