Jan Willem van Balen
Who is JW?
Let see if it clicks
Who will you be working with? That’s an important question. Let’s see if we click. My name is Jan-Willem. I call myself Transformation Trainer. Most people are more familiar with the term “life coach”. Anyway, I love nothing more than helping people. Why? Because I myself had to carry on through a lot of ups and downs before I could live from my core. That’s why I’m happy to help you with the change you’re going through. So that a new YOU can come out of it. That sounds like a laundry detergent commercial, but actually what we do is very simple: we bring up that which no longer serves you and I give you the tools to be able to leave it behind. Let me tell a little more about how I came to do this…
Stand still
Be still
View
Decide
My story
As a child, I could sense other people’s sadness or see right through them when their words didn’t match how they behaved. That little boy wanted to help other people. But of course that was not yet possible. I still had to go through many life experiences myself. My father worked a lot and my mother found it difficult to connect with me. As a teenager, I withdrew and (as it turned out later) suffered from mild depression. At 26, I suffered a severe burnout and a year later I was diagnosed for cancer. I then completely turned my life around. I broke off my then-current relationship. I quit my job as manager of a men’s clothing store. And I quit as the drummer of a successful local band. I finally gave in to my inner desire: I wanted to make theater. And so, at age 27, I began studying at the theater academy. Two years later I moved from the village of Heemskerk to the city of Amsterdam. These were years of great changes. At 31, I graduated and began my creative work as an actor and independent maker of video and theater productions. Things were actually going quite well for me then.
But that wasn’t all. Breakups, selling house, being cheated by friends, having no money, feeling like I was at a dead end with productions and thinking it would never work out for me. I am familiar with heavy heartedness. Yet every time I managed to come back to myself. I have strong spiritual guidance. And if we learn to listen to it, it will bring you back to your true nature every time. Because every person has their own core: you are a caregiver, a leader, a performer, etc. And at that core lies a task that is different for each of us. But necessary. You are needed!
While making productions, sometimes people would come across my path, walking around with a problem. I would talk to them, purely intuitively. They usually came back to me because it helped them.
And so, very slowly, my second profession emerged: coaching people. I call myself a trainer because making a change requires training. (Real change requires perseverance for an average of about three months, according to
scientific research
published in the European Journal of Social Psychology). We humans are creatures of habit. We like to hold on to what we know, even if we know it is not good for us. Anyway, I will help you solve this dilemma by recognising old beliefs and learning new ones.
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I do that in my own way, using my inner compass. I look at people in a holistic way. That is, I see the human being as a whole: body and mind, present and past, and everything that influences it. Holism assumes that everything is interconnected. (The word holism comes from the Greek “holon,” meaning “the whole.”) A very little humor is also important when we work together, but always with respect. It makes life a little easier. And: creativity. Because with creativity you get results more quickly. Anyway, I work with a toolbox: a holistic view, creativity and a touch of humour.
