ABOUT CHINNAMASTA

Although I am a native from the Netherlands, 
I grew up with a French 'joie de vivre'  and a love for the rich and vibrant Eastern cultures. 

In my mid-twenties, at the peak of my pediatric intensive care nursing career,  I had a spiritual awakening. 
While guiding my terminally ill father I witnessed him leaving his body, and had 

a spontaneously arising sense of utter calm and peace

I knew then, I could not return to the life I was living. This extraordinary experience awakened within me a burning desire for answers. As I returned to my work, I was catapulted into a state of melancholy and solitude. I struggled to fit into societal expectations and with a growing resistance to the lack of heart I experienced in Western medicine. I felt a bit of an outsider and that way of living was no longer a good fit. I just couldn't do it anymore.

I left my partner, my career, my home and started over. My life felt dry, lacking depth and meaning, and after having witnessed multiple deaths both professionally and personally, my father was the final push for change. 
My partner and friends were all partying and heavy drinking, which only make me feel worse. 

What did work, was study and implementation of Eastern Yogic Philosophy and Āyurvedic Medicine. It truly was food for my body and soul. I started to understand myself, my relationships, what I needed and why I felt unhappy. 

It was a total reset and a homecoming

Over the years I met many highly elevated beings, vaidyas and wisdom teachers, famous and unknown. They are all inside of me, and live through me as I am eternally grateful for their shared wisdom. 
The wisdom integration happened over many years, drop by drop, like a slow brew.

Just as my teacher Kiran Vyas from Tapovan, France asked me to come and live in Normandy permanently as a staff member of the āyurvedic yogic clinic, new love came into my life.

I immigrated with my love Mukunda to Colorado in 2009, at the age of 45. We moved to California in 2010 and I spent the next fourteen years expanding into an international teaching career and a new personal life. 

What started as a love quest, turned into a deep shedding, dealing with the unexpected health decline and death of my beloved. 
The four years of nursing and guiding Mukunda spiritually to his final destination, 
were the most difficult and yet profoundly transformative. 

It made me understand, that there are only three things important in life: 

learning how to survive, thrive and let go

And after you let go, you get back on your feet and you start over. 

I could not have become the wisdom teacher and Vedic counselor I am today, without that life experience. 


In 2023 it was time to return home and realize a longtime dream vision.  
A home at the Southern French Coast - an artful inspiring refuge. 
To nurture myself and my troubadour friends.

The Chinnamasta Devi Dharma House 

This is 'la grande finale' 
and I am grateful to be in good health and spirit 
offering a safe place for people to land and receive wisdom for a meaningful and well-lived life