Raf Goovaerts

Psychotherapy can provide you with a valuable opportunity to pause, observe, explore and move forward.

We live in busy and challenging times with many of us struggling to juggle all our needs and wants to our satisfaction. We often feel we fall short, somehow underachieve, and are not quite good enough. In addition, we might well have experienced difficulties in the past, in our childhood or more recently, which we feel we have not fully understood or come to terms with. As a result, we might be dealing with certain symptoms and behaviours which really are not conducive to our overall sense of well-being or health. By bringing gentle but sharper awareness to our thinking, behaviour, feelings and emotions, we can learn to connect again with the inner sense of healing and good-ness present in each of us.

My career and life have given me good insight in the challenges faced by people today in often high-pressure and demanding work and home environments and how difficult it can be to balance these with maintaining healthy personal, professional, relational and social lives. We all want to live full, interesting and active lives, yet can find that this is not always compatible or easily manageable with taking good care of our mental, physical, and emotional well-being. In addition, we aspire to find meaning in what we do which adds yet another layer to be satisfied amidst all the busy-ness. Exploring all of this and how you can align your journey better with your aspirations can be the rich reward of therapy.

I grew up in the countryside in Belgium and went to university in Antwerp. At the age of 21, I left for Italy, then the US, to continue my university studies in economics, anthropology and international relations. I then spent over 20 years in the investment banking, private equity, and impact investing industry in New York and London.

My interest in psychotherapy grew out of the practice of Advaita (‘oneness’) philosophy, yoga and meditation which ran alongside my professional career. Most importantly, my own experience in life guided me towards becoming a psychotherapist.

I trained at the Karuna Institute in Devon, England where I obtained an MA in Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy. Karuna’s integrative training combines Western and Eastern (Buddhist) approaches and philosophies to psychotherapy.  I am currently in the second year of the three-year Somatic Experiencing training.

Before training as a psychotherapist, I worked for over 20 years in private equity and impact investing, working with management teams, entrepreneurs and founders of small, medium-size and large companies active in most sectors, as well as with many other investment professionals and service providers to the investment firms. I have been based in London for almost 20 years and have worked all over Europe as well as in the US during my early career and across several emerging markets during the latter part when I focused on impact investing where one aims for positive social or environmental impact alongside financial return, and on venture philanthropy activities.

My working language is English but I also speak Dutch, Italian and French.