About ME

I’m Aranka van der Pol, founder of Junglebirds and Lots of Lesvos, (co-)creator of seven books, and a certified coach (Master NLP, NeuroSemantics, RETaC), dedicated to helping you find your purpose. You can learn more about my personal journey here.

My background

I started a business when I was 22 years old. In the years after I (co-)created 7 books. I worked as a journalist for over 15 years (culinary, lifestyle, travel, parliamentary). I drove in an electric Tuk Tuk from Amsterdam to Portugal in three months to gain attention for sustainable traveling. I led a communication agency together and I founded a culinary brand to support locals and refugees on Lesbos (Lots of Lesvos).

Out of flow

At a certain moment I was working 60 hours a week. I only saw my husband from behind the computer. I didn’t have time to do sports, go out with friends or read a book, which is my favourite thing in the world! 

I felt tired, alone, stuck and out of flow. I realised I was trying so hard to ‘make it work’ that I lost contact with my own passions, purpose and nature. 

Not following my own path didn’t work for me. I couldn’t make the big impact I wanted to make. Something had to change.

Connecting with my purpose

Together with my husband, our 5 year old son and our 10 year old dog I moved to Portugal in 2019 to live off grid in a yurt in nature for a while. Being in the wild forest, I reconnected with what is truly important for me.

And with my knowledge of NLP and Neuro-Semantics I started helping other people reconnect with their true nature and transforming that into performance. 

For 6 months we lived in our beautiful self-built modern yurt having the most amazing time. Watching the stars at night, hearing the owl howling, being awaked by hundreds of little birds. 

Transformation and healing

In the Summer of 2020 a big forest fire devastated our little paradise. Everything burned down to the ground. Fortunately we had time to bring ourselves in safety. 

We went back to the Netherlands for two months. I learned a lot about transformation and healing from the experience.

Since September 2020 we’re back in the beautiful wild nature of South West Portugal, living in this wonderful house surrounded by green jungle. A perfect place to spread your wings and fly! Like Junglebirds do.

Coaching

I work with clients all over the world on a daily basis, via online and live coaching, and I guide Transformation Quests. 

I’m a certified professional NLP coach by Robbie Steinhouse at NLP School in London and a member of the International Coach Federation. I’m also a certified NLP Master by Robert Dilts at the NLP University in Santa Cruz. In the past 20 years I followed several Neuro Semantics trainings with Michael Hall and Wassili Zafiris and did the RETaC foundation training. Besides that I like to study neuroscience and Shamanic healing practises.

I’m dedicated to helping you reconnect with your purpose and to give you the tools to transform this into performance.

Contact

Please contact me by phone, e-mail, or via live video calling.

E-mail: aranka@junglebirds.org
Mobile: +31 (0)6 124 77 877