The STEP UP vision
Nothing less than a better and more sustainable world with more active, more fulfilled and healthier human beings! That is the basis for all STEP UP trainings. We do not focus on an absolute increase in performance levels, but we want to enable and develop participants to become more competent, more sustainably active and more content individuals and teams. Then, increases in performance will follow automatically.
Following humanistic ideas, STEP UP wants to help you to develop and increase your own human potential in an holistic way. Against the background of taking on responsibility for yourself and others, autonomy and self- and team-actualization stay central in our trainings.
Stepping up to a more active, more sustainable and better future!
Background
Dr. Sandra Klaperski-van der Wal: I am a psychologist and trainer and founded STEP UP in 2018 to work in a more applied way in addition to my scientific and academic work. I dreamt of bringing people in touch with scientific knowledge and evidence-based insights. In addition to my passion for sport and exercise psychology, I have a passion for sustainable development and experiential learning and combine these areas in my practical work.
Scientific and academic background: In 2013, I finished my PhD in sport and exercise psychology on the topic of physical activity, stress regulation and health at the University of Freiburg. From 2014 to 2017, I furthermore completed a M.A. distance learning study in "Environment and Education" with a focus on Education for Sustainable Development. After 5 years as PhD student and assistant professor in the field of sport and exercise psychology at the University of Freiburg, I started working as Senior Lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at the University of Roehampton (London, UK) in 2015. In 2017, I moved to the Netherlands and worked at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Amsterdam, before starting my current post in the Behaviour Change and Well-Being Group at Radboud University (Nijmegen).
Practical work and training: In addition to a large number of didactic qualifications, from 2009 to 2011 I did a part-time additional training as experiential learning/outdoor education trainer for Outward Bound Germany. In 2011 I also completed an intensive course for relaxation therapy and in 2012 I became a climbing sports instructor for the German Alpine Club. In 2013, I participated in a course in basic knowledge of systemic counseling, which I was able to further expand on in my academic work. To widen my practical methodological skills, I also completed an intensive training as NLP for Sport and Performance Practitioner in England in 2017.