Bio

I research and write about Zen practice and psychotherapy. My work has featured in TEDx, the Guardian, BBC Radio, an anthology, and as editor to the Buddhist Society. In 2008 I studied for a year at a Zen monastery, and I’ve written about Zen practice and relationships in this journal.  

As the “Third culture” daughter of a Filipina geneticist and a Swedish physicist, I guess I’m a hybrid and a cultural omnivore. I grew up in their countries as well as in Zimbabwe and Indonesia, where I left home aged fifteen. I then continued to live nomadically including in the UK, Thailand, France and China.

My instinct has always been to explore human nature, which has led me through some odd jobs: from struggling as a model in Paris; through film production in Borneo, Ghana and the Tibetan plateau; to penning society columns in Bangkok, researching security in Iraq, and labour rights in Jordan. I’ve worked as a meditation teacher, dance producer, and literary critic; scrubbed toilets at a monastery, accidentally swum with a 7-foot python, and trained with ex-SAS soldiers in extreme survival. 

In 2018 I qualified after five years of training as a psychotherapist (MBACP), and established the largest English-speaking association for mental health professionals in China. I’ve received a Millennium Award from renowned journalist Jon Snow, been mentored by Zen masters, CEOs and artistic strategist Mira Kaushik OBE, and coached by author Jon Ronson, explorer Bruce Parry and Pulitzer Prize winner Jacqui Banaszynski.

I live in London and California with my husband and youngest stepchild, and am working towards a PhD.

(MSc Psychological Therapies, MA Comp Lit, BA Law & Development, PGDips Couns., Journ., and Ed.)

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