Peter Spelbos (1954)
For quite a few years, I lived and worked in the non-western world. First in Tanzania, then in several other African and Asian countries. For most of that time I did emergency relief work for the International Red Cross, though I also worked for other organisations.
I learned a lot about people in those years: about how much they can mean to each other, but also about the harm they can do to each other. I learned about love, violence, suffering and death — life’s extremes.
To an important extent, those years abroad have made me what I am today. They formed the basis for my current work as a psychotherapist.
Also, from an early age I have been interested in anthropology, sociology and psychology. So, following my experiences abroad and after some soul-searching, I decided to develop myself further in that direction. This eventually led me to set up IDEE in 2002.
I studied Integrative Psychotherapy at the Netherlands Academy of Psychotherapy, in Amsterdam, where I obtained my post-graduate diploma.
In 2008 I registered as a European Certified Psychotherapist (ECP), a standard accredited by the European Association for Psychotherapy in Vienna.
Private
I live with my sweet wife Conny Heuvelman, a professional trainer and counsellor who regularly works as a trainer and therapist at IDEE. We have a wonderful daughter named Lisa. In the photos on this page (above), you can see Lisa and I in front of the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam this year, and at the ferry behind the Central Station, also in Amsterdam, in 2003.
Before setting up IDEE, I had worked as an entrepreneur, a manager, a coach, a consultant and a teacher. In addition to my psychotherapy studies and a variety of courses and training programmes in other fields, I have studied political science, modern and African history, and business economics.
My hobbies include DJ-ing for a Dutch local radio station, acting as an extra in movies, writing, dancing, and listening to African music. Nowadays, I take things a bit easier.
About life
I’ve done and seen a lot in life so I know what’s what. I know what it is to enjoy life, but also to get stuck, to lose, to mourn and to feel damaged; how it feels to have fears and to be depressed. Yet my life is getting better all the time — and I want the same for you.
I am inspired by Carl Rogers, founder of the client-centred therapy, who said: “I believe that essentially every human being asks himself: who am I really? How do I get in touch with the real self that lies beneath the surface of my behaviour? How can I become myself?”