Ilja van de Griend

Ilja van de Griend, BsC (Netherlands), currently finishing a master in Clinical Child and Youth Psychology at the Open University in the Netherlands. Drs. in Business Economy (1994).

She is a Transpersonal Psychotherapist and Trainer of Transpersonal Psychotherapists, and has been involved in the field of Transpersonal Psychology since 2006, when she co-founded the Lisbon-based Transpersonal Training Institute AlmaSoma, where she continues to teach and train psychotherapists. AlmaSoma is an EUROTAS-accredited transpersonal school that organized the EUROTAS 2026 symposium “Happy Babies, Full Incarnations - Contributions from Transpersonal and Other Approaches in Healing Early Wounds.”, that took place in May 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Her professional journey in Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Conscious Parenting originated in her experience of motherhood 25 years ago. Her longstanding interest in the impact of pre- and perinatal experiences on human development led her to pursue further specialization in this field. In 2013, she invited American specialist Karlton Terry to deliver the Baby Therapy training at AlmaSoma, subsequently joining the training team as a co-trainer for the second edition of the programme (2019–2020).

Her specialized training in the field includes certification as a Pre- and Perinatal Educator (APPPAH – The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, 2020) and as an Integrated Prenatal and Perinatal Dynamics Practitioner (Prenatal and Perinatal Somatics Institute, with Kate White, 2025). She is also a Certified Compassionate Inquiry Practitioner (2026).

In 2025, she completed the Compassionate Inquiry – The Portal: Perinatal Training, where she currently collaborates as an Intern, deepening her understanding of the integration of a perinatal perspective within the Compassionate Inquiry approach. She is also completing the Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner training with Greer Kirschenbaum, PhD, and Rocio Zunini, PhD.

Her professional and academic interests centre on the relationship between early developmental experiences and human development, with particular attention to the prenatal and perinatal period, the transition to parenthood, and the integration of these perspectives within therapeutic and psychotherapeutic practice.