For as long as I can remember, exercise has been a part of my life. I started learning martial arts at the age of 14. I have been passionately practicing Taekwondo for 40 years now. This Korean martial art has had a decisive influence on my life.
During a decade I was a member of the Swiss Taekwondo National Team and as a competitive athlete I was on the road worldwide with considerable success. I could crown my career as a fighter with medals at World and European Championships. I was able to take a lot with me from these 10 years. I learned to train in a disciplined and goal-oriented way. As a fighter, I was able to learn how to deal with extreme emotions, such as fear and pain, and to regard the pressure to perform as a friend. In addition, I learned to act with calmness and clarity in dangerous situations.
As captain of the Swiss team, I also had to develop leadership skills.
Almost thirty years ago I founded the Taekwondo School Basel, which has trained thousands of Taekwondo students. Many of them are Taekwondo teachers themselves today.
It is still a great joy and honor for me to be able to accompany people on their journey through life. Martial arts are a school of life for me, therefore I always see my main task in the areas of education and personality development. I fulfill this task every day by successfully running my own business for almost three decades, which is of course an exciting and educational activity in itself.
I also travel as an international Taekwondo expert and teach at seminars throughout Europe. Thereby I see as my further task to implement holistic views as new impulses in my line of work.
These holistic methods became part of my practice since I started to study meditation, Taichi and Qigong intensively about 15 years ago, which later led me to complete training in traditional Chinese medicine. This training enabled me to become an acupressure therapist. This was a big turning point in my personal practice.
As a fighter, I was primarily influenced by performance-oriented thought patterns. Perseverance, self-control, strength, endurance, and resilience were indispensable parts of my culture.
Therefore, rest or relaxation, which are so typical for Taichi and Qigong, were an enormous challenge for me. Today, concepts such as deceleration, serenity and permeability are indispensable in my practice.
From meditation I was able to learn, among other things, how to let go of beliefs and concepts and discover the inner healer that rests within us.
Recently, I added the yoga teacher training in Kathmandu. The ancient art of yoga combines strength and flexibility in a wonderful way. Learning pranayama (breath control) and more meditation methods have rounded out my knowledge.
Gentle arts, such as yoga, Taichi, Qigong and TCM, on the one hand, and hard training methods, such as martial arts, on the other, gave me a totally new understanding of health and performance. The meeting of these two seemingly opposite yet complementary worlds form the basis of Holistic Health Coaching.
By connecting intention, movement and breathing, self-awareness is deepened. Therefore, the mind-body connection plays a central role in my work as a coach and therapist. Concepts such as self-awareness and self-regulation through mindfulness are essential aspects of my work.
This should lead to more efficiency in everyday life and better health through a more conscious use of one's own resources.
The self-regulation of the individual's health - and thus stress prevention - is the declared goal of Holistic Health Coaching.