In my work I regularly encounter coachees dealing with complex life dilemmas, and intercultural challenges that are pertinent to an expat life. People with a migration background often grapple with issues revolving around sense of belonging, loyalty, cultural norms, values, belief-systems and self-identity questions. A plethora of topics related to integration, diversity and inclusion emerge in the context of both work and private life. 

Relocation to a foreign country has a major impact on the family, friendships and the entire social life. Many immigrants have trouble finding new friends in their new home country, partially due to language and cultural differences. Changing environments requires a certain skillset and attitude if one is to succeed in approaching strangers, establishing new connections and ultimately creating a new sense of belonging to a tribe and community.

Whether you have emigrated yourself, found yourself working with people from a different cultural background, or have aspirations of an international career, being able to maneuver the complexities of cross-cultural communications became a crucial survival skill in the modern world. Hiring a coach that can support you in developing your intercultural skills is a wise investment.

Thanks to my personal experience of my own expatriate experience spanning across over 20 years, having studied abroad, worked in multinational organisations I can relate to many of those challenges. I traveled across 58 and lived in 4 different countries, mastering 5 languages along the way. I conduct my coaching conversations in Dutch, English and Polish. I aim to support my coachees with the right dose of empathy and inspiration to make the most of that phase of their life.

LaMatu offers both in-person and online sessions, as well as hybrid coaching trajectories.

Face-to-face sessions take place in a private practice in Amsterdam, opposite of Amsterdam Sloterdijk station, at the Western side of Amsterdam. This setting allows for full confidentiality and undistracted focus. The Amsterdam location of LaMatu coaching practice can be conveniently reached by bike, public transport or by car. Being the 10th largest train station in the Netherlands, NS Amsterdam Sloterdijk is a major travel hub. It offers excellent public transport connections including train, metro, tram and bus connections. This venue also has quick link to the A10 ring and affordable parking for those traveling by car.

The walk & talk sessions take place outdoors in Westerpark in Amsterdam. This type of coaching takes place outdoors, during a walk at your own, natural pace. This format allows you to get moving and discover the answers to your questions in a natural way, walking side-by-side with the coach. The exact meeting point will be communicated to you in a booking confirmation email.

All types of online conversations, including the discovery call and the calibration session, take place remotely using Microsoft Teams software. An online session will take the form of a video call, so please ensure the right, quiet and private setting before you dial in and prepare so that you feel comfortable to enable your camera. Our conversations remain fully confidential and will never be recorded. 

For all types of appointments, upon completing your booking you will receive the exact instructions in a confirmation email. The message will include a route description or, alternatively, video call access details.

Monika holds 4 Master degrees and studied at 4 different universities over the course of 1999 – 2005, including Warsaw University and Warsaw School of Economics in Poland, University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. She graduated cum laude as an MA in Applied Linguistics and holds a double MSc in Marketing and Management as well as in International Relations. In addition, she completed post-graduate studies at CEMS, the Global Alliance of Management Education, from which she graduated with a degree of Master’s in International Management.

In addition to her academic degrees, she has extensive business acumen including project management background and is experienced at working according to various project management methodologies. She was certified by Project Management Institute as an Agile Practitioner (ACP)® as well as a Project Management Professional (PMP)® and by APMG as a PRINCE2® Practitioner. These methodologies gave her a solid background in skills such as time management, planning, scheduling, risk management and decision making.

Monika has been a member of the International Coaching Federation since January 2022 and holds an ICF credential ID number 009650954I. She completed over 250 hours of Certified Professional Coach training at the Dutch Associate voor Coaching in the period between September 2021 and January 2022. In 2022 LaMatu passed the screening process of Coachfinder, an initiative of the Dutch Psychologie Magazine and the Dutch professional association for alternative therapists Collectief Alternatieve Therapeuten (CAT).

She also also trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming with Richard Bandler in London, UK a credential ID 200119 by The Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming™. She continued her NLP studies in Amsterdam and holds a certificate of Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming® certified by The International Association for NLP issued by UNLP. She also holds a certificate of a Mindset and Personal Leadership Coach by Global NLP Training issued by INEMLA.

Since November 2019 she completed over 1.000 hours of yoga teacher courses held at Delight Yoga Academy, certified by Yoga Alliance. She finished her RYT® 200 Yoga Teacher training by Delight Yoga in September 2021 and obtained RYT® 300 certification in June 2023. In 2022 she completed a 6-month-long yoga and ayurveda teacher apprenticeship programme at Delight Yoga assisting Tory Hyndman. 

She also finished an accredited training for “Vertrouwenspersoon” at the Dutch Landelijk Instituut Vertrouwenspersonen, in order to become certified as an external confidential counsellor and advisor for employees at companies.

As a team manager Monika was in charge of motivating, coaching and developing her team. She dealt with a variety of HR-related topics including recruitment, learning plans and career path for her team members. Her calm demeanour and logical approach helped her provide a sense of stability while managing teams through times of major external changes and internal transformation. Her management style can be described as putting people first, which she has continuously demonstrated by devoting much of her time and attention to mentoring and coaching her team members.

Coaching may be applied to a variety of dilemmas encompassing both the professional and private sphere. The topics most commonly associated with coaching are those pertaining to career, such as managing career transitions, including changing jobs and starting a new business.

The goal of a coaching trajectory focused on career can be narrowed down to the practical aspects of the job hunt such drafting a target list of potential employers, successful networking, writing impactful application documents such cv and cover letter, preparing for job interviews.

Many coachees who find themselves in a career transition want to work on raising their self-awareness, getting insight into their strengths and gaining self-confidence. It may take the form of long-term career path planning, also called job crafting. In a broader sense, it may include choices that will tilt the work-life balance towards a state of better equilibrium for the individual.

An intake takes 30 minutes and takes the form of a video call. Please make sure that you are in a place where you can speak openly in full privacy. The session will start with a brief introduction round of the coach and yourself. The key goal of this conversation is to articulate where you are right now in your life and your intention for the coaching trajectory. A Discovery Session helps you determine if you feel comfortable working with the coach and if coaching is a suitable methodology for you. 

Also this promotion is exclusively being offered to the visitors of IamExpat Fair 2025. Clients who make use of this special offer and book a package of 9 sessions 900 incl. VAT will receive 3 additional coaching sessions at no extra charge, and their trajectory will be extended from 9 to 12 sessions. A 12-session package regularly costs €1.200 incl. VAT, which translates to savings of €300 incl. VAT.

Attendees of the the IamExpat Fair Amsterdam 2024 can participate in the Promotion on Saturday, 8 th of March, 2025 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., at the C10 booth of LaMatu in the Career section of the fair.

Participation in the Promotion is free of charge. Participants are in no way obliged to purchase any services or products by LaMatu; neither during the fair nor at a later stage.

Participation in the Promotion is open to participants aged 18 and over. The Promotion is open only to prospective clients of LaMatu. Current and previous coachees are excluded from participation in the Promotion. Clients who have already partook at other events organised or co-hosted by LaMatu are not eligible to participate in the Promotion. Temporary and permanent employees of IamExpat Media B.V. and third parties engaged by the organiser of the fair – in the latter case referring to (temporary and permanent) employees who are directly or indirectly involved in (the implementation of) the promotion – are excluded from participation in the Promotion.

Regular Terms of Service of LaMatu apply.