Anouk ten Arve

About Anouk ten Arve

Anouk ten Arve was born as a team player, curious, eager to learn, and a connector. With her twin sister, she knew even before she could talk that you can solve more and play more pranks together than alone. Her father was a general practitioner. With his practice at home, Anouk often observed the people who came for consultations and always thought: what could these people still do. The mindset of thinking in possibilities and solutions was instilled early on.

During her occupational therapy training, where optimizing what you can do is central, she further developed these skills. This sparked her interest in healthy & safe working. She saw how important work is for people. How can people with disabilities continue to work and participate in society? Anouk then further educated herself in occupational management and occupational rehabilitation science.

Initially, when she worked at the Center for Health Promotion at the Workplace and at KLM Health Services, her focus was mainly on individual fitness and employability. But gradually she realized that if the source, the organization where you work, is unhealthy, you can improve yourself until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t help.

Anouk then pursued three post-master’s degrees in business administration on learning, development and change; corporate social responsibility and strategic innovation in cure and care. With this knowledge combined with her knowledge of work and health, she had a broad perspective to better understand organizations. Healthy & safe working not only results in healthy employees, but it also yields a tremendous return on investment from a business perspective. In 2011, Anouk started at Stichting IZZ and experienced the passion and drive among healthcare professionals, managers, executives, HR, social partners, and scientists to deliver the best care and continuously improve that care.

By engaging with this topic daily from different perspectives, Anouk has gained many insights both at the strategic organizational level and in daily work. She has encountered many dilemmas, different interests, wishes, disappointments, and care successes, and the longer she is involved, the more convinced she is that we make it too difficult for ourselves and rely too much on ‘the other’ for solutions. Every person has more influence on the solution than they think. It is her personal drive to stimulate this movement towards utilizing your own influence on healthy & safe working and delivering the best possible care.

Anouk gives workshops, lectures, and presentations on this topic. You can also engage her as a moderator.