Judith: from technical jack-of-all-trades to inspired hypnotherapist with a mission all her own

When you speak to Judith van Royen-Ottes today, you will meet a down-to-earth, upbeat and, above all, very practical hypnotherapist who will make you laugh as easily as she will make you feel what's stuck in your system. She just wears Dr. Martens, jeans and a nice sweater. No incense alarms, no floaty language, but deep transformations.

She combines hypnosis with Touch of Matrix and, quite uniquely, with energetic house cleansing. “Because a lot of your crap is just lying around in your house,” she says dryly. And that’s exactly what has become her niche : helping people who have lost themselves, who are stuck in their lives, and who feel that their home no longer feels like a comfortable place.

But to understand how she got there, we have to go back. Way back.

For the HIN: seek, do, start again

Judith herself calls it "long story short," but really it is mostly a life in which she learned something new over and over again, just started doing it and then dared to honestly admit again: this wasn't it either. As a child, she wanted to be a jet fighter pilot. She even went to the Air Force, but was rejected because of a congenital hip defect and an S-shape in her back. "Then you'll be disabled if you ever have to use an ejection seat," she was told. Dream away.

Then she obediently followed the path her father thought wise: secretary, Schoevers, real estate. She proved good at it, worked at a brokerage firm for 12 years and became an office manager.

Later, she even got into her father's business: remote care via video communication, with the whole family in it. It ran like clockwork, until the Social Support Act (Wmo) in 2007 pretty much reduced innovation in care to zero. The orders stopped coming in, the company went under, and Judith found herself at a crossroads again.

And then something happened that is very typical of Judith: she followed a hint.

The pedicurist came by and Judith thought: what a nice job you have. That same night she dreamed of her own practice. The morning after, she flipped open the newspaper and was the first to see an open day for pedicure training. "Yes, then you have to," she says.

She signed up, built (first through her husband, later herself in HTML) her own website, and within a year the practice was full. That self-taught side, "just show me, I can do it myself," runs like a thread through her story.

But in 2016, the real tipping point happened.

The daughter in the pit

Judith's daughter was 9 at the time and deeply troubled. "We did everything regular could: psychologist, EMDR ... nothing helped." Until Judith's mother, nicely inquisitive herself, said, "Have you looked into hypnosis?" Judith laughed at her mother, but researched it anyway. Thus the appointment was made. She went along, stayed with it, watched it.

And after 1.5 hours, there was another child sitting next to her in the car.

From being withdrawn and gloomy to chatting, helping out, and going to the supermarket again. “I really thought: what just happened here?” says Judith. At that moment, she knew: this isn’t a gimmick. This works. And if this can work for my child, then I want to be able to do this too.

Around the same time, she saw a video of Edwin (Hypnosis Instituut Nederland) on Facebook: you had to stand up, look at him and your arm would automatically go up. "Then I thought: if that guy can do that, then I have to go there," she says.

She found the online course (at that time) too “superficial.” Judith needs to feel, experience, and practice, so in July 2016 she attended the HIN in person and immediately took Hypnosis 1.0 and 2.0 back-to-back. In 2024, she added the 3.0 course, which had since become even more comprehensive and improved.

Studying at the HIN: "you keep listening hypnotized."

When you ask her how she experienced HIN, it comes right out: "It was one of the most fun trainings I've ever done." Not like school, not dry, but playful, practical and alive.

"You don't fall asleep, you keep listening. There's humor in it, music, dancing in between, practicing right away. That suits me."

What moved her most about hypnosis in general was that she saw her daughter not only change once, but that her subconscious could also say “no”—and that that was okay. During a session with her daughter aimed at improving concentration, she initially received a “no” from her daughter’s subconscious.

Judith thought, "Seriously? I'm paying for this, right?" But the therapist very calmly said, "If it can't be done now, can you make sure it can be done at a later time?" and then came a "yes.

And that “yes” later truly came to fruition: her daughter excelled in her schoolwork. That made Judith think: more people need to know about this. This isn’t hocus-pocus; it’s working in harmony with what’s already there.

From pedicurist to full-time hypnotherapist

During corona, the next push came from the universe. Pedicures were not allowed to work, hypnotherapists were. Judith literally said, "Universe, send me hypnosis clients, because the stove has to burn." And it started running.

In 2021, she made the official switch: pedicure still two days a month for the "old-timers" of 2010 ("they are now friends"), but otherwise only hypnosis, Touch of Matrix and energetic home cleansing.

In the process, she tackled something else major: her stutter. During a demonstration in the training program, Edwin had eliminated her stutter using conversational hypnosis—something he himself had never done before with conversational hypnosis at that point.

He later jokingly called her "my worst enemy" because that also challenged himself. But for Judith, it was life-changing: "Without Edwin, I wouldn't have been able to do this work, because I wouldn't have been able to speak properly." So in her final training, she deliberately put him in the spotlight.

The energetic layer: houses that don't feel nice

And then that other piece that Judith is so turned on by: energetic home cleansing. This is NOT "just waving a stick of incense." She really feels what's in a house, without judgment, and discharges that charge through her system.

“I’m just a channel,” she says. She compares it to walking into a room where you sense there’s been an argument. That tension can linger. In rental properties, that can sometimes be a whole stack of other people’s lives.

In homes on historic land, trauma from centuries ago can still be felt. She scans a house for 18 points and involves family members by default, because they often carry that tension as well.

In 2020, she finally dared to offer this openly. "I thought: I will soon be called crazy. My daughter still said: mom, are you really going to put this on your website?" But she did. And it immediately became the most viewed page. Apparently there are a lot of people who feel: my house is not right, but I don't know why.

In April (after another tough personal year, with many losses) she thought: now I'm going to combine it. First clean the house, then enter the (hypnosis) journey. So that someone immediately comes home in new energy.

And that concept was not only well received, she even received an EU award for it: Best Holistic Therapy Services Provider 2025 Groningen and a Global award Hypnotherapist of the Year. For someone who once thought hypnosis was "maybe a little crazy," that comes full circle.

What the HIN meant in this

Without the HIN, this story would have turned out differently. The HIN gave her:

• The method of working with the unconscious (and seeing that it really works),
• The experience of teaching in a playful, human way,
• the reassurance that you’re not weird for being sensitive,
• And most importantly, the platform on which she regained her voice herself.

That's why she laughingly calls herself "perhaps one of Edwin's biggest fans." Not only because her daughter got her life back, but because it allowed her to start doing her job.

And she’s now doing this work from Groningen, under the name Joyful You—with one L 😉 (happy you)
You can find her at joyfulyou.nl.

It's a great example of what can happen when someone who is technical, down-to-earth, AND sensitive, finally finds a training where all those parts are allowed to participate. Then you get exactly this: a hypnotherapist who helps where others keep looking, AND who immediately takes the house.

Would you like to learn hypnosis, just like Judith?

You can take the training in person or online. Would you like to have a no-obligation chat to see if this is right for you? Schedule a one-on-one consultation here. You won’t be speaking with a salesperson, but with an experienced HIN coach who works with this training program and clients on a daily basis. In 20–30 minutes, you’ll get a clear sense of whether this is the right step for you and which start date suits you best.

The schedule for these sessions fills up quickly around the start of each group. Is there still a time slot available that works for you? Then book it now.