Born in 1955 in Duesseldorf, Germany. Exchange student and highschool graduation in Cleveland, USA 1972/73. Loved it so much there that I went back to study, graduating from the College of Wooster in 1977 with a Bachelor in General Psychology.

I got married right out of college, worked in publishing in Washington D.C. and Portland, Oregon. Homesick for Europe, after a year in Hannover, selling ad space for the local daily, I moved to a small Adriatic town in Italy for two years. Back to Germany I quickly became single mother of Jonas, now 30. Second marriage - the first one ended in a very friendly way after 7 years of growing up together - to a wonderful Dutch husband (engineer, we got married in Las Vegas in 2004!!!).

I have been doing information management for Alexander Kluge, German filmmaker/ televisionmaker and literary author for a stunning 27 years now.

In 2006 I began promoting young artists from Nepal with www.chautara.nl - dividing my work week between Duesseldorf and Almere (mo-tues-wed in Duesseldorf, thur-fri-sat/sun in Almere). After the gallery ceased to exist physically I turned to blogging about "modern art & modern life of Nepal", creating www.theartofencouraging.com.

I overcame breastcancer in 2007 and have since focused more and more on life-balance, mindfulness, and encouraging. Even before the illness I had built upon my original college degree by completing trainings in biographic therapy and NLP, qualifying as a yoga teacher and mindfulness trainer. After my recovery I have done additional trainings in encouraging work (Schoenaker concept) and Yin Yoga, a meridian based yoga balancing form.