About Alan Strydom

I've been
where you are.

In 2011, my life looked very different from the outside than it felt on the inside.

A relationship had ended. I had tried almost everything I knew to find my way forward. None of it was changing what was happening underneath.

Then I encountered HeartMath. What happened next changed the direction of my life — and eventually became the foundation of everything I do today.

Alan Strydom

"You can't change the way you feel by thinking differently. You have to, in fact, feel differently."

— Alan Strydom, on what two years of depression taught him

It began with a
10-year love story ending.

We'd been together almost eleven years. We were engaged. We were building a home on a little piece of her parents' farm. Then one morning, she woke up and wanted to travel — without me.

I had a background in NLP, hypnotherapy, and psycho-neuro-immunology. I had contacts across the wellbeing industry. I used every tool I knew, but nothing shifted. Slowly, I slipped deeper into depression.

I moved cities. I went to Thailand looking for some kind of reset, ran out of money, got stranded on an island with my passport held by a scooter hire company, and begged strangers for help. None came. I went home five days in, cutting my adventure short.

Little by little I was losing sense of meaning and purpose in my life. Then, on one particular trip back to Plettenberg Bay, something changed.

That something was a phone call. January 28, 2011. Andy Pellant — a name I barely recognised — was in town from the UK, asking if anyone wanted to talk about HeartMath. I almost hadn't picked up. I almost hadn't been there to pick up at all.

"I feel you're on the edge of something," Andy said, when we met. "I wonder what would happen if you leaned into it?" I decided to lean into something else.

The fog lifted on
an ordinary Friday afternoon.

I'd been practising daily with the HeartMath technology for two weeks — ten minutes in the morning, ten in the evening — when I ran into her. Unexpectedly. In Plettenberg Bay. With him.

I had seconds to compose myself. My friend's face went white. She burst into tears when she saw me. We went for coffee. Afterwards, I waved them goodbye as they drove off into the sunset together.

I was OK. I noticed I felt different. I didn't feel numb. I didn't feel heart-sore. I felt like the fog had lifted, and that everything was as it should be.

I called Andy immediately. "The most amazing thing just happened. When are we bringing HeartMath to South Africa?"

That's the moment this journey began — not in a training room or a certification course, but in a car park in a small coastal town, with two weeks of daily practice behind me and a lifetime of tools that had never quite done what this one just did.

What I believe

This isn't about
fixing. It's about becoming.

01

You can't think your way to a different feeling.

Insight without embodiment rarely sticks. The body has to be part of the shift — it is the starting point.

02

Clarity is a physiological state, not a decision.

When your heart and nervous system are coherent, decisions that were previously impossible become obvious. The conditions for clarity can be cultivated.

03

The journey to the heart is slow — and it never ends.

It took me 41 years to consider the heart a destination. This isn't a programme you complete. It's a practice that deepens your whole life.

04

Who you become is more important than what you achieve.

Results matter. But the person you are when you reach them — how you carry yourself, how you relate, what you can withstand — that's what counts.

Background & training

15 years in the making —
and still building.

1990s–2000s

Early foundation

Training in NLP, Psycho-Neuro-Immunology, hypnotherapy and complementary health disciplines. Over 20 years in personal development work — starting with my own practice, long before it became professional.

2011

The turning point

First encountered HeartMath in January 2011 and began practising daily. The results were immediate enough that within weeks I was asking how to bring it to South Africa.

2012

HeartMath certification

Trained at HeartMath Institute, Boulder Creek, California. Certified coach, mentor and trainer — one of the first to bring HeartMath training to South Africa. Practising, teaching and mentoring continuously since.

2011–present

15 years in practice

Over five thousand hours of coaching and training delivered — one-on-one mentoring, group programmes, and leadership work across South Africa, the UK, and internationally. More than a thousand certified coaches personally mentored.

2020–present

What I've built from that experience

Developed two original practitioner tools — the Coherence Session Interpreter and HRV Interpreter — alongside structured programmes including Getting Clear and Conversations with Coaches. Built from practice, for practitioners who want to go deeper than the certification alone can take them.

If this sounds
familiar.

If you recognise some of what I've described — or you're simply curious about what might be possible — we can start with a conversation. No programme pitch. No obligation. Just an opportunity to see whether working together makes sense.

Start a conversation →