Kyra Timmerman

After her psychology studies at Leiden University, Kyra Timmerman began working as an officer at the Defense selection center. Later, she joined the leadership institute De Baak. Since 2008, Kyra has had her own coaching practice.

“Although I worked with the Royal Military Police, I always had a special bond with the marines. Initially, I didn’t know why, but now I do. War played a significant role in our family. My mother experienced war traumatically as a 6-year-old girl. Her father, my grandfather, was a marine. The stories about WWII and the police actions in Indonesia always deeply touched me; they largely shaped me.”

With her Defense background, Kyra later found a meaningful role in a clinic for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. “Stress and trauma can create significant barriers to functioning. We now know that trauma can even be passed on to subsequent generations if not properly treated.”

Kyra’s approach as a coach and trainer is intuitive and sensitive. “But also very practical,” she adds. “In everyone’s mind are beliefs, sometimes contrary to emotions. We listen more to the voices in our heads than to what our body tells us. I’d like to reverse that.

Most teams in various organizations hardly know where tension, fear, or insecurity lies among colleagues. It’s dismissed as ‘non-business-related.’ The vision we share at Allied Forces is that you can only achieve truly remarkable results when there’s psychological safety. To collaborate optimally as a team, you need to know yourself and others thoroughly.

As a team facilitator, I increase awareness of this matter and how each team member can play an active role in it. We experience this ourselves (after all, Allied Forces is also a team) and with the clients we work for. This work makes me so happy; it fills me with energy.”