About Lysanne Sizoo

Core Model

My core training is in Psychosynthesis part of Transpersonal approach. While I certainly won’t be asking you to blame everything on your parents, experience has taught me that much of our dilemma’s have their roots in patterns and assumptions from childhood. My aim is to help you put two and two together and then move through, creating new patterns that work for you. This is called the psychodynamic approach; linking the there and then with the here and now, and using the insights to move forward into the future.

The transpersonal model also asserts that there is a deeper, or transpersonal self, that guides us from beyond the concerns of the ego-self. I like to say we are more than a ‘walking talking ego’. By connecting to this deeper, wiser self, to this inner witness, we come into contact a rich source of self-love and healing, and the true compass for our life’s journey. Whatever brings you into therapy, your distress is the signpost to the authentic you that never gives up trying to emerge.

I firmly believe you have the wisdom to find yourself, and it is my job to connect you to the inner compass. that will take you there.

Your greatest take-aways from taking the time to explore your inner world are choice and resilience. Life will always throw us curve balls, but with the right tools we can become more self-empowered and face them head on.

Areas of experience

INTERNATIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL EXPERTISE

I have lived and worked in several different countries and I have raised my son in a cross cultural marriage. Many of my clients have made their home in countries that are not not their countries of birth. Some have moved around so much they wouldn’t even be able to tell you which country they were from. This combination of personal and my professional experience makes me particularly well-suited to support expats and global nomads on the most important journey of their lives; the journey into their inner world.

In 2009 I founded the Turning Point Counselling centre which quickly became an expertise hub for international clients and therapists. In 2015 I handed over the reins to Veronica Lax before moving back to Holland as a rexpat. I am now back in Stockholm. Your Living City has published a number of my articles on expat issues. I have also been invited to speak about cross-cultural and expat issues at Philip Morris, KTH’s international section, and various international clubs in Stockholm and Amsterdam.

PREGNANCY LOSS

In 2000 Small Sparks of Life came out, a book about my personal journey to motherhood. The book is now to longer in print but you can download a free copy here. I am sad to say that thirty years on, the pain of pregnancy loss remains a hidden grief. There is the unacknowledged sense of despair, jealousy, loneliness and trying to mourn someone who never fully came into being. Not to forget the hopeful fear that accompanies any future pregnancy. These are the important issues that I can address in therapy with the men and women who have suffered their own losses.

EXISTENTIAL ISSUES

Dr. Assagioli, the father of Psychosynthesis tells us that “life is not a riddle to be solved, but a mystery to be experienced”. Reading that sentence, I felt instantly at home. It also set me on a quest to find out who, what or why God is, the many or the One, the Mother or the Father, or just the spark of the divine within me?

Even as a child I felt connected to a deeper current of wisdom underlying all human being. I remember listening to the ‘fire and brimstone’ sermons in the protestant church of my childhood and thinking ‘you’ve got it all wrong’.

My training in this field allows me to remain in that mystery when clients express the desire to explore the meaning and purpose of their lives. As well as existential issues such as death, loneliness, taking responsibility for our own lives, and meaninglessness. It has given me the tools to stay on the quest, rather than seek absolute answers. But by going on the quest, find more clues to the meaning and purpose of their lives, and finding a greater sense of identity and self-connection.

CREATIVE EXPRESSION OF THERAPY

I started out life as a radio and television journalist. But at the age of 21 I had very little of value to say, and the world of news and current affairs proved to be the wrong match. In my thirties I retrained to become a counsellor and then in my forties, completed the training with a Masters degree in Psychotherapy. Gradually, I began to find my voice as a writer again. Small Sparks of Life led the way, followed by articles about pregnancy loss and expat concerns. Today, the outlet for my creative expression is my Healthy Neurotics blog.

Accreditations and Qualifications

ACCREDITATIONS

-          United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy – Nr: 08159899 - from 2009-2014

-          NFG registration – Netherlands - NFG licence: 9262, VPMW – from 2016-2023

-          Psychosynthesis Association Sweden – L. Sizoo – from 2024 -ongoing

TRAINING

2006-2009: Masters - Psychosynthesis Psychotherapy - University of East London  (UKCP accred)

2000-2004: Dip. Counselling (transpersonal) - Psykosyntes Akademien  (RACS accred)

1994-1997:  Dip. Counselling Integrative - CSCT Counselling Harefield Hospital  (BACP accred)

1983-1986:  BA Journalism (radio & TV) - CAJ Kampen later HICO Zwolle (HBO)