I was born 1994 in a small city in Germany. I grew up with horses near by and discovered my passion for nature and animals at early age. I was taught about human rights and environmental issues as a young child, became a vegetarian and an enthusiastic reader of greenpeace magazine at age 11.

Later, I decided to make my passion my job, and studied a B.Sc. Environmental Sciences and Political Science in Northern Germany. We learned about the delicate interlinkages in ecological systems, the vulnerability of our climate. I was trained in environmental law, international and regional environmental governance, politics and stakeholder engagement.

During my Bachelor thesis, I researched into Southern Chile’s conflict based on expansive forest monocultures and the impact on local and indigenous communities. The work sharpened my mind to really try to see from each of the stakeholder’s perspectives and become sensitive to historical and racial dimensions of a conflict. The study showed me also how territorial conflicts are grounded in concepts of in- and out-groups that are sometimes based in differences in worldviews and culture. Most striking to me was the difference between the spiritual connection to forest by Mapuche I spoke to, compared to the more technical concept of sustainability by the industrial forest companies. I was also touched by how impactful violence that had been experienced from the other group - personally, or to ancestors, or to other person of the own in-group. It was striking and emotionally understandable how former experiences of violence diminished the emotional capacities to grant people belonging to the other party the right to dignity, right to safety and right to live their culture.

During the field trip, a small documentary developed, interviewing three indigenous representatives sharing about their culture and worldview. Afterwards, I participated in the UN mechanism for indigenous rights as an independent observer.

Following, I took a degree in M.Sc. Geography of Global Change in southern Germany with one year of exchange in Oslo. It was a continuation of the exploration of how environmental challenges and other sustainability issues are created worldwide, and what can be done to overcome them. For my Master thesis, I looked into climate policies on forest carbon in New Zealand, California and the EU- mapping the impacts of the respective policies on stakeholder groups with different interests. Continuing with the topic of forest-carbon policies, I worked as a research assistant at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany. I interviewed forest owners in Austria to understand their most pressing needs, and concerns and wishes for potential new policies and business models that would support forest owners to increase their carbon uptake - while creating financial stability. It also fed my passion for EU politics, and the process of negotiating potential policies among stakeholders.

Through internships in an environmental NGO, an executive governmental body, and party in parliament, it became obvious to me that most work teams do not fulfil their full potential of impact because they do not take good enough care of their relationships within the team. It especially struck me, how team members were, despite best intentions, not really feeling like they sit in the same boat, people were seperating each other by judgements and blame, and there was no felt vision that would let the feeling of joint forces arise. Research shows also clearly, that when people feel emotionally safe, they have more physical energy available to conduct tasks well. The relationships at the workplace are most often not cared for enough, so that small and big conflicts arise, their is hidden blame (inside people’s heads or even worse, talking behind each others’ backs). Feeling safe and accessing vision.

If a team manages to vent the emotions that normally arise when humans try to collaborate, the team’s performance will improve dramatically - with a better impact on the world.

Throughout my diverse internships and work experiences, I realized two things:

• communication is the key to success of environmental solutions

• we must train ourselves in humbleness, and work on respecting each other more - this attitude cannot be faked. It comes from deep inside. From a value-based stand for wellbeing for all.

Each human who does not feel acknowledged in 1) the weight of their current struggles/pressures, hardship; 2) former losses and hurts (to oneself or ancestors, or members of the in-group); 3) their current needs, including needs for respect, fairness, dignity and has 4) hope that things can change and has 5) a sense of agency, power of influencing the situation, can likely reside to blame, resentment, and then hate, and paving the way to violence. I concluded that a deep respect for each other’s cultural background (differences as uniquenesses), and at the same time embodying same worthiness for everyone, must be a basic for sustainability solutions. Not just myself, my family, and all I consider part of my in-group (same religion, same country, same skin color etc.).

What happened often was that people had no support in how to give each other helpful feedback so that patterns of behaviour could change (”she never puts the document in the right file, I hate that! She will never change!”), repairs could be made or people could access their own passion for the shared work because there was never time for it. The stress of getting things done quickly often gets in the way of doing things well- which requires relationship. Then everything flows more effortless.

If not take care of, hidden judgement accumulates like an invisible pile of emotional burden on a team’s spirit. Integrated as helpful feedback, participants are able to breathe more freely again, knowing that their concerns are heard and that they will receive honest feedback in a safe and constructive manner. These shifts in work culture, in my perspective, require procedures that are informed by neuroscience of relationships and insights from work psychology, for enduring impact. Not yet normal in western worldview- however increasingly so, the awareness that the psychological safety, the health of relationships in work is the basis not only for less sick leaves, but also for joint success for societal impact we want to create.

In order to get to this conclusion, I went through the trainings of:

• Theory U (free online class: https://mitxonline.mit.edu/courses/course-v1:MITxT+15.671.1x/)

• Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations That Matter (at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden): http://aohkarlskrona.weebly.com/

• Change Management by the IU Akademy (4 months full time training) https://www.iu-akademie.de/weiterbildungen/change-manager/

• Horse-assisted leadership coaching: https://coachingundakademie.de/weiterbildung-pferdegestuetztes-coaching-fuer-fuehrungskraefte

On a personal journey, I had started at 19 years to explore different ways for feeling both more free and more relational like yoga, meditations, contact improvisation, and mantra singing. However during the challenging research phase of the conflict research, I also hit my head against the wall of my own capacities - not academically, but emotionally. I realized a lot more support is needed for emotional processing in the field of sustainability and over the years, tried out different methods for myself: emotional decharge by Vivian Dittmar and Deep Listening by Rosamund Oliver and finally landed with Resonance work by Sarah Peyton (https://sarahpeyton.com/) and Kundalini Bodywork by Elliott Saxby, two methods that still accompany me through daily life. They enabled me to deepen my understanding of what is needed when challenging emotions arise in people and myself. I am very passionate to share this work.

I am currently in a year-long intensive training with “resonance” by Sarah Peyton. It provides me with insights into why our brains so easily go into blame, and how we can resolve judgement and resentment in a very freeing manner. The training is based on interpersonal neurobiology and offers fascinating practices for pairs, groups, and individuals to soothe their nervous systems in difficult emotional states and come to a more healthy way of relating to ourselves and everyone else. I am excited to apply this knowledge to areas of current political friction

See my seminars on global compassion where we work with how we read world news and what happens in our emotional system and emotional strength for environmental organisations (leveraging team connectivity, and trust).

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I am looking forward to putting my expertise to your service.

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