Humans of Wing Chun: Kiki Verschuuren

A lifetime of discovery

Curious, open, and sociable. I am spontaneous, love depth, and enjoy discovering new things. I am quite fond of rabbit holes. I love diving into those crazy niches and seeing how everything works, although I must say that now that I am a mother, I have a little less time for that.

I enjoy being in nature, traveling, spending time with friends, and good food. From Italian to Mexican and French cuisine, I love it all. I also love going to the beach. In the summer, I often go to Zuid, and in the winter, to Hartbeach. Sometimes with my daughter and friends. It's nice to get some fresh air and have a drink.

Peak moments in life

I have had many happy moments in my life. One of the periods I often think back on is the year I lived in Bali. I experienced many peak moments there. Whenever I was on the beach or riding my scooter and looked around me, I thought: wow, it's so beautiful here.

Now I am no longer single and alone in Bali, but I have a family. Although I would like to say that the birth of my daughter was one of the happiest moments of my life, the circumstances were different for me. I had an emergency delivery and an epidural, so the start was quite overwhelming. Just as the feeling of happiness began to flow, I received a phone call telling me that my father had passed away. The combination of a newborn baby and mourning made this a difficult period. When I hear people who were completely euphoric at the birth, I envy them. I would have loved to experience the bliss of childbirth that some of my friends also had. In the period that followed, we found our feet as a family and now we are 2.5 years down the line.

I can also describe last summer as one of the peak moments in my life. We went on vacation as a family to a beautiful place in Puglia. A very pleasant environment with olive trees, where we were in a wonderful flow. What was really lovely was that my father-in-law was there. He cooked for us and helped look after our little daughter Mia. You always have to take a toddler into account and it can be quite intense, but on this holiday everything went smoothly and we really enjoyed each other’s company.

That’s how the idea of shaping my future differently came about. I’d wanted to set up my own business for at least 10 years, but I kept putting it off. When it turned out I couldn’t return to my previous role because it had been made redundant, the time had come. I wanted to pursue body-oriented therapy and started Venus on Sunday, my own practice. Because of the training courses I’d taken, such as Dao of the Woman, somatic trauma therapy and pelvic floor yoga, I decided to focus my communication and marketing on women. That’s the group I work with most, but the funny thing is that I now also have a number of male clients. They too come to me for nervous system regulation and stress-related issues, for which they are of course very welcome.

I really enjoy my work and find it brilliant to be able to help people. I’m learning a huge amount, but I’ve also noticed that running a business involves its ups and downs. It’s a kind of accelerated self-development, because you constantly come face to face with yourself in your business.

I have to be my own cheerleader now. If I’m not feeling quite myself, I make a conscious effort to acknowledge that. It’s okay to feel all those emotions, but at some point it’s important to get back into a positive flow. So I meditate, make sure I eat well, and focus on positive thoughts. It can take a bit of effort at times, but then I think of a friend who is very disciplined and doesn’t let things get her down easily. That’s how I want to be too, although I know I can’t read her mind and she might go through the same thing now and then.

Years later, I had my horoscope read. I was told that it would be good for me to take up a martial art. I took note of it, but didn’t do anything about it. Until, some time later, I took the ‘Dao of the Woman’ course. There I met a Russian shaman who taught me. He came up to me and told me I needed to become stronger. I had mainly taught myself to be gentle, so when I heard that, it kept niggling at me. Especially as I started reading more and more romance novels, all featuring powerful female protagonists.

All in all, there were enough clues to suggest I should take up a martial art. The final push came when, last summer, I took part in a challenge to do something exciting every day. It could be anything at all, so that was great fun. It brought back memories of the past. Sides of myself I hadn’t seen in a while, which is why I ended up re-watching Kill Bill. As I passed WuDae on the tram every day, I thought it would be nice to step out of my comfort zone a bit and sign up for a taster class. That turned out to be a real hit!

On the way to a green shirt

Wing Chun is very varied and I really love the way the system is structured. The fact that there’s always a defence within an attack. I also think it’s really cool that this style was developed by a nun.

The continuation of the interview with Kiki will soon be available here!

Text and photos by: Robine Hillen

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