Being Frank...

Sometimes you meet someone who ends up changing the course of your life.

Someone who helps you see things that were always there, but hidden in fog until that moment.

Harry

For me, that person was Harry. A psychotherapist in Amsterdam who crossed my path in 2019. Harry wasn’t the first therapist I had spoken to. There were others before him, but those conversations really went beneath the surface. Maybe because I wasn’t really impressed by the people sitting across from me.

Harry was different. Even before meeting him, I could feel it. His website already said he had no time for new clients. But through a bit of luck, and a few close connections, I somehow managed to land in the chair across from him in early 2020,

Signs of what?!

I told Harry about a pattern I’d noticed, especially in my relationships.

He told me I showed signs of codependency.

A word I had never heard before. But when he explained what it meant, it was like holding up a mirror.

I realised I was a people pleaser: As long as everyone else was happy, I was fine. I never asked for help; I didn’t want to bother anyone with my needs. I was available for everyone, all the time. Over the years, I’d developed a razor-sharp radar for reading the moods of others.

The only problem was that nobody ever really saw me. They saw the version I performed, the one who always stayed calm, polite, agreeable.

But the truth? Deep down there was anger. Sadness. Frustration. I just kept it all to myself.

Tracing it back

Harry helped me see that these patterns weren’t permanent. If I could trace them back to their origin, I could understand them and release them. That’s how I started exploring my subconscious. Through hypnosis, I found my way back to where my codependency began: my early childhood.

In short, I learned to reprogram my nervous system. To resist that old reflex of disappearing whenever things felt unsafe. And daring to say no when something in me clearly felt like a no. That changed everything, and because it worked so profoundly for me, I wanted to help others do the same.

When the world stood still

Then Covid hit. When lockdowns dominated our daily life, I decided to use that time well by studying hypnotherapy myself. In 2021, I completed my training and opened my own practice. Since then, I’ve helped many people uncover the real origins of the patterns that keep them stuck.

Most fulfilling

I’ve done many different things in my life, mostly driven by curiosity. I’ve traded new cars in bulk internationally, witnessed the birth of Chinese car factories, built a working ultra-simple mobile phone in China (despite not being an engineer), exported baby formula to China, and ran an Apple repair parts business in Hong Kong. But nothing has ever been as fulfilling as seeing people transform from the inside out.

Over time, I began to notice something deeper. Whether it’s stress, addiction, insomnia, fear, relationship struggles, or childhood conditioning, the real work always starts the same way: by questioning your own beliefs. Are they still true for who you are today?

Being Frank - the app

That’s what inspired me to create Being Frank. An app grounded in science, yet brought to life through real human experience. No AI voices and knowledge. Just real, spoken journeys recorded by me, and a community where people can share their own discoveries.



I’m not here as someone who has it all figured out, but as a fellow human who learns, fails, and grows every day. My curiosity, and the willingness to ask better - or at least different questions - keeps leading to new insights, and that’s where real growth begins.

And my deepest wish? To be that “Harry” for  many others.

Frank Baan

Hypnotherapist & Founder of Being Frank