Well Worth Being

11/09/2025

Read the article about my upcoming Camino de Santiago, Walking for Mental Health, and find out how you can follow, support and share my campaign.

Hout Bay therapist Penelope van Maasdyk walks up to 1,000km on the Camino offering on-trail coaching and craniosacral therapy. Help her raise R55,000 by 30 Oct.

10/09/2025

My goal: to walk 1,000kms across Spain, 17 Sep-30 Oct; Del Norte, Primitivo or Via de la Plata My mission: to advocate for Mental Health with too...

10/09/2025

The shell symbolizes self-love and marks a pilgrimage journey, representing transformation and support. It serves as a totem for personal achievements and encourages kindness. This expedition promotes mental health awareness, with donations facilitating connections between the pilgrim and others. Engaging in giving and receiving fosters self-awareness and growth....

The shell symbolizes self-love and marks a pilgrimage journey, representing transformation and support. It serves as a totem for personal achievements and encourages kindness. This expedition promo…

10/09/2025

Joseph Campbell said, “Follow your bliss”. Pilgrims follow their bliss/ters. On no past Camino or long-distance local hike have I had to deal with blisters. The only trek I suffered from blisters was in 2001 on the Annapurna Circuit (Nepal) when I walked in leather boots I took out of their box to pack in my backpack … I didn’t walk in them once before boarding the plane to walk for 21 days across and over the Himalaya at 5,400m altitude....

Joseph Campbell said, “Follow your bliss”. Pilgrims follow their bliss/ters. On no past Camino or long-distance local hike have I had to deal with blisters. The only trek I suffered from blisters w…

09/09/2025

He got his mathematical legal brain, his dance moves, his whacky sense of humour and a few unhealthy coping mechanisms from me. When I gave him life, he saved mine.
20 years ago I was forced through the caterpillar portal of my own rebirth into an ever transmuting and evolving wing-ed woman simply by nature of his making me mother.
He leaves his teens as I enter my crone days, both transitioning one again in synch through our own unique and separate birthing portals to begin again a new book of being.
Happiest of birthdays to my Nic Noodle, may you find your way to heed the call of your becoming so that you become who you were born to be in a world that constantly tries to make you something else.
Being a mother is like living with your heart outside your body. It’s not easy but it can grow you if you’re willing to allow yourself to push the boundaries of your own self expansion.
you have taught me how to be more me so I can teach you how to be more you.
I love you forever 💕💕💕

09/09/2025

He got his mathematical legal brain, his dance moves, his whacky sense of humour and a few unhealthy coping mechanisms from me. When I gave him life, he saved mine.
20 years ago I was forced through the caterpillar portal of my own rebirth into an ever transmuting and evolving wing-ed woman simply by nature of his making me mother.
He leaves his teens as I enter my crone days, both transitioning one again in synch through our own unique and separate birthing portals to begin again a new book of being.
Happiest of birthdays to my Nic Noodle, may you find your way to heed the call of your becoming so that you become who you were born to be in a world that constantly tries to make you something else.
Being a mother is like living with your heart outside your body. It’s not easy but it can grow you if you’re willing to allow yourself to push the boundaries of your own self expansion.
you have taught me how to be more me so I can teach you how to be more you.
I love you forever 💕💕💕

08/09/2025

It may look like the same route as the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims before you yet it is different for your walking it. A pilgrim’s unique footprints make for a unique pilgrimage. The Yellow Arrow is a sign of reassurance that one is following one of the routes on the pilgrim’s way and is an iconic symbol of direction in one’s life as well as ancestral direction and rites of passage—pointing out A way which is different to THE way....

It may look like the same route as the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims before you yet it is different for your walking it. A pilgrim’s unique footprints make for a unique pilgrimage.  The Ye…

08/09/2025

I would so love a friend to take me to the airport at 9.30am on Tuesday 16 September... Please let me know if you're willing and able 🫶🫶🫶

08/09/2025

The Walking Stick is a symbol of those people in one’s life who assist in upliftment, encouragement and forward momentum. Having an emotional, physical and spiritual staff to lean on can help traverse tricky terrain. I don’t walk with poles or a walking stick—in fact the few times I have used someone’s for a difficult crossing or steep downhill, I have fallen....

The Walking Stick is a symbol of those people in one’s life who assist in upliftment, encouragement and forward momentum. Having an emotional, physical and spiritual staff to lean on can help trave…

07/09/2025

As I embark on my most challenging pilgrimage, 1,000km on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, Walking for Mental Health, I am drawn back to reflect once more on the symbols of The Way that I have previously walked with. The first symbol is the most important for me as it indicates the strategic part of the planning phase as I consider what to pack … adding and then eliminating … ruminating and deliberating … trying to envisage the climate, the landscape, the skin feel and mostly—perhaps obviously—the weight vs the comfort of choice....

As I embark on my most challenging pilgrimage, 1,000km on the Camino de Santiago in Spain, Walking for Mental Health, I am drawn back to reflect once more on the symbols of The Way that I have prev…

06/09/2025

When people believe in you, you start believing in yourself. I grew up not being believed in — my skills and abilities and also my innate wisdom were overlooked; considered odd — and I consequently learnt from a very young age to abandon myself to fit in and be fed. I am not a victim to this because I also know…...

When people believe in you, you start believing in yourself. I grew up not being believed in — my skills and abilities and also my innate wisdom were overlooked; considered odd — and I consequently…

05/09/2025

BackaBuddy Fundraiser:
WALKING FOR MENTAL HEALTH: Coaching and Therapy on the Move

To dear friends, clients and donors

With ten days to go till departure and almost 50% funded, I am reaching out to those who have already contributed both on or offline to my campaign with an appeal to please spread the following links far and wide with the focus on those who are either struggling with mental health or know someone who is: https://backabuddy.co.za/campaign/walking-for-mental-health (or navigate on the BackaBuddy website to Walking for Mental Health)

I have an immediate donor need of ZAR6,000 to prevent cancellation of the trip and keep me on track with the campaign.

For those of you who have experienced my work either as a friend or a client, if you would like to consider contributing to the campaign, you will receive one of the following vouchers in exchange:
* donate ZAR 2,500 and receive a Coaching Consultation voucher (1.5 hours online), OR a Craniosacral Therapy voucher (1.5 hours in person).
* donate ZAR 1,000 and receive a Guided Walk voucher (1-2 hours in Cape Town) OR a voucher for Yoga, Meditation and Breathwork (1 hour online or in person).

Although these incentives are for bigger donations, I’d like to remind you that no donation is too small. Everyone who takes part in this campaign will ultimately benefit from being part of changing the way we work—and walk—with Mental Health.

Thank you to everyone who validates the work that I do. To follow, share and support this coaching pilgrimage, my LinkTree has all the links to all my socials: https://linktr.ee/Walking_for_Mental_Health

In love and gratitude
Penelope
🥰

Psychologist | Craniosacral Therapist | Integral Coach | Mountain Guide | Yoga & Meditation | Pilgrim Mental Health Awareness to support clients & communities