Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel

Carlien plays in the Dutch national field hockey team. Despite her busy training program, she has always combined top sports with a Physiotherapy course. This resulted in a successfully completed study in 2014. Carlien subsequently gained work experience and now starts at MoveWell as a Physiotherapist.

I grew up in Den Bosch where my parents have a physiotherapy practice. It was a logical choice for me to follow them and I successfully completed the Physiotherapy course at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences in 2014. I have always combined my studies and work with top sport. I have been playing hockey in the Dutch national team since 2008 and have won Olympic gold (London 2012), Olympic silver (Rio 2016) and World Cup gold (2014 and 2018).

Through my experience as a top athlete but also as a physiotherapist, I know how important it is to feel good, not have any pain complaints and to live a fit life. But I also know what it’s like to be injured and not feel physically optimal. The choices (to work/not to work, to exercise/not to exercise, etc.) that you have to make at that moment are difficult, but I can help you with that. I find it a challenge to find out what the core of the complaint is and find a solution as quickly as possible.