Meet Ilse Kolenbrander

I’m Ilse Kolenbrander and welcome to Live the Senses, my passion project finally coming to life! I am originally from the Netherlands where I founded Ecoutez Hearing Aid Boutique. Ecoutez grew to include 3 locations, and helping people to hear better became a passion and mission in my life. This ties to my belief that everyone should live their best life through all 6 senses.   

I moved to New York City with my husband and son in 2013 for a career opportunity for my husband. I absolutely loved life and the culture in New York City, but realized that I was aching to continue to make a difference in peoples lives. I realized that I wanted to do something completely different in a city full of sensory overload, and decided that I would take the spiritual approach. I found that the grounding effects of Yoga helped me connect to my inner peace. Once I found that inner peace, I realized that I wanted to make a difference in the hearing world here in the US, like I was able to in the Netherlands. This started my long journey to opening Ecoutez USA.  

After considering options around the country, I found a welcoming space in Dallas Forth-Worth. And thus began our move across the country. I was able to open Ecoutez Hearing Aid Boutique in Southlake in December of 2020. I once again have had to turn inward and trust my senses in a new city with a new business.  

My mission here is to help people live their best and happiest life through their senses. I have always been obsessed with learning about senses and neuroscience.  Whether it’s reading the latest book or participating in online Harvard courses, I cant get enough. I am fascinated with how our senses bring information about physical stimuli into our brains so that we can process it. But are we aware of our responses to the external world? When we are eating, drinking, reading, or communicating, are we connected with what we are doing at that moment? It is proven that we are so much happier living a conscious life and living in the now. You cannot live in the future and the past is behind us.  

When you live consciously through your senses, you define your beliefs. You consciously create and define your journeys and destinations.