I was born in 1994 in Italy to a German mother and a Dutch/Greek father. I grew up in the South of Germany. First, I attended a German Waldorf Kindergarten, then a Waldorf School, before moving to a boarding house and an international school in the UK at the age of 16. I always knew I wanted to “go away,” and I struggled with my school life in Germany under my parents’ roof. During my childhood, I played the flute, had a horse, attended a children and youth circus, played tennis, and took ballroom dancing lessons. I was very adventurous and couldn’t get enough of “life” — I had a fear of missing out. I was a perfectionist, and despite all the beautiful activities I had, I was constantly stressed and worried that I wasn’t “good enough.” I became a people pleaser but still had lots of friends. 

Moving to the UK, I felt I had reached a peak of “self-determination.” Despite the extreme challenges and competitiveness of school life, I felt aligned with my choices. The world seemed to open up, and I felt less like a “weirdo” among the international students — even though my nickname was “Mad Maddie.” After finishing high school with an international diploma, I moved to Verona, Italy, in 2012 for a gap year, hoping to learn Italian. I fell in love, learned the language, made an amazing group of friends, and found myself struggling in my second intercultural relationship, trying to figure out what to do next. 

In 2013, I moved with my boyfriend to the Netherlands to study International Development and Sustainable Value Chains, feeling a strong urge to contribute to the betterment of the world. However, my co-dependent relationship turned toxic, and despite our efforts, we couldn’t understand our deeper issues. The “solutions” we found to soothe our individual egos weren’t sustainable, and our relationship eventually broke down. It took me just as long to recover. At the same time, I did internships in Africa and Brazil focused on sustainable agriculture, improved my French, learned Portuguese, and took a long Tango break in Argentina, where I learned Spanish. Later, I participated in a Minor Erasmus Program in Spain.

During this period, my burn-out and depression began to take hold. What I thought I’d learned from past relationships seemed almost meaningless when faced with a new and challenging relationship with a tango dancer from Argentina. It was during these years that I began to realize that real change starts within the individual. “Help” from external sources or blaming external factors didn’t lead to lasting change. My views on development aid began to shift, and my quest to confront my own shadows and inspire others to do the same grew stronger. 

What I found particularly interesting was that throughout my life, I had often been told, “Maddie, you give such good advice,” “Maddie, you are a catalyst,” “Maddie, your analytical abilities are amazing,” “Maddie, you should become a counselor,” “Maddie, it’s so good to talk to you,” “Maddie, you leave a peppercorn wherever you go, and people feel the need to grow.” During my work-experiences and internships, I was valued for my analytical contributions to problem and solution-identification. This led me to believe that I could make a career out of this, but I knew I had to become “better,” learn more, and overcome my biggest life crisis. I had to rebuild myself from what felt like scratch, and I was so desperate that I was willing to try out everything in order to get there. 

The process was painful, but incredibly eye-opening and empowering. Slowly, I watched myself transform from a place of darkness, pain and some sort of emotional nothingness to one of purpose and a new relationship with myself and life. Since then, I have consciously been growing every day. At that time, I completed my Bachelor’s Thesis successfully in Germany before graduating in 2018. I went to therapy, attended family constellation seminars, healed my relationship with my mother, explored Tarot, Astrology, cranio-sacral therapy, and Bach flowers, and finally moved to Argentina to stand on my own feet and resolve the fate of my long-term co-dependent relationship, while building a new life on the other side of the world.

I did therapy and art counseling, learned about Human Design, manifestation, the subconscious mind, the nervous system, and trauma, while initially doing babysitting and working as a German and English Teacher. I became a neurolinguistic practitioner, took short courses on negotiation skills and communication and eventually found the courage to give classes as a fitness coach, and use my fitness trainer license to be a personal trainer. Eventually, I completed an ontological coaching training from 2020-2021, when I felt I needed more skills to build a business. 

In 2021, I finally married my husband after proudly overcoming numerous painful challenges to make our relationship work during the quarantine. In July 2022, we moved to the Netherlands with our street dog to begin building our new life and my lifelong dream project: focusing on mental and physical health and personal growth in a natural setting where we can grow our own food and establish a lifestyle we want our future children to grow up in. I also started working in a leadership position at a company selling fitness equipment to support ourselves as we settled into our new life. Now we live together with my brother (a physiotherapist) in a beautiful space that is in construction to be the holistic health and development Center we desire to share with you all. 

During all of that, the challenges never stop, and in 2024, we faced our next big crisis, when my husbands residency application got rejected and he needed to return to Argentina for 8 months — one that led us to even deeper personal growth, while confronting more of our inner-child-wounds. But what’s different now? I can reflect; I take full accountability for my life and my actions. I am 100% aware of my power to shape my life and understand how my shadow self contributes to what manifests around me. I feel empowered and strong. I can walk my journey with grace, even through the pain of growth, knowing I can always connect to gratitude and trust in the magic that unfolds. 

Are you interested in stepping into your power and becoming your strong, resilient, loving, authentic self, so you can give your best to the world around you and be blessed with all its abundance every day?