Marlene Gerrits

My  career :

When I is was young and people asked me what I wanted to do for a living, I always told them that I wanted to help others.

After my high school education I started nursing school and worked as a nurse (verpleegkunde A in Dutch) in a general hospital. From 1986 until 1989 I worked in a delivery room of this hospital and helped with complicated pregnancies, deliveries and nursed newborns.

From 1989 until 1992 I studied to become a midwife. Thereafter I worked in a private midwifery practice in the Breda area and in the Hilvarenbeek/Middelbeers area, both in The Netherlands. 

Form 1998 until 2002 I studied haptonomy at a Dutch academy. This truly changed my life. As a part of the education I needed to heal my own emotional body and worked on authenticity and transparency. This is necessary in order te be a clean and stable helper for others. During the study I specialized in the various methods of connecting with unborn babies. 

During the years I worked in my own practice, I decided to not only offer the usual preparation for delivery, but to also be more present for the mother and the baby. I gave my clients the attention, time and affection they needed. On top of that I gave many massage workshops for parents to help them during the pregnancy and delivery time.

In 2005 and 2006 I studied foot massage therapy and used ante, during and post partum techniques.

In 2009 I moved to Portugal. I created and managed a small safari lodge accommodation for tourists and, lucky me, also pregnant ladies came to be my guests. After a quick pitstop back in Holland  I went back to Portugal in 2014.

These days I work as an independent Nurse/Midwife in Algarve, Portugal and created this online course.

 

 

 

Private life:

I grew up in a little village in the south of the Netherlands. I was the eldest of 3 girls. I was eager to learn and was kind of a study nerd as a teenager. I loved babysitting at that time, played the trumpet and had a cleaning job at the local motel. I loved high school a lot. The 'in house' study periode to become a fully educated nurse was like living on a 'nurse campus' with other nurses to be, all being 18 years old. 

Meeting my later husband at one point brought on the question of starting a family.  In one way I dreamt of having a child of my own. But my soul yelled "no". So I obeyed that inner voice and never doubted it. I chose to help other mothers and babies. Later on we got divorced and both moved on with our lives. 

Working in healthcare can be a challenge: Being tough on myself and emphatic towards others is a constant battle for balance and so is setting healthy boundaries when it comes to the needs of others.”

I created a beautiful life for myself together with Maarten, Sammie the cat and Suzy the dog by simplifying my life a few times. Living in Fuseta, a small village in Eastern Algarve 20 min from Faro,  feels like home and has increased my feeling of belonging.

The first Covid-19 months brought me a lot of work as a nurse in home care in my Portugese region. We had to work with a lot of restrictions, but managed to do a good job. 

Besides tutorials and online seminars for my occupation I love listening to evolutionary astrologers on YouTube. Since I've started to understand the influences the planets have on our life paths and since I understand my own natal chart a bit, life makes more sense to me. I am an intuitive person but I always want to understand the why, and why me and why now  - OMG!

I am happy, fulfilled and appreciate my own perception of the world.

 

 

Feel free to ask questions: Contact