Better Stories
What if the story you’ve been telling yourself isn’t the only story available?
As human beings, we are meaning-making creatures. We develop and rehearse stories about ourselves, our relationships and the things that have happened to us. Sometimes these stories help us navigate life. At other times, they keep us caught in habitual ways of thinking and reacting, leaving us feeling stuck or powerless.
Better Stories is a one-hour online reading that helps you recognise the story you are currently living inside—and discover another story that creates greater agency, meaning and possibility.
How it works
We begin by exploring one situation that you would like to understand differently. This could relate to:
how you see yourself
a relationship
career or money
creativity
a recurring pattern
a significant experience from your past
We then use illustrated cards to reveal the structure of the story you are currently telling or living.
After that, we draw a second set of cards for the better story.
The cards introduce unexpected images and connections that shake up your established way of seeing the situation. Together, we develop an alternative narrative that you can genuinely relate to and feel—not simply understand intellectually.
This is not positive thinking, fortune-telling or pretending that difficult things did not happen. A better story is not presented as the only truth. It is a new way of organising your experience—one that can reveal choices, meanings and possibilities that were previously difficult to see.
You remain the authority on your own life and decide what feels meaningful and useful to you.
Why I created Better Stories
I developed this reading for myself while moving through an extremely difficult period of grief.
It helped me find a way of understanding what had happened that did not leave me imprisoned by it. The circumstances had not disappeared, but I no longer felt quite so trapped inside the story I had formed around them.
The result was a greater sense of meaning, relief and agency. My wish is that you leave your reading feeling more spacious, with a renewed sense of what might be possible.
Choose your reading
One Story — €50
One focused, one-hour Better Stories reading.
We explore the story you are currently living around one particular subject and then develop the better story.
Because this is deep, focused work, each session is devoted to one story. This gives us the time and space to explore it fully rather than rushing across several different subjects.
Afterwards, you will receive:
a recording of our conversation
photographs of the card spreads
Three Stories — €135
Three one-hour readings for exploring different aspects of your life or several stories connected to a larger transition.
You might choose to explore self-concept, relationships and money, for example—or three separate stories influencing one area of your life.
Each session is devoted to one story, allowing each subject to receive the depth and attention it deserves.
After every session, you will receive:
a recording of our conversation
photographs of the card spreads
What people have said about my readings
“My session with Marijke was a very special gift. Her reading and interpretations were so insightful and helpful and I was walking on clouds afterwards.
Marijke has a special way of gently probing and guiding, which led me towards breakthrough moments of self-reflection and a renewed sense of confidence and self-worth.”
— Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, artist
“It felt illuminating, nurturing and uncannily accurate.”
— Monica
“The reading organised fragments of self-knowledge and made them visible as structures and diagrams.”
— Karolina
“You were gentle and attentive in the true sense of attention: waiting and listening.”
— Monica
My promise to you
Your satisfaction matters to me.
If you are not satisfied with your reading, please notify me by email within 24 hours of the session and I will refund you in full.
For a three-session package, this guarantee applies following the first session and includes a refund of the complete package price. After that 24-hour period, all payments are final.
About me
My background as a painter informs everything I do.
For many years, my work has explored atmosphere, perception, symbolism and the ways in which what we see is shaped by how it is framed.
Alongside my exhibition practice, I taught drawing at London College of Fashion for nine years. I love facilitating conversations that allow unexpected connections to emerge and previously invisible possibilities to come into view.
Better Stories brings these different strands together. The cards are another way of exploring perception: how are you currently framing your experience, and what else might become visible if the frame changes?
A note about the reading
Better Stories is a reflective and creative process. It does not provide factual claims about other people’s thoughts, feelings or intentions, and it is not a substitute for medical, psychological, legal or financial advice.
You are always free to question an interpretation, decline to explore something, pause the reading or bring the conversation back to what feels helpful and appropriate for you.