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
“Stella is an amazing coach. She guides and directs with such efficiency and grace to find solutions to concerns or areas of improvement. Great in building personal Brand & character as well. The coaching sessions were very insightful and helpful.”
Read other testimonialsAmazing coach, efficient, very insightful
Stella is well organized, knows how to make an action plan and make you stick to it and she is also a great listener and motivator. If you are an expat partner, she knows how to make the right recommendations and help you understand the Dutch business environment. I definitely recommend her!
R. Pastou
Read other testimonialsWell organized, action plan, great listener and motivator
Great experience, opens up the space, really pour out insecurities
When I met Stella I knew I was ready for a career change but found it much more difficult than I thought to assess my strengths, weaknesses and desires especially since I was new in the Netherlands. Stella’s confidence in me was contagious and her positive attitude was wonderfully supplemented by extremely useful questions, exercises and strategies. I am a success story – I found my dream job.
S. Kutzenberger
Read other testimonialsConfidence in me, positive attitude, extremely useful questions, exercises and strategies
Stella helped me to focus on my goals and, more importantly for me as an expat and mother whom had been out of the job market for a few years, she really helped me re-build my confidence. Stella is a great listener and worked with a variety of materials which allowed me to come up with some concrete plans to begin my job search. She is also very practical and came up with some suggestions I could never have thought of on my own. She gets results too; after only a few months working together, I had the confidence to begin my job search in earnest and now have a fantastic job in the bi-lingual education sector! I wholeheartedly recommend Stella!
V. Housen
Read other testimonialsRe-build my confidence, great listener, concrete plans, found a fantastic job