Projects

Stenen en Meren / Taşlar ve Göller

A bilingual allegory about belonging, identity and being different.

Leyra grows up among three lakes. In one place she feels "too much", in another she is counted as an "obligatory guest", and in yet another she notices for the first time that she is allowed to simply be as she is. Beneath her chest she carries a stone that no one sees: not shiny, not round, and not something easily put into words either. But that is exactly why it belongs to her. Throughout the book this stone is neither thrown away nor hidden; it only finds its meaning.

"Some books give knowledge. This book sits down beside a child. It watches the lake together. It waits until the stone falls quiet."

The book was written in two separate languages, Turkish (Taşlar ve Göller) and Dutch (Stenen en Meren): not a literal translation, but written so that it speaks to each language's own reader. The themes of migration, belonging and "standing between two shores" find a different resonance in each of the two societies.

The book is designed to be read on two levels: while the language is kept simple for children, the emotional patterns that a clinical psychologist has observed over years of working with clients on migration, identity and adaptation are deepened through metaphors in which the adult reader, too, will recognise their own story.

• An allegorical narrative that treats difference not as a "problem" but as a meaning one carries
• A theme that looks closely at the identity and adaptation experience of migrant and expat children
• Language that speaks to the child and the adult reader at once, but on different levels
• Separate Turkish and Dutch editions, written with care for two different audiences

NET Tool

Serverless, no account, no names: for NET therapy, a tool that simply works.

The NET Tool is a workbench that the therapist uses together with the client during the session in Narrative Exposure Therapy (based on the clinical protocol of Schauer, Neuner & Elbert). It visualises the events in the client's life on a Lifeline using the symbols of a flower, a stone, a stick and a candle; it records the sessions; and at the end of the session it produces a signed Testimony Document in triplicate, exactly as the protocol itself prescribes.

The starting point of the design is clinical trust: the client record is not opened with a name, but with a number the therapist assigns. No data ever goes to a server: everything stays in the therapist's own browser and can, if desired, be backed up encrypted to a folder on their own computer. That is why there is no need to create an account or to trust a company.

• No names, only a record number, data solely on the therapist's device (localStorage)
• No server or database; zero installation, runs directly in the browser
• Multiple therapist profiles, therapists sharing the same computer do not see each other's records
• Faithful to the eNET protocol from the book, with a step-by-step clinical guide and question bank built in
• Turkish, English and Dutch, a full interface in three languages
• Shared-screen mode during the session: the client sees only the Lifeline, not the guide

Not a commercial product; it grew out of the practice's own need and is shared with other therapists who apply the same method: free, ad-free, without limits.