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Choose AgainSix Steps to FREEDOMA Clear Path to Your Authentic Self
by Diederik Wolsak RPC, MPCP
This long awaited book by Choose Again Program Director, Diederik Wolsak is now available!
Discover what inspired Diederik to create the Six Steps to Freedom, and learn how to use the steps to transform your life for good! “From his early sorrows, and from the later suffering he engendered for himself as a result, Diederik Wolsak has fashioned a practical, Six Step program to self-liberation. He transmits his teaching directly and eloquently, and with unsparing honesty. He has already helped many fellow humans; with this book he can help many more.” Gabor Maté M.D. Choose Again Six Steps to FREEDOM is available to purchase now from these and other retailers.
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A selection of reviews of the book:
Anyone Can Do This; Very Empowering
"Tired of feeling like a victim? This book requires leaving blame at the doorstep, to learn a new way of being. It's worth the trade. Readers will recognize themselves in this book; it brims with healing tales of diverse people, many previously declared “hopeless”.
I’m a psychologist, who specialized in trauma recovery (specifically EMDR) before I retired and before I discovered the Course in Miracles. Some steps that Wolsak teaches are similar to what I learned: Follow upsetting emotions to the root experience, find the core belief about oneself hatched in that moment, and correct the belief. I witnessed many loosening their grip on symptoms and suffering, so that they could live “normal” lives.
However, I harbored a nagging, existential question based upon the observation that the absence of symptoms, the return to this “normal” life, is not joy’s equivalent. How, then, do we access joy--the full measure of healing?
Wolsak tells us how, through his unique voice. Within this gem are refreshing (though likely provocative to some) principles for complete healing, no matter what the issue.
Here are some:
He gives concrete examples--this is not left as an abstract concept.
There are many paths to healing. If you’re seeking, read this book. The steps are simple, yielding profound results. I couldn’t put the book down and I saw results personally within two days. I’m grateful to the author and for his courage to write this book."
- Beth Warner
I’m a psychologist, who specialized in trauma recovery (specifically EMDR) before I retired and before I discovered the Course in Miracles. Some steps that Wolsak teaches are similar to what I learned: Follow upsetting emotions to the root experience, find the core belief about oneself hatched in that moment, and correct the belief. I witnessed many loosening their grip on symptoms and suffering, so that they could live “normal” lives.
However, I harbored a nagging, existential question based upon the observation that the absence of symptoms, the return to this “normal” life, is not joy’s equivalent. How, then, do we access joy--the full measure of healing?
Wolsak tells us how, through his unique voice. Within this gem are refreshing (though likely provocative to some) principles for complete healing, no matter what the issue.
Here are some:
- Forgiveness has a new twist: It isn’t about forgiving someone else, it’s about identifying and forgiving ourselves for the mistaken ideas we’ve constructed about what we are, usually loathesome.
- Suffering is an identity issue. We forgot who we really are, and made up a complex, painful ego-based identity that imprisons. Once we remember, suffering dissolves and so does the prison.
- When one heals, it doesn’t occur in isolation. There’s a ripple effect. We aren’t healed alone because we aren’t alone.
He gives concrete examples--this is not left as an abstract concept.
There are many paths to healing. If you’re seeking, read this book. The steps are simple, yielding profound results. I couldn’t put the book down and I saw results personally within two days. I’m grateful to the author and for his courage to write this book."
- Beth Warner
I am starting to recommend “ choose again “ to friends
"I have been reading “ choose again”. The one core belief “I am a separate self” can be and is un believed by resting(abiding in our true nature )-direct path. He uses progressive path techniques, teachings to put separate selfs(thot) into the direct path. Everything that arises is experience that we label with thought , feelings, emotions, perception. Awareness knows itself thru experience, God knows itself thru creation. I am starting to recommend “ choose again “ to friends, I get introduced to many books that are meant to pass thru me to others. This is one of them. Tell him I love him and his work. We change the world from the inside because there is no world to change."
This book offers a practical, simplified way to lasting peace of mind.
"This is the best self help book I have ever read. It is not just a book of ideas but offers practical steps to heal even the most difficult past hurts and upsets in such a clear and concise step by step process. In using the Choose Again method I find it so liberating to be free of the past and have lasting peace of mind. I strongly believe that if all the world would read Choose Again and practice the Six Steps to Freedom, world peace would be possible."
A ripple effect of healing
"This incredible book has a laser focus and leads to a permanent repair of traumas and upsets...big and small. This book identifies the source of suffering where a new choice can be made with a peaceful conviction. And that simply changes everything!"
We can choose how we perceive anything or anyone. Not locked in anymore!!!!
"Without a doubt at the top of my list. Diederik is inspirational in a way that touched my soul at its very core. Learning from him is a gift that keeps on giving. Excited to apply what he shares to my own life."
A Vital Recovery Tool
Choose Again Six Steps To Freedom by Diederik Wolsak is a vital recovery tool - clearly explained and easy to grasp.
Through faulty wiring and a wrong, self-sabotaging belief systems, Diederik explains how fear becomes the ruling factor in our lives, causing us no end of pain and suffering.
Using The Six Steps alone, or in combination with the 12 steps recovery process, I have repeatedly managed to help alcohol and drug addicted people towards a life of dignity and integrity.
It is, from my own experience, the simplest way to become a responsive, accountable adult.
Thank you, Diederik, for this inspirational and phenomenally important work; teaching us how to turn from Fear to Love.
Gøril Abelvik,
Drug and Alcohol Counsellor.
Through faulty wiring and a wrong, self-sabotaging belief systems, Diederik explains how fear becomes the ruling factor in our lives, causing us no end of pain and suffering.
Using The Six Steps alone, or in combination with the 12 steps recovery process, I have repeatedly managed to help alcohol and drug addicted people towards a life of dignity and integrity.
It is, from my own experience, the simplest way to become a responsive, accountable adult.
Thank you, Diederik, for this inspirational and phenomenally important work; teaching us how to turn from Fear to Love.
Gøril Abelvik,
Drug and Alcohol Counsellor.
I love my life more than ever before.
My introduction to Diederik Wolsak and Choose Again Six Steps was a workshop entitled," Who do you think you are?", which Diederik co-facilitated with Gabor Maté. I have put one foot in front of the other, since then, toward a much better understanding of my belief system and how to choose love over fear. Since reading Diederik's Book, my appreciation and comprehension of the Six Steps have deepened and I can truly say I love my life more than ever before. This work, if diligently practiced, exceeds all other formulas for achieving peace, joy and loving relationship with self and others. Choose Again, Six Steps to Freedom is nothing short of a miracle waiting to happen to you! It's up to you to take each step and I can confirm," I'm worth it and so are you!"
Gina Chapin
Gina Chapin
This book leads the way with perfect clarity.
Loved this book. The timing was perfect. It was high tide for me to make a shift. The easy to follow format that Diederik lays out became the catalyst to unlocking my awareness of the many unknown mistaken beliefs that I had created. I was unfortunately living much of my life according to these negative beliefs in the back drop. It made perfect sense that my thoughts are directed by my beliefs so obviously I should be curious & question them. This book leads the way with perfect clarity. I had many ah ha moments of which I am eternally grateful, humbled & changed. Making the necessary steps to correction was profoundly freeing & unbelievably healing. What a massive transformation. I literally couldn’t put this book down or out of my thoughts. Words simply can’t get close to the depth of peace, happiness, joining & love this process entails when put into production. A wealth of knowledge & huge wake up. Thank you to all who had a hand in the making. Now let’s introduce to the rest of the world so they too can forever share in this invaluable wisdom. There is a new permanent song in my soul! Yay! Great gift idea.
Holly Mitchell
Holly Mitchell
Thanks so very very much for this wonderful, deep grounded and essential book!!
Thanks so very very much for this wonderful, deep grounded and essential book!! - delighted I am to see this perfectly well done!
Very touching as Diderik lets me again (as in the workshops) take part of his personal story and hard but successful way to gain what he has achieved wonderfully for himself and for already many many thousands of others too, including me on top, haha.
And in the book he now gives me even more clarity and more strength to stick determinedly (as Diederik always suggests) to my own healing process of my made up "little myself ego-me“.
This by being openly clear and straight - by sharing his personal story and how he made up insane beliefs and his handling of sometimes still upcoming triggers and struggles himself.
As a wonderful teacher and still as he says himself - as a student, still training his mind and processing what comes up that doesn’t feel like love.
That is what he teaches and - lives… and now he put all that together in a book - how great is that.
Diederik teaches as he has learned and invented a deeply grounded healing process - once to „save" his life and to come over destroying and devastating unhealthy personal mechanisms and coping strategies. His 6 steps leads us to love, peace and to prospering and more and more joy - and he simply shows us HOW TO change the fundamental experience of life! By just constantly questioning thoughts an feelings and changing our core-beliefes and choosing again towards love.
He himself shows us step by step how he changed his fundamental, sometimes horror experiences of his childhood into a gift of healing - „just“ by the determined choosing again of love and peace and joy - instead of fear and hate and rage.
And through a actually „simple“ but just honest and deep forgiving process - he provides us with a miraculous tool for healing ourselves!
He shows us how the forgiveness for "foolishing ourself“ can heal us. He shows how to look through our own made up imperfect and lacking identity and devastating unconscious guilt and depressing victim programs.
He gives clear orientation and a clear frame-set of parctical steps towards inner peace.
I’ve learned all this some 3 years ago - when I had thought that I would never find any kind of lasting peace in this world or myself - and never inside me. Diederik helped me through his clear and understandable steps and program to gain what never ever seemed possible to me. Peace is getting real every moment today through the 6 steps as a mind-tarining program in my daily life - for me personally, in my relationships as well as in business. Just miraculous.
I have always thought and seen that Diderik has put together practical and scientific knowledge, arranged it newly and easy to follow. As never before! I have seen real miracles happen in dozens of healing circles. Within minutes after just 6 honest and open steps towards REAL healing people had mind-blowing insights and proof of being just innocent and loving beings. What Diederik does as well as noybody else before: He gives us a clear concept and HOW TO FIND THE WAY TO CONSTANTLY BE LOVE, PEACE and JOY.
He goes the missing step further and gives us as well an open-hearted spiritual dimension and view of the core of our "real loving self and being“. Where all my pervious extensive therapy and practicing did not work before I see now that I am just not my little-ego-self or my body - and I am not just a spirit in a body - but just love itself. And so with the spiritual uplifting dimension of a broader few of life and all being we can know now HOW TO come there where peace and love and joy is always waiting for us.
Today I know always and in any situation since that I can choose love - and so to have my inner peace - in just 6 simple wonderful steps! How wonderful is that. Thanks so much!
I always was wishing that the program should be „put in a book" - and how great it would be if that would once true one day - and finally my wish comes true and - here it is…
just so great to have it in my hands… I was so much looking forward to THAT!
And I will personally care for that it will be translated into German soon, too :-)
Diederik has done the most incredible work for profound personal inner healing - and put it into a book! Finally! Huuurrraaa!!!!
Great great news for all of us - teachers and students we are and to all who truly and honestly search for the inner freedom and peace in this world. The true love and peace - that we can’t find in the outside materialistic world.
And yes Diderik, we still rarely find this real peace in psychotherapy, counseling, workshops or books…
Now will be able to show the world how to honestly choose again and again peace and love… and to teach and practice the 6 step process as Diederik does it so wonderfully for all of us!
Being always teacher and student at once in a wonderful healing process.
In the end I feel that especially through Dideriks honest openness to share deeply what is really there for thriving in this life - he lets us see that "oneness" is not just an abstract word - but a way of experiencing ourself and the world in the same way as any other human being … just as he sometimes himself is struggling with old triggers connected to old made up insane und untrue believes and the connected triggered feelings.
(… and here, Prof. Pawlow rings the famous bell for us again - a Trigger… and we feel maybe alert and panic - even though we are save now and there is no reason for fear at all).
Diderik would say: "Triggers are GOLD!" - They are always the opportunity for healing, peace and love. Go and do a 6 step! Over and over again - and heal your self. Be your real self... :-)
And yes - he would say that always with a big BIG SMILE! That is for sure as well!!!
So far for now - I will just send you my first impressions - it took me a while to finish this Mail - as I had little time and have written so many pages about this wonderful work of Diderik … and I just wanted to send a proper review but I am still working on it…
Greetings for now to you and to Diederik
So happy having spent so much time in the pages and insights of the book - and looking forward to hearing what you will say to my impressions about the book...
Love,
Andreas Hasel
Very touching as Diderik lets me again (as in the workshops) take part of his personal story and hard but successful way to gain what he has achieved wonderfully for himself and for already many many thousands of others too, including me on top, haha.
And in the book he now gives me even more clarity and more strength to stick determinedly (as Diederik always suggests) to my own healing process of my made up "little myself ego-me“.
This by being openly clear and straight - by sharing his personal story and how he made up insane beliefs and his handling of sometimes still upcoming triggers and struggles himself.
As a wonderful teacher and still as he says himself - as a student, still training his mind and processing what comes up that doesn’t feel like love.
That is what he teaches and - lives… and now he put all that together in a book - how great is that.
Diederik teaches as he has learned and invented a deeply grounded healing process - once to „save" his life and to come over destroying and devastating unhealthy personal mechanisms and coping strategies. His 6 steps leads us to love, peace and to prospering and more and more joy - and he simply shows us HOW TO change the fundamental experience of life! By just constantly questioning thoughts an feelings and changing our core-beliefes and choosing again towards love.
He himself shows us step by step how he changed his fundamental, sometimes horror experiences of his childhood into a gift of healing - „just“ by the determined choosing again of love and peace and joy - instead of fear and hate and rage.
And through a actually „simple“ but just honest and deep forgiving process - he provides us with a miraculous tool for healing ourselves!
He shows us how the forgiveness for "foolishing ourself“ can heal us. He shows how to look through our own made up imperfect and lacking identity and devastating unconscious guilt and depressing victim programs.
He gives clear orientation and a clear frame-set of parctical steps towards inner peace.
I’ve learned all this some 3 years ago - when I had thought that I would never find any kind of lasting peace in this world or myself - and never inside me. Diederik helped me through his clear and understandable steps and program to gain what never ever seemed possible to me. Peace is getting real every moment today through the 6 steps as a mind-tarining program in my daily life - for me personally, in my relationships as well as in business. Just miraculous.
I have always thought and seen that Diderik has put together practical and scientific knowledge, arranged it newly and easy to follow. As never before! I have seen real miracles happen in dozens of healing circles. Within minutes after just 6 honest and open steps towards REAL healing people had mind-blowing insights and proof of being just innocent and loving beings. What Diederik does as well as noybody else before: He gives us a clear concept and HOW TO FIND THE WAY TO CONSTANTLY BE LOVE, PEACE and JOY.
He goes the missing step further and gives us as well an open-hearted spiritual dimension and view of the core of our "real loving self and being“. Where all my pervious extensive therapy and practicing did not work before I see now that I am just not my little-ego-self or my body - and I am not just a spirit in a body - but just love itself. And so with the spiritual uplifting dimension of a broader few of life and all being we can know now HOW TO come there where peace and love and joy is always waiting for us.
Today I know always and in any situation since that I can choose love - and so to have my inner peace - in just 6 simple wonderful steps! How wonderful is that. Thanks so much!
I always was wishing that the program should be „put in a book" - and how great it would be if that would once true one day - and finally my wish comes true and - here it is…
just so great to have it in my hands… I was so much looking forward to THAT!
And I will personally care for that it will be translated into German soon, too :-)
Diederik has done the most incredible work for profound personal inner healing - and put it into a book! Finally! Huuurrraaa!!!!
Great great news for all of us - teachers and students we are and to all who truly and honestly search for the inner freedom and peace in this world. The true love and peace - that we can’t find in the outside materialistic world.
And yes Diderik, we still rarely find this real peace in psychotherapy, counseling, workshops or books…
Now will be able to show the world how to honestly choose again and again peace and love… and to teach and practice the 6 step process as Diederik does it so wonderfully for all of us!
Being always teacher and student at once in a wonderful healing process.
In the end I feel that especially through Dideriks honest openness to share deeply what is really there for thriving in this life - he lets us see that "oneness" is not just an abstract word - but a way of experiencing ourself and the world in the same way as any other human being … just as he sometimes himself is struggling with old triggers connected to old made up insane und untrue believes and the connected triggered feelings.
(… and here, Prof. Pawlow rings the famous bell for us again - a Trigger… and we feel maybe alert and panic - even though we are save now and there is no reason for fear at all).
Diderik would say: "Triggers are GOLD!" - They are always the opportunity for healing, peace and love. Go and do a 6 step! Over and over again - and heal your self. Be your real self... :-)
And yes - he would say that always with a big BIG SMILE! That is for sure as well!!!
So far for now - I will just send you my first impressions - it took me a while to finish this Mail - as I had little time and have written so many pages about this wonderful work of Diderik … and I just wanted to send a proper review but I am still working on it…
Greetings for now to you and to Diederik
So happy having spent so much time in the pages and insights of the book - and looking forward to hearing what you will say to my impressions about the book...
Love,
Andreas Hasel
The Choose Again process has helped me through some of the most challenging times.
I have been counting the days for the release of this book. Diederik does an amazing job in helping us to identify and heal false beliefs that have been running the show for us for years and years.
The Choose Again process has helped me through some of the most challenging times. The biggest gift this practice has given me, is that it has opened my heart to self-love. It really came down to a choice for me. Live in doubt, sadness, worry, victimhood and feelings of being unworthy or CHOOSE AGAIN.
There are real tools in this book, that I can follow at any time, in any place and when I go through these steps and apply them whenever I am upset about anything. It literally lifts the cloud and enables me to see the truth of who I am and who everyone else is too. Which is only love...
Since I saw Diederik speak at a conference in New York three years ago, I have become a huge proponent of this process, and now, the whole world can learn about it through his book. Thank you Diederik Wolsak, for having the courage, vulnerability and tenacity to share your journey and for creating this practice, which is now in book form. You are love! Thank you to Anne Andrew for everything you have done to make this book happen, and thank you to the whole Choose Again team, from your healing center in Costa Rica and other parts of the world, for all of the hard work and dedication you have done to perfect this process through years of tried and true practice.
This practice has been a game changer for me and I highly recommend it. I wish I could win the lottery, because I would buy the whole world a copy... and if you know me, you know how much I mean this! My dream... that it makes it's way into the school systems. Because I can only imagine what my life would have been like if I learned this practice when I was younger. But it's never too late right! <3
Judy Morton
The Choose Again process has helped me through some of the most challenging times. The biggest gift this practice has given me, is that it has opened my heart to self-love. It really came down to a choice for me. Live in doubt, sadness, worry, victimhood and feelings of being unworthy or CHOOSE AGAIN.
There are real tools in this book, that I can follow at any time, in any place and when I go through these steps and apply them whenever I am upset about anything. It literally lifts the cloud and enables me to see the truth of who I am and who everyone else is too. Which is only love...
Since I saw Diederik speak at a conference in New York three years ago, I have become a huge proponent of this process, and now, the whole world can learn about it through his book. Thank you Diederik Wolsak, for having the courage, vulnerability and tenacity to share your journey and for creating this practice, which is now in book form. You are love! Thank you to Anne Andrew for everything you have done to make this book happen, and thank you to the whole Choose Again team, from your healing center in Costa Rica and other parts of the world, for all of the hard work and dedication you have done to perfect this process through years of tried and true practice.
This practice has been a game changer for me and I highly recommend it. I wish I could win the lottery, because I would buy the whole world a copy... and if you know me, you know how much I mean this! My dream... that it makes it's way into the school systems. Because I can only imagine what my life would have been like if I learned this practice when I was younger. But it's never too late right! <3
Judy Morton
So Much Love
"I think it is a MUST read for everyone and especially people, who have ever felt like maybe there is more to life than worry and stress.
I love this book and the teachings it holds. There are many spiritual books out there, but this one really helped me see a lot of things clearer in my life. And now there is so much love inside of me, around me and every direction I look. Thank you, Diederik!
- Lenna Piits
I love this book and the teachings it holds. There are many spiritual books out there, but this one really helped me see a lot of things clearer in my life. And now there is so much love inside of me, around me and every direction I look. Thank you, Diederik!
- Lenna Piits
This book helps me every day in two ways. -- Dit boek is voor mij een grote hulp in mijn dagelijks leven
"This book helps me every day in two ways. First that every upset that comes up in my daily life has only to do with myself, with a wrong belief about myself. And secondly it helps me to produce a new and more lovable version of myself. Where will that end? Thank you Diederik !"
In Dutch:
"Dit boek is voor mij een grote hulp in mijn dagelijks leven. Vooreerst leert het me dat elke kleine irritatie die in mij opkomt enkel zijn oorzaak vindt in een verkeerde overtuiging die ik over mezelf heb. En vervolgens helpt het mij om een nieuwe en meer liefdevolle versie van mezelf te realiseren. Waar zal dit eindigen? Dank je wel Diederik !"
Cyriel
In Dutch:
"Dit boek is voor mij een grote hulp in mijn dagelijks leven. Vooreerst leert het me dat elke kleine irritatie die in mij opkomt enkel zijn oorzaak vindt in een verkeerde overtuiging die ik over mezelf heb. En vervolgens helpt het mij om een nieuwe en meer liefdevolle versie van mezelf te realiseren. Waar zal dit eindigen? Dank je wel Diederik !"
Cyriel
Choose Again - There IS a Better Way!
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Diederik Wolsak’s Choose Again Six-Step Process has been quietly transforming lives for more than 20 years.
His clients have been begging him to write a book so that his life-changing technique can be shared more widely, and now here it is! Choose Again tells the inspiring story of Diederik Wolsak’s journey from his early life in a Japenese Concentration camp in the jungle in Indonesia, to his healing center in the jungle in Costa Rica and his transformation from a self-destructive, self-loathing bully to an extraordinary healer. It reveals his Six-Step Process that turned his life around and which can dramatically increase the joy and peace in your life too. |
By mastering the Choose Again Six-Step process, you can expect to:
This deceptively simple Choose Again Six-Step Process is now yours for you to discover greater happiness than you ever thought possible. |
“From his early sorrows, and from the later suffering he engendered for himself as a result, Diederik Wolsak has fashioned a practical, Six Step program to self-liberation. He transmits his teaching directly and eloquently, and with unsparing honesty. He has already helped many fellow humans; with this book he can help many more.”
Gabor Maté M.D.
Author, When The Body Says No: The Cost Of Hidden Stress
“It is with great enthusiasm that we recommend this book to you; treat it with utmost respect—for it has the power and the potential to truly change your life.”
Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.
Founder of Attitudinal Healing
Co-Author of A Mini Course for Life; Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
Diane Cirincione-Jampolsky, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director of Attitudinal Healing International
Co-Author of A Mini Course for Life; Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
"There is a lot of wisdom packed into this small life-changing volume. It is not just another self-help book that will sit on the shelf, but if you dive deeply into its contents and put them into practice in your life, you will never have to buy another – this is all you need. I have used the Choose Again Six-Step Process for over 15 years and have managed to completely heal my chronic clinical depression, transform my relationship with my husband from OK to awesome, and can now welcome life’s many challenges with a clear sense that nothing need reduce my happiness in any way. I did not even realize how little joy I was experiencing until I started using the Choose Again Six-Step Process. Diederik’s own remarkable, heart-wrenching story forms the backdrop to this book and sets the stage for his therapeutic technique – the Six-Step Process. The way in which he was able to transform his life and the lives of countless others is an uplifting story that deserves to be widely shared. Therapists, teachers, parents and anyone who would like a better experience in life than the one they are currently having will be enthralled by the simplicity and profundity of this book."
Anne Andrew PhD
“The choose-again Six Step process has been the most empowering and transformational work I’ve ever studied and now do personally and share with clients and students daily.”
Tara Pilling
Book Trailer
Meet Diederik Wolsak RPC MCPC
Diederik is the founder and program director of Choose Again. Diederik’s journey started in 1942 on the island of Java, Indonesia. He spent the first three years of his life in Japanese concentration camps. Many of his core beliefs were developed during that early, potentially traumatic phase.
At age 8 he was sent to a foster home in Holland and by the time he rejoined his parents and brothers two years later he was filled with self-hatred and fear of the world around him. This self-hatred, fear and guilt translated into prolonged alcohol and drug abuse till finally at age 50 he reached that point where he realized that there had to be a better way or there would be no point in continuing. While his self-hatred drove him to be a successful businessman and international athlete, it allowed him little joy.
Following the fork in the road where something had to change, Diederik entered upon a spiritual path of deep healing. This path eventually led to a fulfilling career as counsellor in private practice.
He is a masterful therapist. Every client recognizes immediately that they are being trained to become independent of their counsellor, that they are worthy of respect and that they have their own answers. Diederik is there to assist in finding and removing all blocks to happiness and peace in a most gentle and loving way. Clients also sense that Diederik has been in many of the dark places they see in themselves; he has personal knowledge of deep depression and substance abuse. He has personal experience of what they are going through and has largely transformed his life. However, he will be the first to tell you: “I am a work in progress.”
Diederik is the founder and program director of the Choose Again Attitudinal Healing Centre. He is the lead facilitator of both the Vancouver and Costa Rica arms of the organization. He is an international workshop leader, public speaker and relationship counsellor with years of experience in group facilitation.
At age 8 he was sent to a foster home in Holland and by the time he rejoined his parents and brothers two years later he was filled with self-hatred and fear of the world around him. This self-hatred, fear and guilt translated into prolonged alcohol and drug abuse till finally at age 50 he reached that point where he realized that there had to be a better way or there would be no point in continuing. While his self-hatred drove him to be a successful businessman and international athlete, it allowed him little joy.
Following the fork in the road where something had to change, Diederik entered upon a spiritual path of deep healing. This path eventually led to a fulfilling career as counsellor in private practice.
He is a masterful therapist. Every client recognizes immediately that they are being trained to become independent of their counsellor, that they are worthy of respect and that they have their own answers. Diederik is there to assist in finding and removing all blocks to happiness and peace in a most gentle and loving way. Clients also sense that Diederik has been in many of the dark places they see in themselves; he has personal knowledge of deep depression and substance abuse. He has personal experience of what they are going through and has largely transformed his life. However, he will be the first to tell you: “I am a work in progress.”
Diederik is the founder and program director of the Choose Again Attitudinal Healing Centre. He is the lead facilitator of both the Vancouver and Costa Rica arms of the organization. He is an international workshop leader, public speaker and relationship counsellor with years of experience in group facilitation.
Your Sneak Peek
Enjoy some exclusive excerpts from the book!
"I am crawling on my hands and knees in the dust. By the fence on my right, a little ahead of me, is my elder brother Joost (pron. yoast). We get to the gap in the chain-link fence we've been looking for. Now we get down on our bellies and crawl under the fence. There are some greens on the other side; it is our job to find edible weeds to use as supplements to our meager food supplies. I am eager to help, quickly pick a few leaves, and proudly show these to my brother.
“No” he says gently. “I’ll show you what we want.” He then finds a patch of purslane and says: “That is what is really good, see if you can find more of these.”
I pick a few leaves and taste them. The taste is a little sour but it is the best thing I had ever tasted. With renewed enthusiasm we continue to harvest this bounty."
“No” he says gently. “I’ll show you what we want.” He then finds a patch of purslane and says: “That is what is really good, see if you can find more of these.”
I pick a few leaves and taste them. The taste is a little sour but it is the best thing I had ever tasted. With renewed enthusiasm we continue to harvest this bounty."
"When I was ten I was returned to my real family. My parents had returned from Indonesia and my brother had come home from boarding school. Although our family was reunited, I remember family dinners were never without tension. My father drank too much and had a terrible temper, which was totally unpredictable. We would be having dinner and out of the blue one of us would be slapped on the back of the head, or receive a blow on our knuckles with a soup spoon. I was beaten two or three times a week.
For many years, I tended to attract people who had anger issues. I replayed my reaction to my father’s anger whenever anyone around me raised his or her voice. Today I know that the purpose of attracting these “angry” people is to heal a belief I have made up: that I am not safe, that it is all my fault, that I am guilty. Today anger does not affect me and I am now very rarely even remotely disturbed when confronted with anger."
For many years, I tended to attract people who had anger issues. I replayed my reaction to my father’s anger whenever anyone around me raised his or her voice. Today I know that the purpose of attracting these “angry” people is to heal a belief I have made up: that I am not safe, that it is all my fault, that I am guilty. Today anger does not affect me and I am now very rarely even remotely disturbed when confronted with anger."
"Isolated by self-loathing, I became a seeker. Some small part of me desperately needed to know: Other than this vile creature, what else is in me? What is the point? Why was my world the way that it was? Having no one to turn to, no trusted adult by my side, I devoured a world of books for the answers. By the time I was sixteen or seventeen I’d read everything I could get my hands on: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre—you name it, I read it. I read everything and everyone, and every time I’d open a new book and start reading, I’d think, “Wow, this is incredible!” only to become disillusioned shortly thereafter. There were no real answers for me in the books I read, nothing practical that I could apply to my life to help me figure it out, nothing that led in a consistent fashion towards a reasonable understanding of what this life is all about.
Then one night, in the midst of this internal chaos, I awoke in a state of unspeakable peace, joy, and clarity. I had seen something in this state—something I had been deeply searching for. I had seen the answer to my question."
Then one night, in the midst of this internal chaos, I awoke in a state of unspeakable peace, joy, and clarity. I had seen something in this state—something I had been deeply searching for. I had seen the answer to my question."
"The only reason to tell the story of my early years is to demonstrate unequivocally that whatever happened to you and me when we were young does not have the power to keep us prisoner for life. I have seen too many people recover from unspeakable early life trauma, people who had been told they would never ‘get over’ their past.
My story is not who I am, either. It led me to believe that I was a monster, but that is not who I truly am. I was fortunate enough to experience my true Self when I was a teenager, and that knowledge kept me from completely self-destructing, and it eventually led me back to my Self. I know the truth of who you really are, because that is the Truth for both you and me. In the following chapters, I’ll show you how your current identity came about. Then we’ll begin the work of deconstructing it, which will enable you to connect to profound inner peace and contentment."
My story is not who I am, either. It led me to believe that I was a monster, but that is not who I truly am. I was fortunate enough to experience my true Self when I was a teenager, and that knowledge kept me from completely self-destructing, and it eventually led me back to my Self. I know the truth of who you really are, because that is the Truth for both you and me. In the following chapters, I’ll show you how your current identity came about. Then we’ll begin the work of deconstructing it, which will enable you to connect to profound inner peace and contentment."
This life-changing book will be the last self-help strategy you will ever need. The Six Steps to Freedom is a simple, practical, and deeply impactful process that you can apply daily to bring lasting change to your life. You will find it to be a relationship saver and a virtually foolproof conflict resolution tool.
Set yourself FREE.
Set yourself FREE.
Published by Fearless Books in conjunction with Choose Again
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