John van Silfhout

I am John van Silfhout, founder of DENKDOKTER. Not a physician and not a psychologist, but a practical philosopher. I work with people by asking questions that sharpen thinking and make situations clearer.


My background did not follow a straight line. Through study, hospitality, entrepreneurship, a UN deployment, management, HR and thousands of conversations as a delegated professional for the occupational physician, and later renewed study and self-inquiry, I learned how people function under pressure, uncertainty and complexity. That combination of broad practical experience, academic formation and practice-oriented training led to a recurring insight:

much of what holds people back arises not from the situation itself, but from the assumptions and convictions with which they look at that situation.
DENKDOKTER is the practical translation of that insight. It is intended for employees who get stuck or want to examine their thinking patterns, for senior management and executive teams who need independent reflection, for directors who seek advice outside internal dynamics, and for private individuals who want clarity in choices, assumptions and convictions.

No diagnosis. No judgement. Yes: attention, analysis and questions that open thinking.
In addition, work is underway on a network of like-minded professionals, with the aim of making the clarifying intervention available on a larger scale within organisations and beyond.