Founded to help people find true healing for themselves
Strelitzia offers health care based on nearly a decade of hands on clinical experience and an ongoing living experience of the ancient spiritual plant medicine traditions from Brazil. Our core values are self-determination and liberty, while honouring the "first, do no harm" principle.
I am trained as a medical doctor in the Netherlands with a specialization in elderly care. I also hold a Master's degree in philosophy (with honours), specializing in medical ethics. I began my career at age 25 caring for elderly patients in nursing facilities.
For almost ten years, I developed an observant, intuitive approach: listening carefully to patients and families, navigating protocols prioritizing what was truly best for the individual.
My success was widely recognized. By age 33, in 2020, I was asked to become medical director for two large elderly care organizations with end-responsibility for 2,000 patients.
Nationally in the Netherlands, I worked:
Adding quality to life and life to years was my guiding focus.
Early in my career, I specialized in deprescribing — safely reducing medications.
Seeing patients blossom, regain vitality, and thrive with fewer pills reinforced my conviction that less is often more. Autonomy, informed consent, and self-determination were non-negotiable pillars of my practice and advisory work.
In 2020, the COVID-19 measures placed unprecedented pressure on these core ethical principles and the oath to "first, do no harm."
Unable to participate in a system I believed was acting contrary to these values — and convinced it could not be reformed from within — I made the painful decision at the beginning of 2021 to leave the profession I loved.
This was about preserving integrity. Some decisions transcend career advancement.
Since 2021, together with my husband, I have lived in Brazil.
I immersed myself in the study of:
This experience has profoundly deepened my understanding of health, humanity's connection to nature, and the broader dimensions of healing beyond conventional medicine.
Today, free from institutional or pharmaceutical constraints, I offer truly independent, holistic health guidance through Strelitzia.
The name comes from the bird of paradise flower — a symbol of freedom, joy, and transformation. Like this beautiful bloom that emerges when given the right conditions, human health can flourish when freed from unnecessary interventions.
I chose to re-educate myself and carve out a way to be of service to others again. My purpose is to help people find true healing for themselves.