Education and Background
Let me tell you a bit about me, Monique Chantal Kalma.
I was born in the Netherlands in the year of the snake, 1977.
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After attending the Atheneum (a form of highschool), I first studied Old Music at the Conservatory in Utrecht. My main instrument was the recorder.
During that period I also studied Music Therapy at the HAN in Nijmegen city.
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While working as a music therapist, I studied Neurological Music Therapy, developed by the University of Colorado. After that I studied some more at the University in Nijmegen, specializing in intellectual giftedness with its unique challenges.
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I took courses like Body Drum Release (a bit like EMDR trauma therapy), Ideomotoric Responses (Hypnosis) and many others like coaching, herbalism, crystal healing, sound healing and shamanism.
Finally I would like to mention I 'fnished' my Inca Shamanism training after 3 years, with a certificate, but I know the training never really ends. Paqos (teachers from Peru in direct lineage to the ancient Incas) personally passed on the wisdom from their beautiful tradition.
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As a music therapist I have worked in different settings like a juvenile prison, and a primary school for children with learning disabilities and behavioral problems. I also have a lot of experience with the intellectually gifted and children on the autism spectrum. On the other hand I have worked in nursery homes for over 12 years with elderly people with dementia and other causes of brain damage like stroke.
Trauma therapy and palliative care are part of the many forms of treatment I have to offer as a music therapist. ​
Currently on my way to become an ICF certified coach.
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I also have a lot of personal life experience with its usual ups and downs. ​
It is not part of any formal education, but just as important.
As a child, when I had recorder lessons, I wanted to do really well. When I played a 'wrong' note I would stop and say: "I made a mistake". My wise teacher used to encourage me to play on, not stop. He said: "There are no wrong notes or mistakes, they are just variations".
And so, even though I made a lot of 'variations' in life, I kept going.
I believe knowledge and experience become skill and wisdom over time.
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Answering the Call, a personal journey
Since I was very young I have felt strongly connected to nature.
Receiving spiritual messages. Seeing, feeling and hearing what others did not.
Speaking with trees and invisible friends.
Memories that go back to when I was about two and a half years old.
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While pondering the purpose of my existence at the age of three, I lived a relatively normal life.
Growing up I always wanted to help others. Healing a few pets here and there but nothing spectacular.
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I learned not to speak about my gifts much during my adult life. To make use of them in my work but not mention how I knew what I knew. Hide the part of myself that might be considered 'crazy'.
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It was not until after a series of life's dramas, with the latest one ending in a bankruptcy, that I was forced to pause and take a good look at myself. I realized I had been denying an important part of myself. My shamanic part, that is not seperate but completely mixed in with all that I am. I decided to answer the call, follow the deep longing. Unconditionally and fully this time. And with that decision came freedom and joy.
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From there on thing led to another. Having my first store bought crystal skull, Fidelio, speak to me. Visions of light beings and visiting aliens a night. The Inca Shamanism Training with beautiful and intense initiations. Then one sunny day at the beach I created a turtle out of sand, just for fun. People were so impressed by it, that it made me think of maybe carving stone one day.
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One day became the same day. The sand still sticking to my skin, I remembered I had a piece of soapstone somewhere. I started scraping it with a knife from the kitchen and carved my first skull. Mountains started speaking with me. Rocks were sent to me from all over the world by people I hardly knew and had never met. "Why me?" I asked... "Because you listen to Spirit, speak with Mountain, and are guided by Love", was the immediate reply I got.
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I do listen, I follow, even if I do not always see where it will lead.
I trust, I know without a doubt, that this is always the best that could ever happen for me.
My wish is to share joy, love and healing through the services I offer, and the energy art I am guided to create. Like extending a hand to a fellow traveler soul, on this path of life.
Living the Shaman Dream.
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