Welcome to De Levensboom, Centre for Complementary Care.

Complementary Care in this context means: various extra types of (natural) treatments that can have a positive effect on the health and general well-being of the patient.
First, let me introduce myself.......

My name is Madeleine Knapp Hayes-Wellhüner. I qualified originally for (conventional) nursing but couldn't find there what I felt that I wanted to give to my patients. So I studied and trained for Herbalism, Aromatherapy and Hydrotherapy. I further specialised in Hydrotherapy and developed my techniques with extensive experience in clinics on the Black Sea.

In 1996 I returned to The Netherlands, where I further studied Nutrition and Nutritional Medicine. I also gained a qualification in Pharmacy. I now have well over 20 years of experience in treatments used in both "regular" Medicine and Complementary Medicine. Importantly, this gives me knowledge of where the two can work hand-in-hand and truly complement each other and - also very important - where they can't.

De Levensboom's current construction has existed for about the lst 10 years. De Levensboom has more branches: Complementary Care for you and Professional Complementary Care, the Stichting Levensboom Fonds (Charity) and the Educational Plant Garden "Heerlijkheid De Levensboom".

Today I do a lot of Lecturing, mainly in Aromatherapy and Water Therapy. I love to build bridges and with my background in nursing, one of my passions is to be able to introduce Complementary Care - one of the pillars of Integrated Medicine - to various Care Facilities, be it a Hospital, a Hospice or some other Place of Care. In fact, working with Aromatherapy and Water Therapy together is ideal, since they complement one another so well.

Complementary Care for you.

For obvious reasons, we can only accept patients who live within a reasonable travelling distance of The Practice. For this reason, it would be impossible to accept patients from (for instance), The UK, France or Germany.

The following is therefore intended only as an indication of how we approach Patient Care.
The emphasis is the health of the whole body from a holistic standpoint. Together, we explore which treatments may be most beneficial to the patient's specific needs. These treatments may include Aromatherapy, Water Therapy, Nutritional Therapy (Diet), combined with maybe APS Electrotherapy and/or Massages. In certain cases, complementary treatments may be concurrent to "regular" medical interventions (such as Chemotherapy) or may be various complementary post-operative therapies, designed to assist the patient's recovery.
We often work together with a consultant or specialist, to devise a suitable programme for a patient. "Complementary" and "Regular" medicine hand-in-hand for the ultimate benefit of the patient!

In isolated cases but where it's necessary, the patient may be advised that no complementary therapies are suitable for their particular medical physical (or psychological) situation and we would refer them to their Doctor, or (with their agreement) discuss the case with them on their behalf, with a relevant specialist, to see what the most appropriate action is to facilitate their treatment.

Of course, you're always welcome at "De Levensboom" if you're in our area (but please first check with us, for our availability)!

While you're here: visit "Heerlijkheid De Levensboom", our beautiful Educational Medicinal Plant Garden with 4000m2 of various plants used in many fields of medicine. See the link on this site.

Wernhoutseweg 142, 4884MD Wernhout
Tel: +31 76 596 3380

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About "De Levensboom".
The organisation is run by Madeleine Knapp Hayes - Wellhüner. Her roots lie in nursing and she has qualifications not only as a Herbalist and Aromatherapist but also as a Hydrotherapist and Orthomolecular Nutricianist. Over the last 15 years, she has focussed more and more on working with and giving training in, Aromatherapy and Hydrotherapy. Madeleine gives Professional Training, lectures and workshops, publishes her work and teaches at the ROC in Sittard (Limburg). Her passion as a Complementary Care Specialist lies in (successfully) building bridges between Conventional Medicine and Complementary Care, based on mutual respect and understanding for the people and the organisations.