[2] Born in Roelofarendsveen, she started playing when she was six years old at the boys youth team of SV Alkmania in Oude Wetering.

[1] After being scouted by the Royal Dutch Football Association she moved to Racing Club in Leiderdorp (RCL) and played in the Eerste Klasse, the second division at that time.

[1] She made her debut under coach Vera Pauw on 7 September 2005 in a home friendly 0–2 defeat against Italy in Zwolle.

[3] Selected by coach Vera Pauw to be in the national squad for the UEFA Women's Euro 2009,[9] she played in two of the five Dutch matches in the tournament helping the team reach the semifinals.

[10][11][12] In December 2009, then national coach Vera Pauw dropped Van den Heiligenberg and Dyanne Bito from the squad ahead of a match against Belarus.

[16] During the following seasons other injuries kept her out of contention for national team selections,[2] she played one match, on 25 January 2016 against Denmark, her 97th cap and eventually her last, as on 6 July 2017 her international retirement was announced.