Your problem may not be your problem

People usually come to me because something isn’t going well.

They worry too much. Feel stuck. Keep ending up in the same situations. Can’t make a decision. Are unhappy in their work or relationship. Have lost their sense of direction. Or simply feel that life has become much more complicated than it should be.

Those things are real.

But often, there’s another problem sitting on top of the original one: the idea that you shouldn’t be like this. That something is wrong with you. That you need to understand yourself better, fix yourself, heal yourself, improve yourself or finally become the person you were apparently supposed to be all along.

And sometimes that second problem is considerably bigger than the first.

I don’t know either

I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to understand how human beings work.

I’ve read hundreds of books, followed courses and trainings, explored psychology, spirituality and self-help, worked with many people and eventually wrote eight books of my own.

So I learned a lot.

One of the more useful things I concluded is that I know considerably less than I once thought I did.

I don’t have a model that explains you. I don’t know what your life should look like or what you should do next.

No program

So no, there isn’t one.

No workbook, step-by-step plan or method that I pull out of a drawer regardless of what’s happening in your life. We simply start with whatever you’re dealing with.

Sometimes something important shifts when you suddenly see what you’ve been doing for years.

Sometimes you need to face something, stop something, start something or finally make a decision.

And sometimes doing absolutely nothing is exactly what’s called for.

You just don’t have to turn yourself into another project first.

Four conversations

I currently offer coaching as a series of four conversations.

Most sessions are online. If geography and circumstances allow, we can also meet in person.

We don’t have to cram the four sessions into a fixed schedule. Sometimes it makes sense to talk again after a week, sometimes after three weeks. We’ll decide as we go.

The four sessions together cost €850.

There is no homework program, online portal or complicated trajectory attached to it. And between sessions you don’t have to get up at 5:45 every morning to sit gratefully in an ice bath.

About me

I’m Marnix Pauwels, a Dutch writer, coach and plant medicine guide at Ancient Mother Healing Center.

Before doing this, I spent many years in advertising as a copywriter and creative director. I’ve written eight books, worked as a musician, given a TEDx talk (see below) and spent a substantial part of my own life investigating why being a human being can be so unnecessarily difficult.

I’ve also had my share of addiction, anxiety and depression.

For a long time, all of that made me want to find the answer.

These days I’m much more interested in what happens when we stop pretending there has to be one.

You don’t have to know exactly what your problem is.

And you certainly don’t have to convince me that you’re ready for transformation.

If something is going on in your life and you think it might be useful to talk to me about it, send me a message.

We’ll take it from there.