Stella Pennekamp MA | Senior Expat Career Coach and Counsellor
Founder of Orange Expats, an Amsterdam based international career coaching and counselling practice for Expats living or working in The Netherlands.
Stella is a Senior Expat Career Coach and Counsellor with over 15yrs’ of experience helping highly-skilled professionals from over 80 + countries master their challenges and accelerate their international career.
Stella holds a Master in Cultural Policy and Management and embraces lifelong learning. She uses an client-based, integral, holistic approach to help you reach your full potential.
Stella is a Dutch native who speaks fluent English and by happily being married to an Expat herself, she fully understands the challenges Expats facing living and working abroad. She loves helping you feel at home and cope with cultural differences you might face in The Netherlands.
She also voluntary offers coaching trajectories to African Female Future Leaders pursuing optimal use of renewable energy in Africa.
Qualifications
Stella holds a Master's degree in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)
She also holds Post Graduate qualifications in:
- Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT)
- Mindfulness & Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
- Focusing (G. Gendlin)
- Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
- Polyvagal-informed Therapy (S. Porges)
- Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback
Mission
To help professionals master their challenges and accelerate their international career.
Integrative approach to career coaching and counselling
"To me, there is no single approach that can help each client in all situations. With my client-based, integrative approach to career coaching and counselling, I’ll bring together different elements of theories, methodologies and interventions to help you master your challenges. Through blending of these relevant elements, an approach is formed to effectively suit your needs. Combined with highly effective job marketing and career-related insights, it results in a tailored approach for successfully achieving your goals."
Clients
Her clients are Netherlands-based highly skilled employees: expatriates, (short- & long stay) migrants, their accompanying partners, Dutch natives and (inter)national companies employing them. Stella’s recent clients include IUCN, the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), the Dutch Whiplash Foundation (WSN), law firms and companies working in the creative, cultural, fmgc and retail sectors. Her clients work in marketing, finance, e-commerce, sales, I(C)T, HR, legal, consultancy, journalism, as a teacher, among others.
Membership & Think-tank
She associates with the "Landelijk Centrum Stressmanagement" - the National Centre Stressmanagement - an occupational health company, providing activities to activate selfregulation, selfregulation by heartcoherence, selfregulation of emotions and selfmanagement of stress.
Stella is a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and the Dutch Association of Professional Coaches (NOBCO).
As Burnout Expert Stella is part of the think-tank for Maaike Hartjes' "Burnout Diary" Animation. ‘Burnout Diary’ is a half hour-special and social media project about accepting imperfection. The project is currently being adapted from the graphic novel ‘Burnout Dagboek’ by Dutch comic artist Maaike Hartjes and won the 2020 Trickstar Business Award.
Testimonials
“It was a very good experience. Stella is an easy person to talk to and she gave me advises on how to approach people and improve my CV and LinkedIn profile.”
Read other testimonialsEasy person to talk to, very good experience
“I cannot praise Stella enough for her advice, influence and support during my job application. My CV was transformed – clearer, more focussed and more obviously relevant to the job in question – and she guided me in writing an equally apt cover letter. I was invited for interview for the first time, after a long and frustrating period of unfruitful applications. Stella’s coaching (entirely tailored to me and my application) then enabled me to enter the interview better prepared and better supported than ever before, to perform my very best and to be one of the few candidates invited back for a second interview. While I was not selected for that particular job, Stella’s tuition has been of lasting, valuable assistance to me ever since, and it is thanks to her I have secured a coveted position in a company where my applications had previously been unsuccessful.”
Top qualities: Great Results , Personable , High Integrity
A. Ritchie
More focussed, finally invited for interview, lasting and valuable assistence
“Stella was a breath of fresh air for somebody (me) who tends to be very sceptical about the benefits of coaching. She made an enormous difference to me professionally and personally and I cannot praise her highly enough. She’s warm and enthusiastic and achieves great results in a surprisingly short time. If you’re at a career crossroads – contact her immediately. You won’t regret it.”
Top qualities: Great Results , Good Value , High Integrity
C. Walsh
Warm, enthusiastic, great results
“When I approached Stella it was for me the first time to seek career coach advice and I did not really know what to expect. I must admit I was also a bit pessimistic – had this idea in my mind that career coaching would be all some bla bla that you can reason yourself. Well on one side – it is true – you do find the reasons and path yourself but it is the “push” you need to get into the right direction, which does the trick. Stella is at first a great, very welcoming and easy to deal with person. It is just very easy to open up with her and share. She has excellent sense of humor and creates a relaxed atmosphere. She uses good methods to make you think and create a direction in your feelings and thoughts and by means of actually easy exercises and general open questions she manages creating the basis for the process. I was very happy to have used Stella’s help and even though for myself it turned that I am actually quite happy with where I am, she definitely helped me overcome my doubts. I recommend her to anyone who is on a crossroad of his/her career or faces this “identity crisis” we sometimes go through at a certain age.”
B. Kirchev
Read other testimonialsNo bla bla, relaxed atmosphere, good methods
I contacted Stella to help me with the challenge of changing careers abroad and it was the best decision I could have made. When I met Stella for the first time, I was impressed by her genuine keenness to help. She served as a fantastic sparring partner and posed the tough, thought-provoking questions that encourage you break with your habitual ways of thinking. Her methods and material are helpful, as is her network! I would highly recommend Stella!
T. Brown
Read other testimonialsGenuine keenness to help, fantastic sparring partner, thought-provoking questions