Barbara Doeleman-van Veldhoven

Barbara Doeleman-van Veldhoven is the founder and director of BFC Compassionate Care & Mindful Medicine, a leading European institute dedicated to strengthening professional effectiveness, collaboration, and leadership in healthcare, with mindfulness and compassion as its foundational pillars.

For over fifteen years, Barbara has been a pioneer in integrating mindfulness and compassion into medical professionalism, healthcare leadership, and organizational practice. Her work focuses on supporting physicians, healthcare teams, and senior leaders in navigating complexity, moral distress, and systemic pressure while staying grounded in presence, humanity, and ethical responsibility.

Barbara works at the intersection of leadership studies, organizational psychology, and contemplative wisdom. Her approach is both systemic and deeply embodied: informed by scientific research, shaped by long-term professional experience within healthcare systems, and rooted in sustained contemplative practice. She is known for her ability to translate inner practice into lived professional practice; particularly in high-stakes medical and leadership contexts.