01 December 2022

How I Became an Online Psychiatrist

Working my butt off as a physician CEO, I was founder one of the fastest growing outpatient mental healthcare organizations in the Netherlands.

I worked hard, drove long distances (pre-Covid; pre-videoconferencing; do we still remember the old times?) between the 25 or so offices all over the country.

Was it fulfilling? Definitely! Obviously I was extremely proud about our collective achievement; the tens of thousands of patients we helped over the years. 

... But ... was it also fun?

Great question!

Running a rapidly growing mental health organization is tedious to say the least. 

Here are some reasons:

  • The constant discussions with five major insurance companies and over 150 local governments over our contracts

  • Constant cash flow issues - because of the insurance system we had to be 8 months cash flow positive.

  • An endless stream of ever changing rules and regulations.

 

All in all, I had to accept the fact that I was getting burned out. That is nothing to be ashamed of, in the US about half of all physicians have burn out symptoms.

But hey, I was and am a psychiatrist. A wonderful colleague who happened to be mindfulness guru had taught me the art of meditation. I had (and hope still have) insight in what drives me.

So we sold the company.

I went back to seeing patients fulltime.

I loved it!

And then Covid hit.

I worked from home.

We all worked from home.

And then it dawned on me.

I could work from our sailboat.

I tried one summer, and it worked out even better than expected!

The smiles on the faces of my clients when they realized that I was following my dream - using that as guidance for following (or at least dusting off and examining) their own dreams.

We had a number of talks in the family - how did we see the next phase of our lives.

And then we took a leap of faith.

We jumped ship (in this case, on board our sailboat), and we crossed the Atlantic to Curacao. There my family and I found our new home.

I work from home (feels more like heaven) with clients on both sides of the Atlantic - and sometimes a little further.

My three areas of specialization are:

I am happy to have a chat to see what I can do for you, your loved ones, or the people in your organization.

By using this site you agree to our terms and conditions. The Open Forest website is medical in nature and thus, may include health or medical information. This content is posted for informational and educational purposes only. Open Forest in no way engages in the practice of medicine and does not render medical advice. We do not provide asynchronous telemental health services or any other medical service. Nothing posted on Open Forest is intended to be used for the purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment. The use of Open Forest does not create a provider/patient relationship between a user and Open Forest. Users must always seek the advice of their physician or another qualified healthcare professional with medical questions. Users must agree to contact their healthcare professional or an emergency medical service, by dialing 911 when they believe they are experiencing a medical emergency.