Hi – I’m Ilse. I was an expat kid, and later an expat myself. I’ve seen from both sides how much children carry when they live between different cultures.
Starting from a young age, I experienced what it means to move to a new country every few years. I was born in Rwanda to Dutch parents and then lived all over the world – Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Sri Lankan Tanzania, and The Netherlands. Each move brought adapting to a new culture, language, leaving close friendships behind, while also needing to build new ones. As an adult, I moved abroad again—first as a PhD student in Colombia, and later with my husband and two children for international aid work.
My own childhood experiences, shaped a deep curiosity about how children develop and cope with change: why some navigate it with ease, while others become stuck or overwhelmed, and how intervening early can help break patterns that might otherwise continue across generations.
After dedicating the first part of my career to academic research on child development, I increasingly felt drawn to working directly with children and their families. I wanted not only to understand what helps children thrive, but to be part of that process. I completed a postgraduate Master’s in Play Therapy and opened The Blossom Space, a practice built around everything I’d learned, lived, and come to believe about how children find their inner strengths.
I hold a PhD in Child Psychiatry and Epidemiology from Erasmus University Rotterdam, two Master’s degrees in Health Sciences (Maastricht University and the Free University Amsterdam), and a postgraduate Master’s in Child-Centered Play Therapy from the University of Applied Sciences in Ede. I work in Dutch and English, and have a strong command of French and Spanish.
I live in Utrecht with my two kids, husband and dog.
