Achieve your career goals and get to know your best self.

The Empowerment Foundation has supported more than 1,000 individuals in advancing their careers.

We offer free career coaching sessions* for qualified job seekers ready to pursue personal and professional development.

What is coaching?

Coaching is your key to career and personal success. By exploring your personal and professional profiles, you can build confidence, refine your job search, present your best self to employers, and embark on a career with meaning.

  • If you are unemployed and looking for a job in the Netherlands, the foundation provides no-cost coaching sessions to support your search. Get started by filling out the form here.

  • After completing the form here, the Empowerment Foundation team will review your profile, send you a payment link for the admin fees, and the coaching contract, and then match you with a coach. 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. After you have completed your coaching trajectory, we’ll send a survey for you to share your experience to help us improve our future offerings.

  • We offer holistic coaching for personal and professional development.

  • Coaching sessions are opportunities for you to explore what matters most to you. Examples include career changes, updating a CV and cover letter, life planning, and more.

  • Coaching sessions are typically one hour long and held virtually via Zoom or telephone. You will have the chance to share your thoughts and receive coaching personalised to you. You will also sometimes 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.

  • All of our coaches are certified and have undergone extensive training prior to joining the Empowerment Foundation. We provide regular seminars and check-ins to ensure their (and your) success.

  • Our coaching is offered at no cost to job seekers. However, we ask for a *one-time registration fee of €25 to maintain and grow our systems and operations. Reach out using the form here for other pricing.

  • Yes. In addition to individual coaching, we also offer corporate services, including Executive and Career coaching programmes, Outplacement programs, workshops, diversity consulting, and more. Fill out the form here to register your interest.

Meet Our Coaches

Fully certified and representing more than 15 countries and languages, our coaches are dedicated to your success.

  • 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.

    Website and LinkedIn

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

    LinkedIn

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Born and raised in Singapore, Faith resides in the Netherlands today and considers herself a woman of the world and an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion.

    She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and Associate Certified Coach (ACC), accredited by the International Coach Federation. With more than 8 years of experience in coaching and leading high performing teams in the international corporate environment, she has demonstrated powerful, trusted, and effective leadership. She is adept with leading individuals, teams and leaders through change and resolving conflict.

    As a Human Resources leader and a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (CLSSBB) in the global travel technology industry, she has honed her skills in talent management, project management, operations excellence and driving continuous improvement strategies.

    Faith's mission is to "humanize" the world, where every individual feel seen, heard and empowered, and can therefore thrive and achieve sustained peak performance.

    Website

  • 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.

    Website and LinkedIn

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Jolanda is an intuitive coach and a true entrepreneur with a great interest in personal development. Her first job was in an international environment. That remained the common thread in her entire career. This fact, combined with the interest in other cultures led her to set up her own relocation agency which she ran for 15 years. Jolanda learned a lot from all those brave people leaving their home country to work and live in a new country. That is one of the reasons why she likea to coach Empowerment clients. She coaches people around re-connecting with their body in order to discover who they truly are rather than identifying with the thoughts they have about themselves; which are often negative. Results are: regaining your self-confidence, having clarity about what you want, creating awareness about why you do what you do.

  • 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.

    Website and LinkedIn

  • Kristel is a retail professional with experience in various international markets, expanding and consolidating international brands and teams. She is focused on coaching and mentoring leaders to reach their full potential and transform to the next level.

    Kristel is of half Spanish and half Dutch heritage. She is a Co-Active Certified Coach and also has an ACC accreditation from the ICF.

    As a coach, she is passionate about inspiring her clients to gain confidence and authenticity while pursuing their dreams. She empowers others to achieve a better work-life balance, which has a positive impact on their personal and professional lives.

  • 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.

    Website and LinkedIn

  • 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.

  • Since 2018 she has coached several clients with different nationalities and cultures, working in various fields, with respect and curiosity for everyone’s point of view.

    She has a holistic approach that improves your self-guidance, analyses motivations and difficulties, and enables you to form a precise plan to reach your goals. Her clients are highly sensitive people in every profession, creatives, and young and senior academics of all disciplines.

    Website and LinkedIn

  • 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.

  • 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.

    Website and LinkedIn

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Susana comes from a small city, Coruña, close to the end of the earth in the death coast in Spain, no wonder from an early age, she always felt like living in other lands. She's been living abroad as long as she lived in Spain. First in the UK and nowadays in Amsterdam. She worked more than two decades in large international fashion companies on Tech projects, including leadership roles, until she changed her career and crafted her own job, becoming the first People Coach at PVH (Tommy Hilfiger/Calvin Klein).

    Susana's moto is finding joy in be(com)ing. She believes that you already have everything it takes to live your dream life, it just requires some self-rediscovering. How? By co-creating a safe PLAYground where you will explore BEing you (your values, life purpose, blockers, etc.). From there look ahead and work on your BECOMing.

Susan de Vriend
  • 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.

    Website

  • Tania Bos, originally from France, has been living in Amsterdam with her husband and two children since 1999. Her professional experience includes more than 25 years in educational publishing, both in Paris and in Amsterdam.

    During the 2020 pandemic, Tania embarked on a new professional journey. She trained and qualified as a solution-focused coach with Erickson International, where she has been working as a Teacher Assistant since. Tania holds the professional certification of Associate Certified Coach (ACC) by the International Coaching Federation. She works in French, Dutch and English, focusing on the international community in the Netherlands: people looking for a career change, seeking a new balance in the midst of a cultural transition, etc.

    As a solution-oriented coach, she helps her clients: connect with their goals, priorities and motivation; manage projects better (with the necessary tools) and feel more confident in their decision-making abilities; open up to future solutions by helping them to relax, listen to themselves and develop an effective action plan; and develop a deeper commitment to their life project.

    Tania is positive, genuinely interested in people, creates a safe space, listens intently, and is an expert in cross-cultural issues.

  • 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.