Who am I and what am I doing here?

I’m not really about to ask the existential questions here but I do want to introduce myself and tell you a little bit more about what I do for a living - who knows, maybe we could work together.

I wrote about how I got into science communication here, but things have changed quite a bit since then and I want to let you in on that.

I started talking about science on social media about a couple of years ago now and the feeling was as if a light went on for me after a very difficult first years of motherhood. Turns out, engaging with the science of the human mind and brain is really good for my own mental health, and it also turns out, people enjoy my musings and find them useful.

My goal was to make psychology and neuroscience accessible for everyone, and to do my bit to correct some of the misinformation that is floating around out there, while looking for a job to resume my academic career. I started speaking to a lot of mental health professionals and learned about the insecurities that can arise when clients arrive with information they found on social media about the mind, brain, nervous system or what they assume is going on with them. I also learned about the shortcomings of some clinical training where outdated science and even pseudoscience is taught as fact, or at least as the current best knowledge. And I thought to myself: “I can do something about that, I have something to contribute here:” How exciting - my academic applications had all been spectacularly unsuccessful and I was a bit lost for ideas what to do with all that expertise and passion for research until this opportunity landed in my lap.

I started creating webinars on psychology and neuroscience topics and founded a journal club - that’s how I started my business. I want to make knowledge about the mind and brain accessible and fun - and useful! Both for mental health professionals and for the people who just want to understand their internal world a little better, not just on the basis of often intuitive sounding pop-psychology but grounded in scientific evidence. And delivered by someone who would rather say “let me look that up and get back to you” or “we actually don’t know exactly how it works” than sell you a fake-confident explanation that will probably fall short, no matter how intuitive it sounds.

Let me explain what qualifies me for this job by going back a few steps. And I’ll also tell you a bit more about my motivation for doing this.

I don’t remember not being fascinated with people. I have always tried to work other people out, trying to find out what makes them tick and why they do what they do. So studying psychology was kind of an obvious choice and I LOVED getting into the nitty gritty of the science (I was the one in the library reading the dusty old paper copies of the scientific journals for days). I was very lucky to be offered a summer scholarship on a neuroscience project after my second year and that started an obsession with brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience. I loved everything about it - the images, the clever maths, the way to ask and answer research questions. It all made a lot of sense to me. I did my MSc (Master of Science) in cognitive neuroscience and my thesis was my first published paper on the long term impact of postnatal depression on the children of the affected mothers. I then went on to work basically in a postdoc position on projects studying how emotion regulation works in the brain for two years before I did my PhD - I was very lucky to have extremely supportive mentors in the space. I got to present at conferences and contribute meaningfully to projects. What I learned throughout that period helped me with my PhD which I realise in hindsight I completed with a higher level of independence than most. I was deeply involved in the cognitive neuroscience of emotion regulation but always had an issue with how artificial the experimental tasks felt (tell me if you want to know more about that!). So I designed a new task that sat in the gap between a spontaneous process of regulating negative emotion (the extinction of conditioned fear responses) and instructed emotion regulation, specifically, cognitive reappraisal.

So in summary, I have a really solid foundation in cognitive and affective neuroscience.

At the same time, this work always felt removed from real life to me. So for my next trick I went to work on something completely different - a study that was deeply embedded in real life. I investigated associations between habitual social interaction and well-being in older adults, with a focus on comparing interactions through different modalities, including digital technologies (you can find those publications on my Google Scholar profile if you’re so inclined). So I dove deep into the well-being, social interaction, loneliness literature, building up a foundation of knowledge of motivational and social psychology that complements my neuroscience knowledge.

Alongside all this I have also always worked in the mental health space - I worked at a trauma centre throughout my PhD and published a paper with them on pain flashbacks and PTSD. I have a deep interest in the psychology and neuroscience of mental health (I nearly became a therapist myself) and that always motivated my academic work.

When I started sharing mental health information from an academic point of view, what I noticed was that a lot of mental health professionals were really grateful for my contributions and my point of view. A lot of therapists go to great lengths to continue to read papers and stay on top of the science but we all only have 24 hours in our day and different priorities. I discovered that a lot of outdated science (like the triune brain model) and even pseudoscience (like polyvagal theory) are taught in graduate psychology programmes - and they enjoy a huge amount of popularity on social media (where therapists are also present!). In addition, neuroscience is popular and there seems to be an increasing demand from the public and from therapy clients to have our internal world explained to us all the way down to the level of the brain. So I’m here to bridge that gap, provide the scientific expertise to a therapist’s therapeutic expertise and, through that collaboration, help people who struggle understand what might be going on. And I love it - it feels like I’ve found exactly the niche I was looking for: teaching, reading papers, and translating what I know to be used “on the ground”. I have a level of expertise that allows me to take a birds-eye view of well-being and mental health and offer explanations that are based on brain function but largely free of jargon. Fyi - in my consultations the first thing I do is often to discourage the use of neuroscience language. It is almost always unnecessary and almost never accurate. But I digress.

That real life application is actually something that I always missed when I was working as a scientist in academia: I was giving my all to my research but had no idea how to bring that to the people it mattered for, beyond the odd university newsletter or invited talk. And now I get to do it, well, part time. But as my main job. How lucky is that?

If you want to learn from me in any capacity, stick around. There will always be free content, both here and on Instagram. Ask questions. Suggest topics. Start (respectful) discussions. If there’s one thing that has been at the forefront of my mind since the very beginning of my science communication journey, it’s that I want what I put out to be useful and interesting for the people who read it. I want you to get something out of your subscription, whether it is free or paid for. And if you want more than that, check out my website. Get on my email list.

So what services do I actually provide? At the moment, it’s three main things I do.

1. I support therapists through 1-1 consultations, answering questions about the neuroscientific basis of emotions, emotion regulation and the emotion dysregulation that often characterises mental health disorder. We also develop metaphors that are close enough to what the science tells us while being useful for the population they work with. My clients often use this in their psychoeducation, in public facing communication or when they teach new therapists. These consultations have so far been useful for therapists, journalists and educators - but really, I’m open to working with anyone who thinks they might benefit from talking to me. A free discovery call will help us figure out what I can do for you.

2. I run a Journal Club, a little passion project to help people (again, mostly, but not exclusively therapists - this is a great space where most people can come to learn) improve their paper reading skills. We read one paper per month and I encourage members to contribute their requests for topics or for specific papers. I make sure the papers we read are useful so that we gain both valuable scientific information while learning more about how to critically evaluate papers.

3. I create resources, including webinars and workbooks on a range of topics including myth-busting, explaining the science of emotion and talking about scientific literacy and reading and evaluating scientific research. These resources are packed with information but they are designed for anyone who is interested - even if you have to watch or read them twice!

At the end of June 2026 I will launch my new workbook “how to read a paper”, which is, as far as I’m aware, a truly unique resource that explains the structure of scientific papers, as well as the purpose of each section, with useful questions to ask about their content to help us critically evaluate them. I also explain some of the context these papers are published in, which is important to keep in mind, especially when we want to apply their findings to clinical practice. People on my email list get early access and a special discount… btw.

I am also, slowly, working on an in-depth online course on emotions - I have big plans for that but currently no idea when I will be able to launch it (partly because the ideas are so big). And I hope that will be the first of many courses.

I have lots of ideas, and I’m excited about them all - what I’m doing feels so right for me and, as my clients report, so valuable for them, that the only difficult part is that with my kids only in external care in the mornings, I don’t have enough time to execute all my plans RIGHT NOW (as I would prefer). But I’m putting in as much of my energy as I have to spare and I am utterly convinced that it’s worthwhile.

I hope you feel like you got to know me (professionally) a little better with this post. And if you think you could benefit from working with me, or have a suggestion for posts or even webinars, get in touch! I love hearing from you.

If you would like to join the Journal Club (our next meeting is on the 19th of July at 8pm CEST (Berlin)), or book a consultation with me, please head to my website. And join my mailing list over there if you want to be kept in the loop about which plans I’m managing to put into action.

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