Annet de Zwart is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with her. She impressed us with her expertise and experience.

She is a highly dedicated coach with a passion for empowering others. Embracing her uniqueness as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), Annet believes that everyone has exceptional qualities. Her coaching journey began after completing her training at iPEC, a renowned coaching institute in the USA and Europe. Returning to the Netherlands, she found her calling in coaching HSPs, focusing on areas like boundaries, self care, burnout, and stress management.

She is committed to continuous growth, as it is evident in her PCC credential from the International Coaching Federation, backed by over 500 hours of coaching experience. She equips herself with diverse tools to address the unique challenges faced by HSPs. As a highly sensitive individual herself, she empathizes with her clients’ struggles and emphasizes the importance of self-care and authenticity.

Her coaching approach revolves around embracing challenges as opportunities for growth. Guiding clients to discover their desires and align actions with core values, she helps them experience increased happiness, reduced stress, and improved focus. Here is what she said.

Meet Life Coach Annet de Zwart:

Name: Annet de Zwart

Pillar: The Mind, The Heart

Who is this coach for: Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP’s) who want to find clarity, learn how to take care of themselves better so they can unleash their true power and live happier lives.

How they can help: By using Positive Intelligence, as well as other various tools and techniques.

First of all, how are you and your family doing after these Pandemic times?

We are doing fine, so happy everything is back to a new normal.

Things have obviously changed, I feel everyone became more aware of our vulnerability, which has made me work more actively on my health.

Working out more and eating healthier.

How did the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?

In my coaching I find that the pandemic has opened up the willingness to work online more.

At the start of my career as a coach I always worked via phone and in person, but the last five year more and more via Zoom or other online meeting platforms.

I am happy that people are more open to online coaching because I think it does not influence the results you can get from coaching and it saves so much travel time.

And you get to find that specific coach you really want to work with instead of having limited choice in your area.

For me personally it means I work more alone, and I have learned to also find balance in this by actively seeking more contact with colleagues and friends so I also have enough joy and fun in my life.

What are the biggest lessons that you learned in this pandemic?

The pandemic has taught me that there is a big world outside, in which so many great people live, and I’ve gotten to meet so many of them that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

People and information became even more accessible than they were before.

The Origin:

Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?

I started coaching career after doing my training at iPEC (one of the best coaching institutes in the USA and Europe, according to several studies, among one done by Forbes).

I was living in the USA at the time, and I always known I wanted to work with people, and back then, coaching became more known and I was fascinated by the combination of empowering people and helping them to create a better life and so I decided to go for it.

I am one of those people who has done so many different things in life but never found my ‘thing’ until I was a bit older, which happens to a lot of highly sensitives, which is one of the things I identify as, and also what became naturally my niche.

After my coach training we moved back to the Netherlands and although I started with general life coaching, most people who came to me where Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP’s).

I found out I am an HSP when I was in my early twenties so I have known for a long time.

Slowly I started to learn more and more about this temperament trait, and along the way I did all kinds of different trainings and learned more and more how people can thrive.

One of them being a training in person from Dr. Elaine Aron, who named the HSP trait and who has done a lot of scientific research on this topic.

At this moment I am coaching for over a decade and hold a PCC credential (Professional Certified Coach) by the International Coaching Federation.

Which means I have over 500 hours experience and follow their code of ethics and continuously do new trainings to further grow my knowledge of coaching.

I love learning new things so this is something I enjoy very much.

I am committed to helping clients learn new things and in doing so, guiding them to a more thriving life.

I work mostly with HSP’s on themes such as boundaries, self care, but also on burn out and stress management.

This can be work related, but also personal or relational coaching.

I believe everyone ultimately knows what is best for themselves, sometimes it is less clear and maybe even you feel you don’t know, through coaching you can learn how to uncover and access your intuition and follow your inner voice.

What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?

My biggest obstacle in life was being a Highly Sensitive.

When I was younger I had so many struggles with fitting in, I often felt alone and weird because as a sensitive you see and experience the world very different than others.

Over the years I learned how to take care of myself, to know what is important to me and to create the life that I want to lead, without feeling anxious and stressed about and by others.

These days my sensitivity is a great addition, I feel it gives my life an extra dimension that not everyone has, and I would’t trade it for anything!

The Coaching Style:

How do you innovate with coaching your clients?

As I mentioned, I love expanding my own knowledge, which has given me a very varied toolbox over the years which I use with clients, and great insights to what HSP’s often find challenging in life and how to help them overcome them.

I have learned over the years to be very flexible and to help clients find their own manual so to speak.

Often we have not learned in childhood to take care of ourselves in the most effective way, often our parents did not know how to take optimally take care of ourselves and so could not teach us as well.

Which is why we often seek knowledge later in life, how to create a happier life.

I believe every person is unique and I help HSP’s find their own personal values and create a life according to those.

What’s unique about your coaching approach?

My coaching approach is unique in that I see each person as a unique being who is awesome.

All challenges and problems we experience in life are here to teach us something, we can learn and grow from them.

If we accept and validate what is, we can start to really look at what we want different and start making changes.

This can be an overwhelming and confusing time, in which I support my clients extensively so they can take small steps to get where they want to be.

And over the years I have accumulated so many tools and insights and that gives me flexibility to guide others and teach them also how to have a more thriving life.

What benefits do your clients get after working with you?

The benefits my clients have when working with me is they gain more clear insight on what is not working well in their lives, and from that, also see clearly what they do want more of in life, what they want and need, based on their values.

The result of that is that they feel happier, are less stressed and feel less anxious, and they have more focus in life.

Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?

In my coaching I love to use Positive Intelligence, which is a way to gain more mental fitness, which means you have more resilience to deal with everyday challenges in life.

You can train the brain just as you would train your body at the gym.

With Positive Intelligence you’ll gain more insight into what is keeping you from thriving, what your inner voices are saying, how this effects your life, and how to make changes in this. We all have our inner critic that guides our actions and feelings.

Positive Intelligence gives us the way to have more conscious choice in life, to choose more actively what happens in life and how we feel about it.

The Impact:

If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?

My most important message to everyone is that the trait of High Sensitivity is a great characteristic.

Wether you are one or not, it is something the world as a whole needs to thrive.

About a fifth of all people are HSP’s, and this group has some pretty amazing qualities that can be put to use for the whole population.

So being a Highly Sensitive Person is great!

Once you have learned how to take care of yourself it is a wonderful trait that you can use to thrive and support others as well.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?

The greatest lesson that I learned in life is that it is ok to follow your own passion and heart, it is even important and necessary for my thriving.

If I don’t, I suppress part of myself which will make me unhappy.

And I found out that when I do follow my own joy and values, I am also of greater value to others, which makes it a win win situation.

The more I follow my own heart, the more I have to offer to others.

Your final thoughts?

I love connecting with others on topics as this and if you are interested, connect with me through one on my social media, or email me with questions you may have.

If you want to hear more from me, listen to my podcast Sensitive and Strong, or watch a video on Vimeo.

Where Can You Find Annet de Zwart?

If you liked this interview and if you are a sensitive that would love to find guidance and unleash their true potential, go to https://highsensitivecoaching.com/ and see how Annet can help you.

If you’d like to find out more about her coaching, follow her on Facebook and Instagram, you can also follow her LinkedIn Page.

If you’d like to connect with her more personally, you can do that via LinkedIn or by sending her a message on her Email contact@highsensitivecoaching.com. It was an honor having this interview with her.