The life journey of Suus
The foto above is from my trip to Peru in 2024 with the Inca priest/shaman (Pampamesayok) Don Hernan. The initation ceremony.
This first Blog is about my journey to become a Devine Voice of Mystery after 20 years.
I grew up in a normal family in Zandvoort aan Zee. Growing up in this family, where animals were loved very much, I could never have imagined the path I am now walking. As a teenager, I visited spiritual fairs and had tarot cards read and my aura photographed out of curiosity. This wasn’t something I inherited from home, but it felt interesting to me. In everyday life, I was mainly following the expected path: finish high school, study, and in my case, become a veterinarian.
I spent a lot of time at the stable, but while others enjoyed riding circles in the arena, I found it rather dull. I much preferred trail rides and being with the horses. Little did I know then what I know now: I was already energetically connected to the horses and found much more joy in the freedom of the beach and dunes. When I was 15, I helped the local shrimp fisherman with his horse Els, a Shire. Els was meant to eventually help with shrimp fishing, but she was afraid of everything. After a year, the shrimp fisherman decided that Els would be better off with her herd on Texel, where she came from. I remember finding that so remarkable; he put Els’s happiness above his own pleasure of working with her.
And so many more things happened where I could only piece together the puzzle afterward, but as I mentioned, I wasn’t focused on putting the pieces together; I just wanted to move forward. Becoming a veterinarian was my dream. Working hard in high school to succeed, and I did. Only to not be accepted into veterinary school, which was a huge disappointment. So, I settled for biology, and the following year, once again, not accepted into veterinary school. But miraculously, when the semester had already started for two months, I found out there had been a mistake. I could still join the program.
After my studies, I worked as a horse and cattle veterinarian. At 26, I set off with great enthusiasm. Unaware that the livestock industry treats animals differently than what was customary in our family and what I felt was the right way to treat animals. I encountered situations where the welfare of the animal was not the priority, but rather money, the business. I love cows, and working with cows was my dream, but I wanted to do it differently. After 1.5 years, I had had enough and wanted out of the practice. I applied to a pharmaceutical company, thinking it would be better to focus on prevention with vaccines and medication. And again, I can say that I wouldn’t want to miss the experience and life lessons, but always in hindsight because I didn’t feel comfortable there either and wanted to return to practice. This time, with companion animals. And in the working veterinarian life, I was somewhat disillusioned.
I was now working in a very nice and busy and progressive clinic in the metropolitan area, an animal hospital. The colleagues were great, the work was exhausting but challenging, and I thought I had found my place. When I felt frustrated because I couldn’t help an animal with medicine, I often attributed it to my own incompetence or the unwillingness of the owners to invest.
And then I crashed, literally, I was brushing my teeth to go out, and suddenly I couldn’t stand on my legs anymore. I was a keen rower, so I thought that after a night’s rest, I could get back in the boat on Sunday. Nothing could be further from the truth.
After a week, I could move again, but I still had terrible back pain. After a lot of physiotherapy, with no real results, it was finally concluded after half a year that I was burnt out, and this was difficult for me to grasp. So difficult that I made desperate attempts to continue working for the first year. But it just wouldn’t work anymore.
But, after many years, it’s the most valuable thing that has ever happened to me. It meant that things had to change. I just didn’t know how. Because in my eyes, there was nothing wrong?
In the meantime, I was slowly getting back to work and got a dog named Cassa as a patient: a young dog who had terrible itching, which later turned out to be demodex as the cause. The person (I don’t refer to them as owners) of Cassa was a dear man with an intellectual disability. No matter what therapy or change I suggested, it wasn’t followed, causing Cassa to deteriorate, and I was at my wit’s end.
At the gym, I worked out with a woman I only said hello to, but I understood she was an animal communicator. Her name is Cecilia Götherström. I took the plunge because I had nothing to lose and asked her if she would help me with a consultation to find out what Cassa needed. She agreed, and a week later she called and said, “We need to grab coffee.” That sounded exciting already. And that was the moment everything changed in my life, thanks to Cassa. Cecilia told me that the conversation with Cassa hardly concerned Cassa or the owner but was about me. I hardly knew Cecilia then. Cassa detailedly described what my life was like and what I was struggling with. If I hadn’t just been working out with her, I definitely wouldn’t have believed it, but I had no choice; it was so accurate.
Then my curiosity was seriously piqued, and I definitely wanted to know more about this. I took a course in animal communication with her, and thus began my journey into the unknown. I started practicing, and because I didn’t want to deceive myself (because that’s what you think at first: I’m making it all up), I wanted to practice with dogs and people I didn’t know. Like Cecilia had done with me.
Through my mother, who walked with a group of women in the dunes of Zandvoort every day, I got in touch with a few dogs and their people. To practice, I had to ask verifiable questions. Such as: what does your house look like? What is it that your person (again, we don’t talk about owners) prefers to keep hidden? Well, when I received the feedback, I was relieved of any doubt myself. Everything matched! The garden gate, the front door, the color and shape of the hallway, where the coat rack hangs, etc., etc. The dogs described every detail. And I didn’t know these people at all, I’ve never seen them. But what stuck with me the most is a dog who told me that the person had a secret that no one should know about, except her husband. She wore Crocs in her house. When this lady heard that through my mother, she almost had a fit because truly no one knew that. She was terribly ashamed of her Crocs. How could I know that, she asked my mother.
Then I dared to admit that I can communicate with animals. Meanwhile, I still experienced my burnout and still felt very tired. I’m the type who wants everything quickly, and this wasn’t progressing, so I kept looking for a solution. I decided to go sugar-free, and my brain fog disappeared, I gained more energy, and I felt my body getting stronger. Of course, then came the question: how would that work with the animals? If nutrition is so important (I had no idea then), what else am I missing? I then decided to study to become a human gut therapist, not at all with the goal of doing something with it, but I wanted to know everything inside out. And there too came the question: how would that work with the animals? And then I was seized by this new world full of knowledge and things I didn’t learn at the faculty. The microbiome is so incredibly important, and there was the key for me, there’s more. My toolbox gradually became more and more filled. With this toolbox, my fire started burning again, it was so much fun to learn new things. And not just that, but especially my whole view on animals, nature, and the world around us.
Inspired by all of the above, I continued to pursue more education. I did a year-long shamanic training with an American Elder, to better understand the universe (if that’s ever possible ;-)), and in the meantime, I discovered more and more that I wanted to give more space to the feeling I had as a child in the stable with the horses in my own working life. Not the beaten path, riding on a horse, but understanding what the horse, the animal wants. What the animal communicates. There was, of course, no time for that in the practice as a veterinarian during a consultation. It started to dawn on me that I didn’t want to go back to the practice because it no longer brought me joy.
To get back into a work routine, I did an internship at De Groene Os, a company that sells supplements and herbal tinctures for animals. I also ended up working there and my knowledge about herbs grew there along with everything I learned in all my other studies because I’ve gone deeper and further with them to this day. The toolbox is now overflowing. The beautiful and remarkable experiences too.
For my birthday, my husband gave me a weekend in London with a 3-day basic training in Thetahealing. I had never heard of it, but I let myself be taken and immersed myself in this new piece I had to learn. Thetahealing is about limiting beliefs that prevent you from living your fullest potential. If you resolve those beliefs and replace them with something positive, you will grow. During that weekend, I thought the same thing again: How would that work with the animals?
Animals undoubtedly suffer from this too, and I went on to do further training to investigate this. I did the 3 week intuitive anatomy training in London with Anna Kitney (a monument within Thetahealing). What does each organ have to say, and how can you change your beliefs so that the self-healing ability is invoked, it was mind-blowing. I’m not done learning yet; I still find TCM mega-interesting, and I don’t rule out delving deeper into it in the future because I would love to expand my basic knowledge.
In addition to working at De Groene Os, I started my own practice where I helped animals and people gain insights into why their animal was sick and what therapy in the form of herbs, nutrition, healing, or a combination could help. And not entirely unimportant, probably the most important, what message does the animal have for you, the human. Because my experience is that as humans, we often have something to do and then the animal changes, whether it’s behavior or health.
I have learned a lot from these animals. They possess so much profound wisdom. We humans tell ourselves stories with all kinds of consequences. Animals love unconditionally and want to help us (sometimes at their own expense).
My mission is: to give animals a voice so that we as humans can honor them and see their wisdom and also listen to it so that ultimately we can live together in harmony and equality.