About me
My name is Emma Vermaat, my greatest passion is to help people tackle their problems at the root. So many people suffer from fears, feelings of gloom, burnout, you name it. I know this from my own experience, that internal struggle, those heavy feelings and not knowing how to get out of it. But I have also experienced how I can fundamentally leave these feelings behind me. I am happy to help you with this in my practice in Amsterdam North.
Work experience
In addition to my work as a therapist, I currently work as a sociotherapist where I provide third-line care within a multidisciplinary team in an outpatient setting. With this team, I offer families with extreme multi-problemematic patterns wrapped around and trauma informed care. This means that our team lovingly and steadily surrounds te family. Every family member receives PRI therapy and sociotherapists offer intensive guidence at home, to make more space for everyones individual problems.
I have a background as a social worker and mental health counselor. I have gained a lot of experience in healthcare, mental health care and (closed) clinical psychiatry. I have worked with children, young people and families with multiple problems and I have broad experience in working with young people with severe anorexia nervosa within their system. I have worked as an outpatient counselor within an organization and I have worked at a phase house where we helped young people move on to an (independent) next step and residential location for two years.
My background
I was born in Rotterdam and currently living and working in Amsterdam. Before I moved to Amsterdam in the summer of 2023 and opened my therapy practice here, I lived in Zeeland for nine years. There I enjoyed the beach and sea in the cozy coastal town of Vlissingen and studied Social Work. Early in my life I knew that I wanted to provide help, that I wanted to be of significance to people, as others had been to me. I already wanted to become a therapist or psychologist, and training as a Social Worker was a logical step.
In the fourth year I did my graduation internship in psychiatry. It always struck me that the 'us-them' thinking was woven into everything. The treatment of clients often consisted of medication and symptom management. I missed the contact from person to person, the depth, compassion and empathy.
After my studies, I enjoyed working as an outpatient counselor in Zeeland for a while. Here I worked with children and families with various requests for help. At the same time, I started as an entrepreneur, took on assignments as a self-employed person and started training to become a PRI (Past Reality Integration) therapist (I will tell you more about this on this page). In this therapy I found the depth I was missing. The method is based on compassion and empathy and fits in with how I want to work. I am convinced that you can only really help others if you have first healed yourself, an essential part of the training as a PRI therapist. To further develop myself and move towards more opportunities, I moved to Amsterdam with my boyfriend, where I started to realize my dream and opened my practice at home.