Aafke Satyananda Heuvink

I am a certified facilitator of the work of Byron Katie. That means that I have completed the ITW certification program. I have staffed at many 9-day Schools for The Work and I offer workshops, residential retreats and year courses in The Netherlands.

I  work with individual clients over phone, Zoom or Skype.

In our beautiful house in France I offer individual retreats and retreats for couples, colleagues and family members.

Some background information

In The Work I have found a tool that gently but decisively cuts through all the less than friendly states of mind and through every scar tissue. Thoughts about me or about the people around me that are less than loving show me the way to inner clarity.

Having gone through a severe and extremely painful juvenile depression that lasted well into my twenties, I decided early on in my life that I could not rely on anyone or anything and that I had to take my life rigorously into my own hands. I banned people from my life when I suspected that they would unsettle my relative peace, and I was always busy molding my circumstances. Trying to improve myself was also an ongoing project. If I would be perfect, I thought, everybody would love me unconditionally, including me.

Although my life looked good and sometimes great on the outside, I felt like I was living in a mental prison. Whatever I did with the purpose of liberating myself seemed to make the bars close in on me more tightly. I was wearing myself out, and I started to develop a sense of failure, and with that came a ruthless sense of self-hatred.

Through The Work I have come to welcome all the painful thoughts and feelings, where I used to battle them and try to outdo and conquer them before. The four questions and turnarounds are so simple and yet so all pervasive. They invariably take me back to my true nature, and I have yet to find a subject that cannot be undone in the process.

In addition to facilitating The Work, I am a writer and translator from Arabic to Dutch. I work for refugees from Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, etcetera and I translate novels from Arabic writers. I also write theatre plays and have a professional background in education and art. I love to share The Work with individuals, couples and groups – in person or by Skype, Zoom or phone – anywhere in the world.