My Journey & Trainings

My path into this work began in 2011, when I encountered Buddhist meditation and contemplative practice for the first time. What started as curiosity gradually became a way of life. Over the years, I felt drawn into longer retreats and deeper study, spending time at places such as Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland, Kopan Monastery in Nepal, and Tushita in Dharamsala, India.

Buddhism brought me a new understanding of life and our potential as human beings. It opened up new ways of relating to myself and to life, and awakened a longing for a more meaningful, heart-led way of living. With this came a growing clarity that I wanted to live in alignment with these values, and to work with others in this way.

In 2013, I completed my first teacher training in Cultivating Emotional Balance with Eve Ekman and Alan Wallace. By 2016, I had stepped away from my previous career in the film industry to devote myself fully to study and practice. I spent the next five years living and studying at the Lama Tzong Khapa Institute in Italy, where I completed an in-depth residential programme in Buddhist Psychology and Philosophy, including a two-month silent retreat. Being fully immersed in this environment was a beautiful way of shifting gears in my life, and it gave me an incredible foundation for all the work I am now deepening into—learning not only from texts and teachers, but through direct encounter with my own mind and heart.

In 2021, my life was reshaped by a period of deep loss. I cared for my mother during her final months, and soon after, my father passed away suddenly following an accident. Not long after, my long-term relationship came to an end. For the first time, I could no longer remain in the familiar stance of “I am fine.” I had to turn toward my own pain and vulnerability.

It was during this time that I discovered Mindful Self-Compassion. Alongside therapy, it became a lifeline—teaching me how to stay, how to soften, and how to bring the care I so readily offered others home to myself. This marked a profound turning point: the beginning of a more embodied, heartfelt, and honest relationship with myself, and of learning to recognise and honour my own needs.

In 2022, I completed my teacher training in Mindful Self-Compassion and returned to South Africa, where I began offering meditation classes and teaching the eight-week MSC programme. Self-compassion became the ground of my own healing journey, and through it I also found deep resonance in Internal Family Systems and Polyvagal Theory—approaches that invite us to understand, befriend, and work with our inner systems and nervous system with care and respect.

A question began to arise: How can I bring all of this beautiful work—these practices, insights, and ways of being that have benefitted me so deeply—into a one-to-one framework of support?

This search led me into the emerging field of somatic work. In 2024, I completed my certification as a Somatic Mind-Body Coach. Through this training, I found my way to the Hakomi Method of mindfulness based somatic psychotherapy—an encounter that felt like a homecoming. In Hakomi, I recognised a living embodiment of everything I had been steeped in for years: mindfulness, compassion, non-harming, and trust in the innate wisdom of the body.

In 2025, I completed the Hakomi Informed Somatic Coaching Training, and I am now continuing in the Hakomi Comprehensive Training to become a Hakomi Practitioner.

Together, these streams—Buddhist contemplative practice, Mindful Self-Compassion, IFS, Polyvagal Theory, and Hakomi—have come to form the heart of how I work: a gentle, embodied, and respectful approach that trusts in each person’s innate capacity for healing, wholeness, and growth.

♡