From the outside, things look fine. You show up, you deliver, you handle what needs handling. But internally there’s a kind of exhaustion that rest doesn’t fix.
You might notice your body holding tension you can’t release, your mind replaying decisions long after they’re made, a creeping feeling that you’re living someone else’s version of your life, or patterns you’ve tried to change for years quietly running the same loops.
This isn’t a discipline problem. And it isn’t a mindset problem. It’s a nervous system and pattern problem, and those require a different kind of work.
I’m Adina Petre, a clinical psychologist, trauma therapist and high-performance coach based in the Netherlands. I work with high-functioning professionals, founders and expats who sense that what’s holding them back isn’t external, it’s internal.
My work sits at the intersection of trauma recovery and performance. And I know that unresolved patterns shape every decision, relationship and opportunity, whether we’re aware of them or not.
On May 27, 2026, I gave a TEDx talk called “Dare to Speak” about exactly this: that trauma recovery isn’t just about healing the past. It’s the foundation for everything you want to build next.
Depending on where you are and what you need, we can work together in different ways.
For when something inside feels unmanageable and you need a safe, structured space to understand it, process it, and find your footing again.
For when you're stable and functioning but feel capped, like your inner capacity hasn't caught up with where you want to go next.
For organisations and universities, on psychological resilience, nervous system regulation and performance under pressure.
Closed, themed groups for people who are done doing this alone. Structured, psychology-led, and designed to turn insight into real change.
Most approaches work at the surface focusing on better habits, stronger mindset, more discipline. The work I do goes underneath that, to where the patterns actually live.
We begin as archaeologists.
We dig carefully into what’s already there. In the experiences, the learned responses, the survival strategies that made perfect sense once and now quietly run your life. We gently sift through the layers, and we do it with precision. Not everything we find needs to stay. But some of it is precious, and you need to know which is which.
Then we build.
We map what’s actually happening in your nervous system and where it comes from. Most people have been living inside their patterns for so long they can no longer see them. This is where they become visible.
You learn to work with your emotional and cognitive responses rather than being controlled by them. Your nervous system begins to learn safety and recovery.
This is where we build the internal toolkit that makes everything else sustainable. Psychological resources, emotional capacity, embodied living, the parts of you that have always been there but couldn’t be accessed while survival was taking up all the space.
From this steadier place, decisions look different. We design the life you actually want not the one your wounds chose for you. The one you’ve quietly hoped for but couldn’t fully imagine, because trauma was clouding your vision.
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Trauma recovery isn’t just about healing what happened. It’s about unlocking what’s possible next. In this talk, I explore why resilience and healing aren’t opposites of achievement but the foundation of it.
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London
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Amsterdam
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London
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Chicago
Adina has worked with professionals, founders and individuals across Europe, including partnerships with TU Delft and Maastricht University.
If you’ve been reading this and feeling recognised, that’s not by accident. This work is for people who are ready to stop surviving and want to start building something different.
The first conversation is just that. A conversation.
