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About

margreet stronks profile

Kia Ora, I am Margreet. It has been my privilege to listen to, support, guide, challenge, comfort and educate people who want to better their lives.

Drop me a line or pick up the phone if there is something bothering you that you find hard to solve by yourself.

Our first chat is free and there is no obligation to take it any further. I look forward to meeting you.

My professional background

I hold a College Degree in Human Development and a Diploma of Teaching; 4 years of learning how we develop and how to care for (young) people, combined with arts and craft. Psychology, pedagogics and education, communication, health, anatomy, literature, etc. I never stopped learning, always had a passion for what makes people tick, psychology and arts. For years I worked as a coordinator, manager, and director while building OSCAR, which I founded. I kept on studying, amongst other things Professional Supervision at UC and have practised this since the nineties as well as strategic planning and other support mechanisms for organisations and small businesses.

While back in Europe I added a Post Graduate Diploma of Professional Coaching. I also gained a Certificate in TouchPro Chair Massage and for many years combined my skills on the work floor, providing ergonomic and mental skills and support. I worked from my practice while back in the Netherlands until I returned to Christchurch after the earthquakes. Art has always been part of the work I do, sometimes it is easier to express yourself without words and let the hands speak. Heart, Hands, and Head.

Memberships

I am a professional member of the Australia New Zealand Coaching Alliance (ANZCAL). I am also honoured to awarded a Membership of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM).

Areas of Expertise

  • Building Confidence and Self-Esteem

  • Finding Direction in life and work

  • Career Reset

  • Business development

  • Burn-Out, Exhaustion

  • Immigration. Re-migration, Expat

  • Anxiety, ADHD, Spectrum

  • Bereaved parent

  • Grief and Loss, including homesickness

  • Abuse, sexual, emotional

  • Creating Calm in turbulent times

  • Weight issues, Body Image

  • Trauma; earthquake, childhood, and other

  • Making Changes

  • Single parenting
  • Separation and divorce
  • Caring for a partner with a life-threatening illness
  • Caring for elderly parents
  • Living with Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses, ME
  • Grandparenting, close and distant
  • Spirituality, women’s spirituality

Client Feedback

I have learnt to have more confidence in my thought and emotional process patterns. I have become more aware of my triggers and also how to manage them. This has made me more confident and clearer on my life path.

From a life loving parent and facilitator who courageously investigated deep trauma and grief.

You really have a gift for what you do and I am so greatful that I have got to work with you. I would like to work with you again in the future.

Young adult changing anxiety to calm. Summer 2024.

De begeleiding is goed. Je praat ook met een zelfstandig ondernemer. De sfeer is goed en rustgevend. Kopje thee met iets lekkers is prettig. De combinatie coaching/stoelmassage was fijn.
Translation: The coaching and support are good. You do talk with another entrepreneur. The atmosphere is good and calm. A cup of tea with something is nice. The combination coaching chair massage worked well for me.

From a Founder and CEO of a large-scale garden-to-table development, who wanted a regular sounding board

During the course of the sessions and afterwards, I resigned, sold my business, picked up my old profession of nursing again and then went overseas for more than a year. I remember the sessions as being challenging but liberating. Through gentle questions, discussions and the use of art, Margreet guided gently towards self-reflection. I found the whole process rewarding and life changing and have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending Margreet as a life/professional coach.

From a middle-age Not-For-Profit professional and business owner who was nearing burn-out

Coral; gift from a grateful client

I can calm myself. I was surprised how unaware I was of my breathing, and how important it is for stress relief.
I would definitely recommend this type of coaching to others if they are in a similar situation, as I found it tremendously affirming and supportive and useful.

From a young adult, new to NZ, finding their feet in the professional world here.

Am very satisfied with the coaching. You identify the issues rapidly. Its beautiful how you combine patience and decisiveness. And great to be able to laugh together… After every session I left with valuable and surprising insights… It brought me insights, gave me calm and in the end led to a meeting with my boss through which I will return to my function but with the responsibilities and tasks that I love. Super!

End Evaluation of a Director’s Secretary of National Railways NL, who was burnt-out, took time out to evaluate life and career, found renewed pleasure in her work and became much healthier in the process.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and
try to love the questions themselves,
like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers,
which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.
Live the question now!”
Rainer Maria Rilke