Career coaching for international professionals in the Netherlands. Looking for work, or ready for your next step?
Get matched with a coach who asks the right questions and can relate to building a career in a new country.
The Empowerment Foundation. Since 2016
30+ volunteer coaches 15+ countries and languages .Supported more than 1.500 individuals in advancing their careers.
Why EF coaching?
What coaching with EF is, and isn't.
A template or an AI tool can polish your CV. A coach helps you work out what you actually want, what's in the way, and what to do next. Your coach listens, asks the questions you might avoid asking yourself, and helps you stay accountable to the plan you set together. We're not a recruitment agency, so we won't find you a job. We'll help you find your direction and build the confidence to go after it.
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If you working and looking for change in your career or interested in improving your leadership skills, then you should apply for one of our Career and Leadership program. The costs vary depending on the program you apply for. For these programs, it doesn’t matter where you live, or if you are eligible to work in the Netherlands.
However, if you are unemployed, living in the Netherlands, and eligible to work in the Netherlands either with a work permit or EU citizenship, then you would apply for our Job Seekers Program. -
There are no eligibility criteria for our career and leadership programs. If you are working in a career that is no longer fulfilling or if you want to improve your leadership skills, then our programs are for you. Begin by filling out our form here.
There is a nonrefundable admin fee of €25, for all of our programs.
However, if you are unemployed, the criteria are 1) living in the Netherlands and 2) eligible to work in the Netherlands either with a work permit or EU citizenship, you can get started by filling out the form here.
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We are here to support you if you want to change your career by finding a new company, industry, or role. Making a career transition can feel challenging or overwhelming when you're doing it on your own, but we are here to help. We have coaches from different nationalities and backgrounds who can relate to your experience on some level. They will use their coaching skills to help you navigate the change you want to see in your career.
Our premium coaching program begins with a minimum of 5 sessions. Pricing of this coaching trajectory starts at €500 for 5 sessions, executive and leadership coaching pricing varies.
Our intake process will help us find the right coach and program for you.
Fill out the form HERE to be matched with one of our accredited coaches.
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After completing the form here, the Empowerment Foundation team will review your profile and send you a payment link for our admin fees.
Depending on the program you apply for you will either have an intake call or be directly connected with a coach from our network of professionals.Once you are matched, your coach will email you to schedule an intake session where they will discuss the upcoming sessions and determine if you are a good match. If both sides agree, you can move forward with scheduling future sessions.
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We offer a variety of coaching options from strengths (career), somatic therapy, leadership, burn-out, neurodivergence, career, intercommunication, etc. all with a holistic approach of seeing the whole person for who you are and where you are at the moment.
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Coaching sessions are opportunities for you to explore what matters most to you. Examples include career changes, burnout, resilience, confidence, gaining clarity, career/life transitions, and more.
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Coaching sessions are typically one hour long and can be held virtually or in person. You will have the chance to share your thoughts and receive coaching personalised to you.
You may receive short assignments to work on outside of coaching for discussion in future sessions.
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Our team carefully reviews all coaching applications for desired outcomes, cultural background, and language preferences. You can always choose to work with someone new after your intake session if it doesn’t feel like a match. With more than 15 nationalities and even more languages spoken among our team, we’re sure we can offer you the right fit.
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All of our coaches are certified or are in the process of completing their certification. They have gone through extensive training and completed a minimum of 90 coaching hours.
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Yes!
There is a €25 nonrefundable administrative fee, for ALL of our programs.Our coaching programs vary in cost depending on the topic and time needed. The costs vary depending on the program you apply for. However, since we do not charge BTW/VAT there is a 21% savings when you work with us. Your support allows us to continue helping others who are struggling to find work.
We offer 3-5 sessions for free to qualified individuals who are 1) living in the Netherlands, 2) currently unemployed, and 3) eligible to work in the Netherlands (this includes EU citizens), 4) who are not native Dutch citizens.
Job Seeker Coaching: free for eligible job seekers.
For you if you're unemployed, living in the Netherlands and allowed to work here (with a work permit or EU citizenship)
What you get:
3 to 5 one-hour coaching sessions, online or in person.
Cost: the sessions are free.
A one-off €25 admin fee is paid after we review your application
Testimonial free
Career & Leadership Coaching: for working professionals
For you if you're working and want to change company, industry or role, or grow as a leader. Open to anyone, wherever you live.
What you get:
A programme of at least 5 one-hour sessions with a coach matched to your goals, cultural background and language.
Cost: from €500 for 5 sessions, also payable in 2 instalments. As a non-profit we don't charge VAT. Leadership and executive pricing on request.
Plus a one-off €25 admin fee. If the match doesn't feel right after your intake, we'll connect you with another coach.
Testimonial Premium
How it works
Apply: tell us about your situation and goals.
Review: we review your application and send a payment link for the €25 admin fee.
Match: we match you with a coach, for some programmes after a short intake call.
Start: your coach contacts you to plan a first session, where you both check the fit. Not the right match? You can switch coach.
Not sure which path fits? Tell us a little about your situation and we'll point you in the right direction. Button: Contact us
FAQ
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There are no eligibility criteria for our career and leadership programs. If you are working in a career that is no longer fulfilling or if you want to improve your leadership skills, then our programs are for you. Begin by filling out our form here.
There is a nonrefundable admin fee of €25, for all of our programs.
However, if you are unemployed, the criteria are 1) living in the Netherlands and 2) eligible to work in the Netherlands either with a work permit or EU citizenship, you can get started by filling out the form here.
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We offer a variety of coaching options from strengths (career), somatic therapy, leadership, burn-out, neurodivergence, career, intercommunication, etc. all with a holistic approach of seeing the whole person for who you are and where you are at the moment.
Coaching isn't therapy. If you need mental-health support, your coach may suggest speaking to a qualified professional.
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Coaching sessions are opportunities for you to explore what matters most to you. Examples include career changes, burnout, resilience, confidence, gaining clarity, career/life transitions, and more.
-
Coaching sessions are typically one hour long and can be held virtually or in person. You will have the chance to share your thoughts and receive coaching personalised to you.
You may receive short assignments to work on outside of coaching for discussion in future sessions.
-
Our team carefully reviews all coaching applications for desired outcomes, cultural background, and language preferences. You can always choose to work with someone new after your intake session if it doesn’t feel like a match. With more than 15 nationalities and even more languages spoken among our team, we’re sure we can offer you the right fit.
You are usually matched in seven working days with your coach. -
All of our coaches are certified or are in the process of completing their certification. They have gone through extensive training and completed a minimum of 90 coaching hours.
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Job Seeker Coaching is free for eligible job seekers, with a one-off €25 admin fee. The number of sessions depends on the specific situations and needs.
Career & Leadership Coaching starts at €500 for 5 sessions (no VAT), also payable in 2 installments, plus the €25 admin fee. The admin fee is non-refundable.
We do not charge BTW/VAT there is a 21% savings when you work with us. Your support allows us to continue helping others who are struggling to find work.
Meet Our International Coaches
Representing more than 15 countries and languages, our coaches are dedicated to your success.
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Alicja comes from Poland. She has lived in a few countries which enriched her life by giving her a higher cultural awareness and sensitivity, as well as a broader understanding of different values/belief systems.
She is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) accredited by the International Coach Federation (since 2013). She has a passion for empowering others to unlock their full potential. Through active listening and empathy, she creates a safe space for people to explore their values, goals, overcome obstacles, and sometimes redefine what it means to be happy.
During the last 20 years of her professional experience, she has gained extensive experience in the human resources management field, specializing in people development.
"Whether you think you can or can't, you are right,’’ said Henry Ford. Alicja supports others to believe in themselves and to maintain an ‘’I can" attitude.
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In his coaching, Andries is looking for the question behind the question. Deep listening and guiding in a confronting manner is the way he prefers to coach. His Ikigai is to connect himself and others to consciousness and nature.
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Basak is from Turkey, born and raised in Istanbul. She's now living as an expat in Amsterdam for over 9 years. She's always had a passion to help people which motivated her to study Psychology for her Bachelors and specialize in Social and Organizational Psychology in her Masters. She also has her Associate Coach Certification (ACC) from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Coaching has always been an integral part of her job, she's always helping other professionals and management with a variety of HR related topics. She believes a deeper understanding of human behavior and cognition facilitates successful coaching.
In her coaching, she helps you discover your passion and reach your potential. In this coaching journey, she's your thinking partner to empower you to overcome obstacles but also challenge you, to equip you with the necessary tools that will help you define and achieve your goals. She knows how difficult it can be to find a job in a foreign country. Alongside her coaching, as an HR professional, she's able to provide you with tips from the Dutch job market. The most important thing is for you to know that you are not alone in this and you can totally do it.
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Daniela is a coach/counselor focusing on personal development, growth, and overcoming obstacles and triggers. She is from Slovakia and has lived in Amsterdam since 2016. She supports people moving on from overreactions in certain situations, getting irritated by the same person at work or home, and people who are suffering from anxiety on their way to understanding themselves, exploring, and building a new reality for themselves. She uses different methods and helps people in the exploration of what their body communicates to them. In her free time, she enjoys reading, exploring new places, and meeting new people.
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Deb has over 18 years of experience working in global multi-national organizations and is originally from England.
As an IPEC Professional Certified Coach, her desire is to help people break down obstacles that appear overwhelming, reflect on expectations, focus on the now, and create a vision for the future.scription text goes here
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Isabel is a Professional Coach (ICF accredited), originally from Uruguay, with 13 years of experience in Accounting & Risk Management, who is dedicated to support individuals and companies in their personal and professional growth.
Over the past three years, Isabel has transitioned into the world of coaching, where she has successfully supported and guided more than 50 clients on their personal and professional development journeys. Drawing from her own expatriate experiences in Ireland and the Netherlands, Isabel understands the challenges and obstacles individuals face when relocating and seeking new employment opportunities abroad. Her coaching approach blends the transformative power of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) with a deep-seated passion for mindfulness and yoga. This holistic approach to coaching allows her clients to tap into the inner wisdom helping them to achieve personal and professional growth.
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Emma is a certified iPEC career & mindset coach who empowers women to create & live their version of success. She spent the first half of her career in London job hopping in financial services. After setting off to explore Asia she unexpectedly settled in Amsterdam in 2016 finding a role in global marketing & events within corporate services. After a decade in the corporate world, she finally admitted she had to take a leap and follow her passion. In 2020 she certified with iPEC and in 2021 obtained her ICF ACC. She coaches by uncovering the thoughts and energy that sit behind the actions and then creating the mindset to unleash their potential. She loves to champion her clients and show them how awesome they already are, creating a safe space to be brave.
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Faith is a certified coach (CPCC), hypnotherapist (OMNI), and global HR professional with over 12 years of experience.
Having lived and worked across Singapore, Australia, and the Netherlands, she understands the challenges of building a life and career as an expat.She supports people navigating unemployment and career transitions, helping them regain clarity, confidence, and direction as they move toward meaningful work.
Her approach combines practical career guidance with deeper inner work, drawing on hypnotherapy and therapeutic practices to help people not only take action but also shift the underlying patterns that may be holding them back.With a background in HR operations and transformation, she brings a strong understanding of recruitment processes and workplace dynamics.
She is often sought out by those who want both structure and depth, combining clear, practical steps forward with meaningful internal change.
She also prioritises mental health and wellbeing, creating a grounded and supportive space where clients can explore change with lasting confidence.
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Website
Instagram
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Karla Calinawan is the founder and leadership coach of Working Mama Collective. She specializes in guiding mothers through the complexities of returning to work post-maternity leave, focusing on resilience building and effective balance strategies.
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Federica is a certified Co-Active Coach who supports professionals during significant life and work transitions. She comes from Italy and has been living in Amsterdam since 2011. Federica worked as a Quality Associate in the travel industry for 10 years before starting her coaching business. She started her journey as a coach in 2019 and in 2021 she became a Professional Certified Co-Active Coach. An expression that describes her style is "still water runs deep". She coaches through small steps that lead to giant change. She loves Empowerment clients' commitment, their willingness to explore what's possible for them, and their gratitude for what Empowerments offers.
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Hannah is a certified international leadership and transition coach for women. Typical for her work as Co-Active coach is that she guides her clients being in a full partnership through this work-life coaching process and supports them mentally through the highs and lows of their individual transition, which can be a transition to parenthood, career-switch or move abroad, using tools and knowledge from Mental Fitness Training. She is also mentoring expat families in the process of uprooting their life.
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Inga is a career and creative coach and a visual artist who helps individuals unlock their potential and navigate transitions. Inga has embraced the expat journey, having lived in three countries — Russia, the UK, and the Netherlands.
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Klarrisa's goal is to inspire you to connect to yourself and your dreams so that you can have the greatest impact on the world around you. She left her corporate job in 2014 with a dream to travel the world. She landed in Amsterdam along the way and has been here ever since! Klarrisa was unemployed when first coming to this country until she found the Empowerment Foundation. Working with an Empowerment coach led her to not only find work again but also restored her confidence. A few years later, she completed her coach training and certification. She's been helping clients who are tired of not living up to their full potential play big in their lives, careers, and relationships.
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Monica has more than 20 years of experience working in Human Resources and Talent and Development for different international organizations in The Netherlands, she is originally from Mexico.
She is a Co-Active Certified coach, as well as, an accredited coach by the ICF.
Her coaching is focused on supporting clients to cultivate self-love and self-care while also empowering them to take action and make positive changes in their lives.
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Miguel Baumann is a serial entrepreneur, corporate manager, and certified leadership coach. He coaches tech leaders on topics including, personal growth, authentic leadership, and connection with themselves and their teams.
After setting up several startups (with a mixed bag of successes and failures along the way) in multiple countries, he joined Philips to lead digital teams. He thrives to challenge teams & individuals to be their real selves and create an life worth living.
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Loraine is originally from London and is a qualified Life & Personal Performance Coach. She is also a Strengths based coach which is where she looks at optimizing her clients strengths to achieve exceptional results.
Her role as coach is to empower her clients to identify what is holding them back. She then helps them to move from where they are now by creating awareness and responsibility within them to find their own answers and then helps them to set achievable goals which help them move towards their life goals
Loraine understands everyone is different and unique and she tailors her sessions to fit each individual's needs.
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Marjolijn is a career coach who firmly believes that everyone deserves that YOU-shaped career where they can truly be themselves, feel valued, and welcome. She knows how challenging it can be to land a job and create a career that actually fits you. The whole you, as you are right now. A space where you can truly be yourself and shine.
Because she's a professionally certified coach, has a Master's in English, and a decade of HR experience, she can help you with practical matters around optimizing your CV, cover letters, LinkedIn profile, etc. for the Dutch job market as well as coach you on the purpose and strategy that drive your career.
She often coaches people who are multi-passionate (multi-potentialites, like herself), with a wide range of interests and experiences. Alongside career coaching, she also puts her coaching skills to work to inspire and amplify diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for others.
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Originally from Germany, over the last 25 years I have worked and lived across a multitude of European countries, including the Netherlands. Before I turned to coaching, I spent 20 years working in Brandmarketing for big Multinationals.
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Michelle is a Holistic Life Coach who specializes in helping women who are facing a career transition, go from chaos to calm in their professional and personal lives by creating a stronger connection to self. She believes that when we are able to reconnect with what’s important to us, we can let go of all the baggage that’s weighing us down, clearing the way to make decisions and take action decisively, confidently and perfectly aligned with who we are.
She sees coaching as an opportunity to intentionally think and create what we want in our lives. A space for reflection, the exploration of possibilities and a support through uncertainty and change.
With a background in Marketing and having worked for 15 years in corporate environments she can relate to the challenges of corporate life. She takes a holistic approach to coaching mixing tangible, practical exercises with meditation helping clients shift out of their heads and create a stronger connection to self. She’s warm, approachable and also a mother who can relate to finding work/life balance.
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Paulina is an Executive & Leadership Coach who excels at helping Founders and CEOs step into their next-level leadership.
For over 15 years, she held senior roles at Fortune 500 companies, leading high-performance culture through teamwork and coaching within the Program Management Team. Among her achievements, she developed and headed a Global PMO of 15 Program and Project Managers in EMEA and APAC regions.
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Raquel is a Latin-American coach and trainer with a background in HR and L&D. Her approach to coaching is holistic and involves your body as much as your mind. She believes transformation comes from loving all of who you are: both the old patterns and your brilliance. This does not mean that you don’t do anything about what’s holding you back. It means that you look at it with fierce care and choose to take action from an empowered place. Looking at yourself with unwavering kindness is what will also help you bounce back quicker from setbacks and stay resilient in the process of looking for a job. Raquel wants to be your advocate and show you a kinder way to relate to yourself that will transform your life, your impact and will put you on your way to share your beautiful gifts with the world.
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Stefania is a person-centered Master coach and certified Talentenspel® coach. She has been working as a coach for personal growth and development for 8 years and as a career and business coach for 3 years. She studied at the Institute De Baak in Zeist (The Netherlands) as well as at the Talentenspel® Foundation in Utrecht. Her first education was in German Literature and Philosophy in Berlin. Stefania is originally from Italy and has been living in The Netherlands since 2005.
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Susan is an immigrant from the state of Michigan in the United States. Nine years ago, she moved to the Netherlands to live with her partner. Before moving here, Susan lived, studied, and worked in many different in Paris and across the US. Her various careers include student, program manager, corporate trainer, business policy & process planner, and many others. She has a BA in World Studies with an emphasis in French language and culture. She holds an ICF certification and the credential of Certified Professional Co-Active® Coach through the Coaches Training Institute.
As an American immigrant in the Netherlands, her main challenge has been to find her place in the Dutch culture, especially when it came to finding employment. Susan knows this isn’t an easy process. It takes courage to find your place and your career in a foreign country. Because Susan has first-hand experience with the expatriate process & journey, she is fully capable and ready to support your success in finding your career and becoming established here in the Netherlands.
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Yumi is a person-centred coach and counsellor that works with individuals who are navigating transitions and crossroads in work and personal life, exploring meaning and purpose, and seeking to cultivate greater connection with self and world. She is originally from Toronto, Canada, and moved to the Netherlands 15 years ago as an English copywriter. Yumi encourages curiosity, active reflection and taking steps to help you make sense of your experiences, adapt and thrive in cross-cultural experiences, and live life on your own unique terms. She lives in Amsterdam with her husband and cat.
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Hi I’m Sarah,
I’m an Accredited Personal & Business Development Coach passionate about helping individuals uncover their authentic selves and build the confidence to navigate life’s transitions with more clarity and purpose.
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Olga has 15 years experience in Talent Acquisition and HR for international tech companies in the Netherlands; she is originally from Romania. She is a Co-Active-trained coach, ICF coach in certification, and an NLP trainer.