About me
 

My name is Selma Sevenhuijsen (1948). One day a week I am professor in the ethics and politics of care at the Faculty of Social Sciences op Utrecht University (see page ethic of care). Next to this I have an independent consultancy practice. In 1977 I finished my studies in political science at the University of Amsterdam . Afterwards I first worked as a lecturer at a school for social work, and later on at th University of Amsterdam , where I taught gender and politics. From 1989 till 2001 I was a professor in Women's Studies at Utrecht University . From 2001 on I have studied the labyrinth. For my scientific work I have travelled a lot. This enabled me to visit and walk labyrinths at different places in the world. For me this was a way to further deepen my spiritual path. My social and political involvement has caused that I have also from the start on been interested in ways of using the labyrinth for building dialogue and connections between people and as a means for community building.
 
 

In August 2001 I first saw a labyrinth in Switzerland and two weeks later two other labyrinths, this time in San Francisco . Walking the labyrinth had a deep impact on me. I was in a transitional phase in my life. The labyrinth proved to be a good guide in answering the question ‘what do I actually want?' During a number of visits to Chartres my experiences with the labyrinth became deeper and more intense. I decided to give the labyrinth a central place in my consultancy work. In 2003 I followed the training for ‘labyrinth facilitator' with Veriditas, an organisation in San Francisco that is one of the anchor points of the current labyrinth movement. Since then I have been further elaborating my labyrinth work: see page ‘ projects '. In doing so I enjoy the support, next to my personal networks, of my membership of a number of international organisations of people who work with the labyrinth:
 
 

My academic experience has laid the foundation for my work with the labyrinth. Themes in the ethic of care, like attention, compassion, connection, responsibility and trust return in relation to the labyrinth, and find at the same time more depth there. Hence the device of LabyrintWerk: working with values. In the supervision of students I have always found it important to pay adequate attention to their personal development. That has laid the basis for me for guiding people in their search for their ‘inner core'. My intellectual curiosity makes me always search again for the history and the different applications of the labyrinth. And my administrative experience caused me to prefer to work in the form of special projects. At the same time it is clear for me that working with the labyrinth gives me much more satisfaction that pure intellectual work. By working with forms, images, symbols, myth, movement and sound the soul can be part of my work again. That's why I see LabyrintWerk as part of a broader movement for contemplation and spiritual inspiration, one of the reasons why I like to cooperate with others who work in this ‘stream'.