My name is Ramón, and I am a Dutch-Surinamese psychologist who was born in the Netherlands, and trained in Netherlands, South Africa, and mostly in the UK. I am the eldest of three from an intercultural relationship. I am in an intercultural marriage myself with a Capetonian for more than 25 years and have personal experience of the joys of diversity as well as the tricky and challenging aspects of being part of an intercultural marriage with two amazing children. Since 1998 we are working and living in the UK. My working life as a therapist, supervisor and trainer I spend in the UK and the Netherlands, and occasionally in South Africa.

Educational background and experience:

I obtained my MSc in (Counselling) Psychology from the Vrije Universiteit (‘Free University’) in Amsterdam in 1997. After moving to the UK, I completed the Masters in Systemic Therapy at the Tavistock in London in 2003, became an Approved Supervisor in 2010 from the Institute of Family Therapy, and obtained my doctorate in Psychotherapy in 2014. In addition to the required ongoing training, one needs to do for continued registration as a therapist and supervisor, I have undertaken training in ANT (Attachment Narrative Therapy), MST (Multisystemic Therapy), DDP (Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy), ABFT (Attachment-Based Family Therapy, and I have trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing).

My working life I have dedicated mostly to working with families with adolescents and trauma, and to working with couples in distress. In terms of specific training in couple counselling and marital therapy, I have had training in EFT (Hold Me Tight), PREP, the John Gottman Method, and I am very taken by the insights and writings of Esther Perel.

How I work:

I would describe my work as process-driven, goal-oriented, culturally sensitive, and systemic. This means that I consider people’s backgrounds (racially, culturally, in terms of class, faith, and language, to name a few), think intergenerationally, and always think of the context of people’s lives as individuals and in relation to others. From research we know that the therapeutic relationship is an important factor to successful counselling and therapy, hence I hope to co-create with clients that respectful space to do effective therapy.

Even before the pandemic, I had experience of working online, but this has become a feature of some of the work I undertake with individuals and couples, esp. since global movement has meant that family relationships and those with friends and significant others are spread out. To do justice to the complexity of the therapeutic work there may well be a reason to involve others, and online platforms can offer support with this.

I am delighted to join Expats Counselling Centre in Amsterdam with Ooshani, Jessica and the team. I will be offering most of my sessions online but will be in Amsterdam on a regular basis to see people in person at the consulting rooms. It is important to establish a safe and strong working relationship for the therapy to have the most impact, and so I recommend for us to meet in person at the start and occasionally thereafter at a mutually agreed date and time.

It is important to find that ‘fit’ with your therapist, both you, your partner, and/or child(ren). I do like that at ECC there is a recognition of its importance, and a 20 min free consultation is offered to assist you making the right decision. I am looking forward to meeting with you, if you so wish.

Affiliations:

- AFT (Association of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice)

- NVRG (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Relatie- en Gezinstherapie)

- UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy)