I am a ciswoman and go by she/her pronouns.

I currently reside on Bunurong Country of the Kulin Nations in Naarm, an area also known as Melbourne in Australia. I was born in Belgium to a French speaking mum and a Flemish dad.

I worked for a decade alongside people seeking asylum in Belgium, offering them psychological support as they waited for their claims to be processed. At different points in time, I combined this work with solo travelling, further education, volunteer work and private practice. In 2017, I came to Australia to undertake doctoral research, hoping to make a contribution to refugee studies from a narrative practice perspective. More specifically, I explored how grassroots community initiatives, where people with and without refugee experience come together, can shape people’s preferred sense of self.

I continue to pursue my interest in translational research that supports the recovery and healing responses of communities in my part-time work as a research fellow in post-disaster mental health. I combine this with my independent practice as a clinician, supervisor and trainer.

Living and working as a settler on the unceded lands of the First Nations people of Australia, I recognise that this was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. As a mental health professional and trauma specialist, I recognise the profound traumas that First Nations people have been subjected to and are still enduring as a result of colonisation and dispossession.