Alysha Boekhoudt is a young psychologist, who thanks to her passion for helping others and learning more about the human mind, recently founded Wevolve Coaching & Advisory Services. Boekhoudt told our reporter about her childhood, her passion, inspiration, and how all this influenced her to reach where she is now, and practice her dream profession.
Boekhoudt says that she comes from a family of five, and thanks to her family she could enjoy a beautiful childhood. Even though there is much she does not remember, she says, from pictures she has seen, stories she has heard, and the relationships within her family, she feels sure that despite not having a lot of memories, her childhood was beautiful.
She explains that the reason she doesn’t remember a lot of her childhood is because she is a person dealing with anxiety. “As far as I can remember, I have dealt with this my entire life. When I was young I was never diagnosed with this, but by studying psychology I began recognizing that I have a lot of symptoms of anxiety, and I decided to find help”, she says.
Boekhoudt says that she is the type of person who always loved dancing and she always considered dance as a passion, it was even her side job. “When I dance I feel like I can express all the emotions that I don’t feel comfortable expressing. What’s more, often times I experienced that my emotions come to the surface when I dance. I see this as a very beautiful expressive art.”
Even though she now has graduated in psychology, she points out that this does not mean that studying was something she always liked. She says that when she was younger she was not be best behaved at school, which meant she was held back a year and even had to change schools.
After completing high school, she didn’t attend school for two years. Boekhoudt emphasized that during this time, it came to a point where she decided that she was ready to become and act like an adult. “At that moment I decided to go to the United States, at Coastal Carolina University to do my Bachelors in psychology. I managed to finish my four-year program in three years. I fell in love with psychology and was very determined and excited to learn new things”, she said.
Her passion for psychology took her to FIU in Miami, Florida, where she worked for three months in intensive research with children with ADHD. After graduation, she returned to Aruba and completed her Masters online in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. “I am very lucky that I was able to find a job that I love and that I am good at”, she says.
Boekhoudt emphasizes that her inspiration to study psychology, aside from wanting to help others and not seeing people suffer, what inspired her the most was knowing the mind of a person, her interest in seeing how each mind works differently and what makes each person react different.
Even after more than three years working as a psychologist, she underscores, every case that she takes makes her more and more curious about the mind. “This is my motivation to continue studying so that I can understand and help my clients better.”
Boekhoudt is founder of Wevolve Coaching & Advisory Services. She explains that seeing the amount of people needing help was one of the biggest motivations for her to start her own practice. Despite this, she is a person with a lot of creative ideas to work with foundations and the community of Aruba, and keeping this in mind, working in her own private practice facilitates these possibilities.
“The main goal of Wevolve, as the name suggests, is for us to evolve together. I as a psychologist will provide the tools and together we will reach your goals. Aside from that, Wevolve is not focused only on curative treatment but also preventive treatment. This is why we organize a lot of workshops and talks”, she indicated.
Regarding the future, Boekhoudt pointed out that normally she doesn’t like to think so far, but if she has to imagine herself in ten years, she sees a 38 year old woman with a beautiful and happy family. A person who each day does what makes her happy, and dedicates time to herself and her family.
For Wevolve’s future, she sees it as a bigger company having more psychologists working to help more people in need. She adds that she has a lot of interest in working with foundations on the island, and even come up with new projects to help the people. “Plans for the future there are many, but little by little I adapt them and reach my goal.”
Finalizing, Boekhoudt expresses her message for the community: “Life is a beautiful gift that we received. What’s more, it is a gift that few of us received. Use this opportunity to create the life you deserve. Believe that you deserve a beautiful life because you really deserve it. There are times when things can go in ways we do not want and we can feel like we cannot handle it on our own. It’s okay, we are human. Reach out to your loved ones or contact a psychologist for help. Wevolve’s doors are always open.
