HI, I'M LEANDRI.
Founder of Heartaq.
Mother of two. Motherhood Outside the Lines Coach.
My Story
I've spent most of my life navigating change.
Born in South Africa, living in Germany since 2014.
5 different schools.
2 of them twice because of my dad's work.
Over 40 different houses and flats throughout my life.
A career built around people, identity and transformation.
I studied Gender & Diversity, International Management and Psychology. Throughout my career, I've worked in change management, communication, employer branding, leadership development and diversity, equity and inclusion.
My work has always centered around people, identity and transformation.
And yet, nothing prepared me for the biggest transition of all: Motherhood.
When my son was born, I desperately wanted to be a good mother. I was determined to get it right. So I did what many mothers do. I looked everywhere for answers.
Books. Experts. Instagram. Parenting accounts. Other mothers. I was constantly searching for reassurance that I was doing things correctly.
The more advice I consumed, the less I trusted myself.
Then came my second pregnancy. I was incredibly sick and had to leave work during my first trimester. Suddenly, another part of my identity disappeared too.
When my daughter was born, life became even more intense. A newborn. A toddler struggling with the transition. Almost no sleep. No space to think. No energy to process what was happening.
Three months after my daughter was born, I hit my lowest point. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed. Not because I didn't love my children. I loved them fiercely. But because I no longer recognised myself. Everything felt heavy. I was exhausted from trying to hold everything together. And underneath it all was one question I couldn't stop asking:
Is this really it?
Is this what motherhood
is supposed to feel like?
That question became the beginning of my journey back to myself.
Not because I suddenly found all the answers. But because I stopped looking for them everywhere else.
And started listening to my own heart. Slowly, I began to see how much of my motherhood had become performance.
How often I was measuring myself against impossible standards.
How disconnected I had become from my own intuition.
How much energy I was spending trying to be the mother I thought I should be instead of trusting the mother I already was.
That journey is what eventually became heartaq.
In medicine, heart acquisition is the process of creating images of the heart.
Together, we slow down long enough to hear your heart again.
- Your values.
- Your needs.
- Your truth.
- Your heart.
Because I don't believe there is one right way to mother. I don't believe perfection exists. And I don't believe our children need flawless mothers.
I believe they need mothers who trust themselves.
One thing I want you to know:
I am still on this journey too.
I haven't mastered motherhood. I don't have all the answers. Every season of motherhood asks something new of me.
Every season invites me to reconnect with myself again. What I do know is this: The moments when I trust myself are the moments motherhood feels lighter. The moments when I stop performing are the moments I feel most connected. And every time I find my way back to my own heart, I become a little more myself again.
That's the journey I believe in. Not perfection. Not having it all figured out. Just the courage to keep coming back to yourself.
And if that's the journey you're longing for too, I'd be honoured to walk alongside you.
You do not have to disappear inside motherhood to be a good mother.
Let's find your way back to yourself.
