About me

Mitchel Heitinga, coach and trainer

Mitchel Heitinga

Who is IEMT coach Mitchel?

Mitchel Heitinga is a coach and trainer since 2010. He works with IEMT at the core, alongside Wholeness Work, Neurogram and NLP, for managers and professionals. Solo, based in Hoorn — primarily online, in Dutch or English.

Background

I'm Mitchel Heitinga, coach and trainer. I've worked with individual clients and groups since 2010, after a career in business and IT consultancy. That background still runs through my work: I know from my own experience what it's like to want to work on yourself as a (young) professional while the job keeps going — and why that can be harder than it should be.

Alongside my own coaching practice, I work part-time at Amsterdam UMC as an EHR trainer. It's work I'm proud of: the system I help people use connects directly to the care that gets delivered there every day. It also keeps me sharp — training in a clinical environment asks something different than coaching in my own practice room, and the two sharpen each other.

Methods I use

Five frames work together in what I do:

  • IEMT — Integral Eye Movement Technique. Works on emotional patterns and identity-bound reactions that don't shift through conversation alone. Trained by Andrew T. Austin and Roni Matar.
  • Metaphors of Movement — works with the imagery people use about themselves ("I'm stuck", "my back is against the wall") to move something that direct conversation doesn't reach. Trained by Andrew T. Austin.
  • Wholeness Work — for the layers beneath the pattern, where identification can release without needing analysis. Trained by Connirae Andreas.
  • Neurogram — a profiling frame that makes personal patterns visible. Trained by Joost van der Leij.
  • NLP — as the skills layer and a way of working with language. Trained by Richard Bandler.

Alongside these there's been training and depth work with many other teachers. I mention only the five primary sources whose methods are present in my work every day.

For coaches and aspiring practitioners: I also give IEMT trainings. See iemttrainingen.nl for the training side of my practice.

Where you can find me

I'm listed in the official trainer directories of the methods I work with. For those who want to check how I'm embedded in the wider field:

For those paying attention: I train at the source wherever I can.

How I work

Three words my clients tend to reflect back to me, and that I consciously hold to:

  • Transparent. No hidden script, no unseen phase. You know what's happening in a session, why, and what you can do with it.
  • Honest. Sometimes uncomfortably so: I say where things stand, even when that's not the easy thing to say. Your goal and your outcome come first — not my comfort.
  • To the point. We don't work on something longer than it needs. If a pattern can shift in fewer sessions, we stop. If more is needed, I tell you that up front.

Why this work

Helping people move forward gives this work meaning for me. That sounds straightforward, but in practice it means: looking carefully at what someone actually needs, distinguishing between what they think they're looking for and what would help, and working toward that. I stay open to change in myself, too — that's a precondition for doing this work.

I care about what I contribute to, and I choose work that reflects that. It shows up in the audience (people serious about looking at patterns that undermine their work), in the pace (trajectories that mean something, not stretched out), and in the accessibility (clear prices, no hidden options, confidentiality that isn't up for negotiation).

The people I'm best set up to work with

Managers and professionals who've read a lot, who are cognitively sharp, and who notice that at a certain point more insight stops translating into different behaviour. Also young professionals who early in their career run into patterns that feel recognisable but don't go away. Maybe you've done a lot yourself, but haven't quite landed it.

The line sits on what I offer, not on what IEMT as a method can do. In acute psychiatric crisis regulated care is the first step — I work outside the Dutch Wkkgz framework. Heavy trauma work where clinical expertise exists I refer to specialists.

What I methodologically do not do: extensively unpack why someone became the way they are. IEMT works differently. We start with the emotional charge as it shows up here and now. Targeted questions about that feeling — how strong, how familiar, when first — surface a memory. Which memory, and how vivid it is, doesn't matter: whatever is present in your awareness at that moment works. That memory is where we work, with calibrated eye movements. The memory fades, the emotional charge subsides, and the underlying pattern shifts. That's the core of the method, not a side-effect. If what you want is primarily to understand and analyse, this isn't the right approach. If you're unsure, I'm glad to think along about what would fit.

My approach not for you?

Then you can turn to other approved trainers within The Association. I can warmly recommend Roni Matar and Andrew T. Austin — I have learned a lot from them.

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