The heart behind the hands — and the voice that moves through both.
I am Irish. I am a singer. I practise lomilomi the Hawaiian art of healing through touch and I bring my voice into the room with my hands. I am based in Zoetermeer, and I welcome you to Anam Aloha.
Two words. Two traditions. One meeting place.
Anam is the Irish word for soul the animating breath within a person, the part of you that is older than your story and wiser than your habits.
Aloha is the Hawaiian word for love, compassion, and the breath of life the spirit that Hawaiian healers bring into their hands when they work.
Together they name what happens in every session: a meeting of soul and love through healing touch.
The name came before everything else. Some things arrive already whole.
Anam Aloha. The soul held in love.
Voice & hands, arriving together.
In the Irish tradition, the voice is not separate from the body it is the body's most honest sound. Grandmothers sing in the old style, sean-nós
In the Hawaiian tradition, the healer sometimes chants to call the work into being, to open the space between practitioner and person.
I was a singer before I was a lomilomi practitioner, but I stopped expressing myself as a singer for years – until lomilomi found me. When I discovered Hawaiian bodywork it brought me home, back to myself, the two practices met in me and they recognised each other immediately. Sound enters the body the same way touch does, through resonance, through trust, through the willingness to be present with someone without an agenda. By deepening my lomilomi practice, I found myself again and after years of not singing or even having the courage to speak up, I came home to the core of myself Aoife, Irish, Dutch by life, a singer, someone who loves deeply, and a loving Hawaiian bodyworker.
During a session at Anam Aloha, you may hear my voice moving through the room alongside my hands. Not every session. Not always. But when it comes, it is not separate from the work. It is the work.
I grew up singing before I knew I was a healer.
In Ireland, music is not entertainment. It is how we grieve, how we celebrate, how we stay sane through long winters and mark the turning of things. I didn't grow up in a house where song was present, but the music was already inside of me and all my siblings.
That musical inheritance shaped everything. The patience to sit inside a phrase until it opens. The understanding that repetition is not monotony but deepening. The willingness to be vulnerable in front of another person to offer something unguarded and trust that it will be received.
When lomilomi found me, I understood that I had been practising two versions of the same thing all along: listening to what someone carries, and offering it a way through.
Lomilomi is not taught from a manual. It is passed hand to hand, presence to presence.
My training draws on three profound lomilomi traditions.
Aunty Maile Lomilomi
A style carried through a specific Hawaiian lineage, based on the family tradition of Aunty Maile Napoleon. It works through gentle vibrational strokes that address blockages, physical tension and the emotional holding woven through the body. It is deeply intuitive, gentle and loving.
Bodywork Lomilomi
Hawaiian temple bodywork. Abraham Kawai'i powerful form of bodywork is a transformational healing ritual. This style approaches the body as sacred. It works with deep-seated patterns, old grief, blockages that ordinary touch does not reach. It is transformative work, and it asks for real presence from both practitioner and person.
Lua Lomilomi
Lua lomi comes from the tradition of Auntie Mary Gibson of Maui. It is a complete head-to-toe treatment that addresses muscular tension, postural holding patterns, and energetic stagnation in one session. Suitable for anyone seeking deep release without force.
I name my teachers. I honour the Hawaiian lineage this work comes from. Lomilomi belongs to a people and a tradition, and practising it is a responsibility I take seriously.
A session with me begins before the hands arrive.
Every session starts with a brief conversation not a medical intake, but a listening. What did you carry in today? What does your body feel like from the inside? Is there anything you need me to know?
From there, you are guided to a warm, calm space. The room is prepared for you. You are draped with a cloth. The work begins slowly.
Lomilomi strokes move like ocean waves long, continuous, rhythmic, sometimes sweeping the whole length of the body in a single movement. There is no rigid protocol. The session follows you. Some moments will feel deeply nurturing. Others will work more directly into areas of held tension. Throughout all of it, there is a sense of being held completely, cared for, and safe.
It is entirely normal during a lomilomi session to experience emotional release tears, deep sighs, unexpected memories, a feeling of letting go of something you have been carrying for a long time. This is welcomed and honoured as part of the healing.
Afterward, you will have time to return to yourself gently before leaving. I will offer water or tea. There is no rush.
What this practice stands on.
Aloha Spirit
Every session is held with the Hawaiian principle of aloha ~ love, respect, and compassion.
Whole-Person Care
Body, mind, and spirit are not separate. Lomilomi has always understood this. Nothing that arrives in the session is left outside the healing.
Ceol an Anama
Music of the soul. My voice is part of this practice not decoration, not atmosphere, but a second form of presence. Sound and touch, arriving together.
Authentic Lineage
Lomilomi is practised here with deep respect for its Hawaiian roots and the teachers who have carried this sacred art forward. We name our teachers. We honour them.
Safe Space
You are welcomed without judgment in a warm, quiet environment. Your comfort and your boundaries are always honoured. Nothing happens without your consent and your ease.
Beannacht.
A blessing. From Aoife with love and aloha.
The room is warm. The water is on. Tar abhaile.
Sessions are one person at a time, by appointment only.