About Ingeborg van Zanten-Hayes
"Having a deep experience of at least two cultures is to know that no culture is absolute. It is to realize that social, political, and linguistic realities could be arranged in other ways.”
- Isabelle de Courtivron
The awareness of International and cultural differences has drawn me since I was a child. I noticed change in my German mother once she crossed the border from the Netherlands into her country of birth. Our home life included English and American business guests my dad brought and the Dutch and Indonesian friends they surrounded themselves with. Later I married a man from Texas. We had two children born in Guatemala and Germany. We lived in Asia, Central America, The Middle East and of course Europe and now the United States. I became fascinated with the varied ways people live and do things all over the world.
I encourage personal growth through telling one's life’s story. Writing or verbally expressing these experiences during spiritual direction deepens our identity; stories are like DNA. I am a certified spiritual director and follow the path of mysticism and contemporary teachings in neuroscience. In a Buddhist temple in Vietnam, I participated in daily Zen meditation. The experiential teachers in my life have by medicine people from different Indigenous nations. They connect me with earth and awareness of my true self.
Deepening of the meaning and understanding why we act and value differently came through training and certification in Spiral Dynamics Integral with Dr. Don Beck and Christopher Cooke. The application of SDi lifts people into healing themselves and deepens relationships with others, evolving toward a more integrated worldview. Spiral Dynamics is the charting of thought structures, life priorities and the design of systems across many domains. Spiral dynamics is the creation of Dr. don Beck, who worked directly with Professor Graves since 1975 in the extensions and field-testing of this conceptual framework. The understanding of value systems (memes) helps us to emerge in consciousness. I enjoy stretching through the creative process and facilitate groups that focus on a combination of writing, spirituality, culture and art. Hopefully this process facilitates a lightening up of the community I form a part of.
- Isabelle de Courtivron
The awareness of International and cultural differences has drawn me since I was a child. I noticed change in my German mother once she crossed the border from the Netherlands into her country of birth. Our home life included English and American business guests my dad brought and the Dutch and Indonesian friends they surrounded themselves with. Later I married a man from Texas. We had two children born in Guatemala and Germany. We lived in Asia, Central America, The Middle East and of course Europe and now the United States. I became fascinated with the varied ways people live and do things all over the world.
I encourage personal growth through telling one's life’s story. Writing or verbally expressing these experiences during spiritual direction deepens our identity; stories are like DNA. I am a certified spiritual director and follow the path of mysticism and contemporary teachings in neuroscience. In a Buddhist temple in Vietnam, I participated in daily Zen meditation. The experiential teachers in my life have by medicine people from different Indigenous nations. They connect me with earth and awareness of my true self.
Deepening of the meaning and understanding why we act and value differently came through training and certification in Spiral Dynamics Integral with Dr. Don Beck and Christopher Cooke. The application of SDi lifts people into healing themselves and deepens relationships with others, evolving toward a more integrated worldview. Spiral Dynamics is the charting of thought structures, life priorities and the design of systems across many domains. Spiral dynamics is the creation of Dr. don Beck, who worked directly with Professor Graves since 1975 in the extensions and field-testing of this conceptual framework. The understanding of value systems (memes) helps us to emerge in consciousness. I enjoy stretching through the creative process and facilitate groups that focus on a combination of writing, spirituality, culture and art. Hopefully this process facilitates a lightening up of the community I form a part of.
Biographical Information: Ingeborg van Zanten-Hayes is a Dutch spiritual and cross-cultural writer living in the U.S. drawing expertise from her work as an International and Cultural Program Director at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She is certified in Spiral Dynamics Integral level 1 and 2 and is a spiritual director. Ingeborg is an Internationalist having lived in Guatemala, Venezuela, the Middle East, Indonesia, Europe and the United States. A native of the Netherlands, she settled in Houston, Texas after a migratory life with her husband and children, living in foreign lands and even jungles. Now in Bozeman, Montana, she facilitates writer's groups and currently is exploring Mexico, learning from its people, their natural world and the arts.
Social Media, Conference Presentations, and Publications:
Published Articles
- Guest speaker Little Saigon Radio Houston with UHCL’s president, faculty member and Director of Heritage Program at the Smithsonian; 2007
- Invited guest speaker by Consul of the Netherlands at Houston City Hall, audience included members of the consular corps in Houston; 2007
- Invited guest speaker introducing Spiral Dynamics at various venues in the Houston community; 2006
- Invited guest speaker at Houston Regional NAFSA Association of International Educators; 2006
- Guest speaker 90.1 KPFT Radio Show Arab Radio with UHCL’s president faculty members and alumni; 2005
- Invited guest speaker addressing Iraq at Spiral Dynamics International Confab Dallas; 2005.
- Invited guest speaker International Connections Houston entitled “I too am a global nomad, world citizen or global trotter”; 2001.
- Coordinated extensive coverage in international community newspapers of Vietnam, Korea and Central America.
Published Articles
- Freedom, Bozeman Magpie 2013
- Interview with Ambassador and Consul General Uzer of the Republic of Turkey in Houston, UHCL International Magazine 2008
- Interview with Consul General Yoshihiko Kamo of Japan in Houston, UHCL International Magazine 2007
- Tolerance a World Perspective, UHCL International Magazine, 2007
- The Difference Between Knowing and Doing, UHCL International Magazine 2007
- Editorial on Weltanschauung, UHCL International Magazine 2006
- Interview with Dr. Staples, President of the University of Houston-Clear Lake. UHCL International Magazine, 2006
- No Water over the Dyke in Holland. UH-Clear Lake International Magazine 2005
All images of international and cultural immersions, educational travel and experience credited to Debra Rueb, Peter Bowman, and Ingeborg van Zanten-Hayes as indicated.