The Resonate Podcast with Aideen

Turning the Lens Inward: Visibility and Becoming with Photographer Michèle Sennesael

• Aideen Ni Riada • Season 1 • Episode 86

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What if the most powerful pivot in your life begins the moment you admit you don’t know the next step?

In this episode of The Resonate Podcast, Aideen sits down with photographer, coach, and guide Michèle Sennesael to explore a life shaped not by certainty, but by listening. Michèle shares her journey from the intensity of a prestigious newsroom to a quieter, truer path—one that began with a hunch sparked by the Haiti earthquake and unfolded through surrender, chance encounters, and deep trust in what wanted to emerge next.

Through her lens, Michèle learned to see beyond surface stories: the dignity of street children in Nicaragua, the quiet resilience of families, and eventually the raw, life-altering presence of birth itself. Photographing doulas and home births, she realised she wasn’t just capturing moments—she was holding space, reflecting strength, tenderness, and truth back to others.

We explore the pivotal moments that reshaped her path: an arrest that stripped away certainty, a season of grounding in nature, and a single question asked by a stranger that reframed everything. These experiences led her from photography into coaching, where she now supports others in navigating visibility, self-worth, and the fear of being truly seen.

Michèle shares gentle, practical tools for meeting these edges with compassion—slow breathing to settle the nervous system, honest inquiry to loosen old stories, and small, embodied steps that create safety in authenticity. The invitation running through this conversation is simple and brave: turn the lens inward, focus on what’s true now, and allow the image of your life to develop in its own time.


Connect with Michèle

Website: www.michelesennesael.com

Instagram: @michelesennesael 

Facebook: @michele.sennesael

LinkedIn: @michèle-sennesael-b5820511

This conversation offers a compassionate map back to yourself. You’ll hear how fear can soften into presence, self-doubt can mature into self-trust, and gentle practices can anchor your attention where it truly belongs. 

If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend standing on the edge of a brave change, and leave a review with the belief you’re ready to release. Your next step is enough. What will you choose?

Support the show

Thanks for listening! To book a free consultation with Aideen visit https://www.confidenceinsinging.com/contact/

Aideen Ni Riada:

Welcome. This is the Resonate Podcast with Aideen, and today I'm interviewing Michèle Sennesael, a coach and photographer based in Brussels, Belgium, working worldwide. She helps ambitious women and creative souls move from self-doubt to self-trust and from hiding to being seen. Through her work, Michèle guides people to see their worth, embody their truth, and express who they truly are. You're very welcome, Michèle. Hey Aideen, thank you so much for having me. Well, I'm very excited to have a long conversation with you that we can share with others because I know your story is very inspirational. What started as you know not being um happy in what you were doing, to grasping onto your creative spirit and what you really truly wanted to do, and going on a journey that was about trusting your instinct, your intuition, has led you now to helping others to do the same. Tell us a little bit about where you were before you started this journey.

Michèle Sennesael :

Well, um, thank you for putting it out this way, Aideen. Um, and reminding myself actually about uh this path I took. And it all started out when I was working as a um photo editor for the biggest newspaper in Belgium. Um yeah, that's where I started. Um the job that I thought that would make me happy. Um, a prestigious job. But actually what I found was that I was very unhappy. I wasn't feeling I wasn't feeling, I was numbing myself. Um and I didn't feel aligned with my my own values. Um what I thought was was important. And um I knew I had to do something to change something.

Aideen Ni Riada:

That's an uncomfortable place to be, isn't it? It's like when you know you need to change something, but it also takes a lot of courage because you're moving more into the unknown, it's not your thought patterns, not your logical mind that knows this is my path now. I can see all the steps. You don't know any of the steps when you go from that point. It's and it's good not to know. Like I think a lot of people do feel very uncomfortable when in the unknowing, but that's where it's like an incubator for the secret ideas or the secret wishes that are within us.

Michèle Sennesael :

So that's so true, that's so true, that's so true, and it's exactly what you say. I had to I felt something, and I just had to surrender to that unknowing. And I believe, Aidine, the only way to do that is to go into your heart and to really um to have courage is to live by the heart and not by thoughts. So um there was something brewing in my head, but I didn't know exactly the clear path until something happened um at the newspaper. You might remember as well in 2001, um, there was an earthquake in Haiti, and then I realized the power of um imagery, actually. Because of images that were spreading very rapidly all over the world. What happened in Haiti the news spread, but it was the impact of the imagery that caused the effect of people collaborating, coming together, and in in a whim um everyone just started to collect money and uh contribute to the the people who suffered in Haiti. And that that was the moment that everything clicked for me. What was going through your mind? I saw initially I thought very interesting. Finally, instead of focusing on the negativity, the newspapers collaborated, the television, everyone in Belgium was collaborating, and it became a positive story. And that was for me the thing: what if I use photography as a way to create something positively and to really shift a story? And that's what I wanted to do, and that's why I decided to leave my job, and I thought, you know, I was so I believed I could change something, and I believed I can do something with photography, and that belief was so big, I didn't hesitate. I just jumped and um I left. And I I thought, you know, I'm gonna use my camera to shed a light on something which is not seen. And that in my case were street children in Nicaragua with whom I collaborated and I organized photography workshops with them to see their lives in a different way, using photography to see things differently.

Aideen Ni Riada:

And that wasn't just for you to see those things differently, it was for the kids to see their own lives differently, right?

Michèle Sennesael :

That was initially um the idea, in indeed. Um, but actually what I understood later is, and it's it's it's going that way many times. You do something, at least in my in my life, I do something, and it isn't years later or sometime later that I that you really understand what you were doing. I used that to see their lives differently, but actually they didn't need me, I needed them unconsciously, and they taught me to see things differently. What did you learn from that experience then? Well, first of all, what I learned was that we are so much brighter, we are so much more power than we believe us to have. We're so powerful. Um, curiosity is also something which is extremely important, and um really when you listen to your heart, you can't go wrong, and everything always and falls perfectly then. So the unknown leads you to the pure you, and there's nothing to be afraid of then.

Aideen Ni Riada:

I love that. The unknown leads you to the pure you, and there's nothing to be afraid of then. What a journey! And I know the photography has continued to be almost your teacher throughout your life. Tell us a little more about how photography has brought you to where you are today.

Michèle Sennesael :

Well, just like I started my journey um just following the next trap and the next step, and just leading myself to my trusting my intuition. Um I went back to Nicaragua several times because I fell in love with the people, and um I restored, I healed actually uh documenting um daily life of poor families in the slums. I healed my own family um issues, and then I went back to Nicaragua, but then I I shifted my lens and looking back, I actually I realized later that I went back to my head and was yeah, maybe it was out of fear because the situation was also different in Nicaragua. Anyways, I turned back to to Nicaragua to document um political issues, and then I got arrested.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Whoa. That must have been scary.

Michèle Sennesael :

Yeah, um yeah, very scary. But um, as you might know as well, um I didn't the things that are scary or the things that they happen for a reason, and I learned a lot out of this. So I lost everything, but looking but looking back, I had to lose even more. I had to strip away all the masks and all the fear, and it was almost literally that it happens.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Wow. No, I was commenting on something similar to my husband yesterday, that sometimes having less or being in a difficult situation, it helps you realize the grace that we have in our lives, and that we're not really the agent for change that we think we are, that a lot of what happens is because of synchronicity and um coincidence or luck or divine inspiration or you know, the right place at the right time, and a part of our minds and our ego believes that we are doing it, that we are doing it. And when you have had a situation like you've had there, and I've had similar, not as dramatic situations, but where you kind of feel like, oh my god, it's all fallen apart, or I have to surrender now in some way. When you start again, you are more aware of that you're stepping into that each moment is a step into the unknown, that we don't really control everything the way we thought we did before that.

Michèle Sennesael :

Yeah, and I agree, and I totally agree with what you say, and also what I uh what comes to mind is you never ever start from scratch, actually. It's building upon the things that you already knew that you had to remember, and things are just happening because it's an opportunity to learn something and not to make the same mistake and to be honest with you, I I knew that there was a chance to be arrested. I wasn't the only one who got arrested, but uh I feared it also. So I gave the fear the power and then what you think becomes reality oftentimes. So it this may sound a little controversial, but sometimes I really believe that yeah, what you what you believe becomes reality. So if I could have thought differently, might have been, we never know, but might have been in a different story.

Aideen Ni Riada:

You mentioned Yeah, you mentioned earlier that it was you went back to your head, that you weren't maybe operating from your heart in the same way. And I know that what I was thinking there was that it's just a habit, you know. If you've been, you know, and then you start working with, you know, within the newspaper system again or whatever it is, it's like, well, that's the way your operating system worked when you were there before, and it's so easy to slip back into it. So having had that experience, did that make you more resolved to follow your heart? What was your like, or did you did you continue to um to listen more to the mind for a while? At what point did you fully surrender to the heart?

Michèle Sennesael :

It's interesting. When I got back in Belgium, so they confiscated all my stuff, everything, and I had no more camera, nothing, but I surrendered completely. And I remember that a time was a time that I spent a lot of time outside in nature, and um I started doing things that as if something took some control took over me by surrendering, so I really started hugging trees a lot, for example. Good, I love that. I have it and it it was something I needed to do, and I'm gonna say something, Aidan, I never told anyone before. I really I started talking to source, to God, to the universe, whatever you call it, and I really had those conversations. Please give me an answer and help me what to do because I had no clue. I had no clue what to do, but I knew I felt I was surrendering. I was just I was just going with it, and I remember at some point I had just had that conversation, and I went sitting on a bench, and I swear I hadn't seen anyone around me, and out of the blue there was that lady that came sitting next to me, and she started a conversation, and I just told her everything that happened. I needed to share my story with someone and to feel safe, and she listened, she listened, and then she said she asked me the question, but if you really like photography that much, why don't you start to find another job and buy another camera? And then I thought, oh my god, it's so simple, and that's what I did.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Oh, I love it. Oh my gosh, I love that. And you know, it it mirrors a story of my own. When I was at the you know, my rock bottom, and I just at one point said to like that, to sore sore, like it was like a cry for help. I don't know what I'm doing, and it's such a liberating feeling to know that um because uh up until that point I thought I knew what I was doing, and it had none of it, none of it had really worked. There wasn't it wasn't a solid foundation for me to grow. And when I made my request, I didn't have an actual person speak what I needed to do next. I actually heard a voice in my head. Those of you, some of you have listened to the podcast before, might have heard the story before. But I actually heard a voice saying, Do a singing workshop for adults. And the reason I knew it wasn't my own idea was because I didn't want to do it. I was like, no, well, I thought, you know, I said I want to do something with music, I want to spend most of my time doing music, help me to do that. That's all I wanted. And I said, Do a singing workshop for adults. And I was like, Well, what about you know, singing at weddings? What about all the other things that I had thought of in my mind, my my logical mind? But this voice was saying, try this, and I it was the first time I really decided to trust. And instead of going, okay, I'm just doing that, I said, okay, I'll take a next step toward that. And I just took one step at a time, trusting this little inner voice of mine. Um, so I love that you had it, that's some someone magical, and it has I have had things delivered to me through other people as well, you know, when someone says that one thing and it like echoes through your mind forever, like you've never forgotten her words, and yeah, amazing. And so that was like starting again from fresh. That was starting again from fresh, and it was just the start of starting again. But you earlier you said that you never lose anything, you know, that you're that it's never completely from scratch, right? What did you take with you into this new phase?

Michèle Sennesael :

Trusting my own ability, and trusting that you're never alone, and you can't go wrong.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, the worst had already happened to you. Yeah, yeah.

Michèle Sennesael :

So there was nothing you could be There's nothing to lose anymore. I lost it already, also. And then I just um I reached out to two newspapers and I announced my story just to inform other um people that there's a possibility to be arrested. Anyway, I don't want to go deeper into that story, but that spread the word, opened the doors, and people from Nicaraguan from all over the world started to connect with me. And at some point, I there was a beautiful friendship that developed with someone from a Nicaraguan man, but he lived in the States, and he said, So I did still didn't know the next step. And he said, Why don't you come to New York? And that was the next invitation. Wow. And my logical mind didn't even pop up. It was like, okay, that sounds weird, but I'll go for it. I love it. So yeah, and that is that was just the beginning of one point to another. And it brought me from New York to there I met someone who really um encouraged me to focus more on my photography. It was Pulitzer Prize winner, people believed in me. I just I met all those beautiful teachers. You know, they say when the the student is ready, the teacher appears, yeah, and they all passed and they all joined me. So from one thing opened up to another thing, I had to at some point I had an assignment in New York and I had to take pictures of um I had to invite myself actually to a place where um of a stranger and I had to document the an evening at that stranger's place. And of course, it was not I bumped into a person, and it was a mother with her child, and it was just a mirror for me of who I was, and that led to she was a duela, so she was helping women giving birth at a smooth um time, and I thought this is not a coincidence, so I started documenting women giving birth in their house, natural home births. Um and then I continue doing this in in Latin America, so actually, what I was doing, just trusting the whole process, I allowed myself to being born again. That's how I see it.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Because of that mirror of seeing these babies being born in their in their own home. You were also like that baby being born again into a different version of yourself, a different version of your life. Yeah, yes, and did that lady who the doula that you that invited you to do that, was it partly to do with her friendship or her energy that helped you? Was she a doula for you as well in some way? She she was she made me feel very safe, actually. She held space, and that's what a doula does. I mean, and not everybody knows what a doula is, but they are a non-medically trained midwife slash helper for uh women during the birthing process from the moment of the first contraction, um, helping them with pre-birth and also postpartum doula's as well, will help mothers in the home with um you know adjusting through breastfeeding and lots of different things. It's quite popular in the US, I'm sure in New York was quite a normal thing at that time. That's quite a while ago as well, right?

Michèle Sennesael :

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was um very popular. Um very at some point I was in Costa Rica and I met a Jula who yeah, celebrities flew over to Costa Rica to see her. So it's um it's and that's the thing that holding space that was something so I was seen by others and they held space for me. And that is something coming back to your previous question, the link from going from being a photographer to a coach, that's what I realized after time that I saw so many people in front of my lens, and somehow they felt safe because I held space for them to be who they are, and just taking pictures of them wasn't feeling enough, so that's how it landed in to have trainings and um yeah, train myself into a coach.

Aideen Ni Riada:

So how does because I can imagine that you're you know you're taking these pictures and you're giving these pictures to to women who are going through um this rite of passage of giving birth, and then they get to see that afterward. So they're getting to also digest the the um the experience afterwards differently because they can now see through your eyes that whole process of giving birth. Was that where you started to realize I wanted to go deeper with people? Or it was the like, I mean, because I know you combine photography with the coaching also, and that it informs the way that you coach. So, how did the um the working with with women in the home births uh you know inform the way that you coach today? Well, first of all, what I see, I make them see.

Michèle Sennesael :

It's not about I teach them actually not to see externally but internally. What I see, their power, their presence, their everything that is clouded by thoughts, beliefs, everything that is not helpful. Um I mirror that back to them. And true questions, of course, to ask them questions, and also mirroring not always, but um, when I feel that it's um helpful, then I take pictures of themselves or just by mirroring their body language. Um it's kind of almost making them see themselves through my eyes, if that makes sense, for sure, because it's um I I really believe that idea of being a mirror.

Aideen Ni Riada:

I think that we all need each other, and the perspective that we have from our inside our own eyes looking out is a tiny tiny segment of the truth of any situation that we can't as human beings see more than that from our own minds, and when we have it, even one other person showing us or reflecting extra um threads of that back to us, it really helps complete our understanding. So, you what you're saying there was that you might even mirror someone's body language to show them how transparent it is. Sometimes it's so easy from the outside to see, oh yeah, you're you're stressed about that that conversation, or you know, you don't actually you said it to me earlier, actually, about when we were talking about your bio, and I was like, the word photographer isn't in the bio, and you're like, I can see on your face, Aideen, it's no good. So you and I didn't know what my face was doing at that moment. Um, but you you spoke the words of what you could see visually, and that becomes then like I can see visually as well, that I can see that reflection, and there is um there's obviously wisdom and learning when we see ourselves reflected.

Michèle Sennesael :

Yeah, and there's also so much wisdom in the unseen. That's another aspect in my journey that which has been very important, is seeing the unseen and the opportunities in the unseen. When when I was still in the States, I after the bird stories, I got invited to a master program to um dive deeper into my photography and my art at the time. And I've always been very fascinated about the unseen, and there I started visualizing the unseen. So, what I did was visualizing sound because it's all energy, right? It's um everything is energy, frequencies, and just by visualizing the unseen using sound, um actually all those pieces help me to yeah, do what I'm doing today. Um showing others helping others to see the core of what's missing.

Aideen Ni Riada:

When you're working with a client, um, what do you think is the biggest misconception that your client might have that blocks them from seeing themselves or their cur their power, whatever that might be?

Michèle Sennesael :

The biggest block is fear, and I a pattern that comes about with my clients is and most of my clients are women, are fear of being seen. And the fear is not coming. It's very interesting if you really go deeper in that fear. It's not about being afraid to be seen, is the fear comes from not being good enough, fear not to be loved, and therefore you start hiding, you start pleasing, you start dimming your light, not trusting yourself, and becoming someone who you're not, believing your own thoughts about it, and it you go into a spiral, and that all comes from all things that were said to you, and that you start to believe. Actually, it's like when you take a picture of someone and there's the lens is filthy, you start seeing things not clearly. So you gotta keep on wiping the lens all the time, wiping out the fear, wiping out the the thoughts, the beliefs, everything that's in your in your way to see yourself clearly.

Aideen Ni Riada:

And when we um start to see ourselves clearly, we appreciate ourselves more.

Michèle Sennesael :

Then we remember that we were perfect and whole all the time. And then we don't, then the fear of being not loved or not good enough, then we can flip that, and then we can give actually what we were trying to fill out in by someone else if we flip that and give that to ourselves.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yep, so rather than externally looking for the love and belonging or support, you are tuning into that that you can give yourself, and that becomes your your anchor. Yeah, yeah, I do, I think that's that that's certainly been true for me as well. And self-compassion and being very gentle and very, you know, it's almost like even self-forgiving, um, not being as judgmental, a little less self-critical. Um, give yourself a little cuddle here now and then, and you know, be nice to yourself, and you know, and also to tune into when to how you feel in situations. I think a lot of women, when they're busy and they have a lot of responsibilities, they are kind of moving through life, just doing things for others, and they haven't stopped to go, you know, how do I feel? Or what do I even need right now? Do I need a glass of water? Do I need to step outside for a few minutes and encouraging someone to start to turn to see inward? Is a very powerful practice.

Michèle Sennesael :

Yeah, that's that's definitely like the exercise, just asking yourself the question, what do I want? What do I need? What do I is this real? Just asking yourself over and over and over those questions is coming back to you, coming back actually, coming back to you again over and over and over. So it's not about shifting your lens outwards but inwards, over and over and over, and when you look at yourself clearly, then you can see someone else clearly as well.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yes, and I love that visual, that image of you know the dirty lens, clean it, but also there's a focusing element and where we think we look outside, we're looking for an answer, but actually to focus the lens, you have to turn inward, you have to feel the you know, and and really notice what makes things clearer for you. And when we take everything from everyone else, it's not as clear when we start to tune into our own intuition, our own heart, things can become a lot more simpler, actually.

Michèle Sennesael :

Yeah, um it there's so many photography and coaching, it looks like uh miles apart, but actually for me it's the same thing. Yeah, what you focus on that's the where your energy goes, taking a picture, but also for yourself, and a good picture, you mentioned something which is very important. Like I see many people also, I I bet unfortunately it will be the same thing in the US. Lots of people go through very hard times right now, they have burnouts and they start doubting and questioning themselves. But actually, the feeling we when we connect with ourselves, when we focus on ourselves again, and when we start to connect to our feelings and move that through our body, then we can't think ourselves out of something, we have to feel ourselves out of something, we have to use our body, we have to express our feelings, yep, and the first person to express them to is ourselves, and even just acknowledging I'm tired right now, yeah, you know.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Um taking a choice to take a nap when you don't normally take a nap, it can be very powerful. Um, what kind of simple strategies do you recommend for your clients before we wrap things up today? Um, I'm wondering, do you have anything that you can share with the listeners that is a simple strategy that might help them tune back in?

Michèle Sennesael :

Well, one of the most simplest things, I believe, is just breeding. That's how I always start my coaching sessions, just by breeding and getting everything that we don't need anymore out of our way and just breed it out and just come into the moment. And I think if you manage your breeding and also questioning yourself, if something comes up, really ask yourself the question: is this really true? Is this really true? And what will happen if I really started not to believe this thought? Yeah, take action and then really encourage yourself and know that repeat you when you repeat things, your nervous system you will train it in such a way that it's safe, actually.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, and one of the you know affirmations that I would have used so much, and I still come back to is just I am safe, all is well, all is well, yeah, or all is becoming well. You know, sometimes it's you know, I'm becoming safe, or I we have to find ways to allow that thought in, um, and that I am safe all is well really changes my nervous system. Like I can feel if I repeat it a few times that I start to and in in most situations, in most situations, we are, and on a soul level, I say that a lot as well. On a soul level, we are safe and all is well, all is well, yeah. Thank you so much, Michèle, for joining me on the podcast today. Is there anything else that you'd like to say to the listeners before you we sign off?

Michèle Sennesael :

What I want to say to the listeners would be trust yourself. You have so much more power than you made yourself believe. And like we finished before, all is well, all is good, and just go through it.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Beautiful. Thank you so much to Michèle. Um, I'll be sharing some links to find out about what you do, your website, and such in the show notes. Um, thank you, everyone who's been listening. We would love to hear from you. You know, if you ever want to give us a call, send an email. We would love to hear what you think of the today's podcast. And we are rooting for each of you. So take your next step, trust yourself, as Michèle said, because magic can happen when we tune inward and we see inward instead of always looking outside of ourselves for the answers. Thank you, and goodbye.