Listen to Noomii's interview with Edmee Schalkx

About Me

Edmee Schalkx has lived her life as a global citizen. Her career took her all over the world as she worked for the UN, European commission, various multinationals before founding her own business. Edmee has travelled the world, living in more than 10 different countries and speaking 5 languages. For Edmee, the world has always been her oyster! Until she landed in the Netherlands.

Edmee’s arrival in the Netherlands should have been easy, her parents were Dutch although she was born in Venezuela. But the reality of life in the Netherlands for Edmee was anything but easy. Life became very challenging, relationships did not develop easily and she found that she had more criticism than acceptance for her new country. For many years she felt out of place, as though she just didn’t fit and she couldn’t work out why. It wasn’t until she started reading a book about third-culture kids that she realised what was wrong. She was a third-culture kid! And Holland was her parent’s country. What she was experiencing was a profound cultural disconnect

With her new perspective, Edmee began to explore the importance of culture and how it consciously and unconsciously impacts people’s lives. Her background in anthropology, coaching and her own life experiences give her a uniquely layered insight into this fascinating area of research which allowed her to bring cultural competence and awareness into her work with clients. As she deepened her knowledge, Edmee developed a unique framework for cultural competence in coaching which allows her clients to develop stronger communication skills, supports them in creating deeper relationships and helps them achieve a more harmonious working environment for themselves and their teams.