About me

I spent years trying to follow the "standard" career path by looking left and right for directions. But I realized that I was not built at ease in a "box," and that a busy career life doesn't always mean a fulfilled one.

In a world that never stops shouting, it is so easy to lose our ground. We find ourselves in "autopilot" mode: successful on paper, but quietly overwhelmed and disconnected from our own North Star.

I've been there. I know the weight of that noise.

In 2001, I even pushed myself into total overwhelm, not listening to the signs my body and my emotions were giving me. And I reached exhaustion, burnout, depression.

Since I recovered, my heart is set on prevention, and on creating tools that could help others avoid this difficult path I went through. That is why I created CONNECT Association in 2019, and now The Art of Being You.

My mission is simple: to help you build the awareness and skills to catch the early signs, long before you reach the wall I reached.

I used to be a big people pleaser: trying to avoid confrontation, trying to guess what others wanted without asking them, and adapting myself as best I could so they would be "happy."

Through my teenage years and as a young adult, I just wanted to be accepted and loved so badly that I would adapt, not listen to my own desires, not give too much weight to my likes.

At 22, I wanted to travel, see the world, discover other places, and help people. I just didn't know how, and knew I didn't want to go by myself. I was too scared. A friend told me about her missionary trip with Mercy Ships: a team, an organization with lots of experience and good values, safe and interesting.

So I applied, and in December 1996, I travelled to Pensacola, Florida to join the Caribbean Mercy Ship (pictured) and started a 5-month adventure that changed my life forever. At the time, I had only very basic English. My skills to adapt were very useful!

It was not an easy time. Lots of questioning myself, my decisions, my values, and one of the hardest things for me: my own likes. I was so used to avoiding "listening" to myself and adjusting instead, that I felt completely lost.

One of the first weekends on board, a few crew members asked if I wanted to join an outing to a roller-blade disco. My reflex was to look for a friend from home to ask "should we go?" — but of course, none of my friends were there. I answered: "I don't know." I felt so lost. So many questions in less than a second: the fear, the stress, the discomfort. They kindly told me to come and discover for myself if I'd enjoy it. So I did, and it was a lot of fun, and it helped me build real friendships for the five months ahead.

Such a big learning started that day: if I don't try, I will never know if I like something or not. I don't need to ask if a friend likes something before I try it myself. Getting to know myself, accept and love myself, will help me take decisions and feel good about them. I'm unique, and I can be me.

Have you ever experienced something similar — a moment when you didn't know what to decide? What helps you take decisions when you feel lost?

For a long time, I thought a "full" schedule was the same thing as a meaningful life. I was looking left and right for directions, following the "standard" rules of success, while quietly feeling disconnected from what actually mattered to me. I was busy, but I wasn't present.

Real prevention isn't about moving faster; it's about noticing sooner. I've spent years turning my own story into a grounded framework: PhD-verified to ensure it's a reliable safety net for you, but led by heart to ensure it's actually useful for your daily life.

You don't need another clinical lecture or a to-do list. You need the tools to notice the early signs and respond to them, while you still have plenty of room to do so. The Digital Boutique is officially open.

I had gotten so skilled at not listening to my deeper needs, ignoring my tiredness, constantly overstepping my own boundaries, and burying deep hurts within me as an abuse survivor.

To give you an idea of why I hit burnout, here's a quick look at my life between 1994 and 2001: years of lived experience, unexpressed emotions, and constant motion, even though I genuinely enjoyed most of what I was doing:

• 1994: Finished my apprenticeship in Vevey, followed by 3 months working in Lausanne.
• 1995–1996: Worked almost 2 years in Dornach (near Basel).
• 1996–1997: 5 months on a mission school and trip to Florida and Guatemala.
• 1997–1998: Worked across Flamatt, Montreux, and Vevey, followed by a mission trip to Northern Ireland.
• 1999–2000: Worked and travelled for Estorel, opening new drugstores and building new teams across Zofingen, Davos, Weinfelden, St. Gallen, Biel, and Zermatt, plus translations at the Rotkreuz headquarters.
• Late 2000: Leadership school in Denver, then 2 months working in Montreux and Vevey.
• 2001: Counseling school in Châtel-sur-Rolle.

Looking back, it's no wonder I crashed. But in August 2001, standing at the Zürich airport, I told myself: "Just 3 more months and then I will rest. I can hold on." I was about to board a plane to South Africa for the practical phase of my biblical counseling school.

My nervous system was completely on edge. When my sister held me tightly to say goodbye, I started sobbing. Now I understand my body was so desperate for safety that her touch almost released my overfilled emotional vase. I had bottled up sadness, loneliness, and anger to avoid dealing with them, and combined with profound exhaustion, they were consuming me from within.

I took a few deep breaths, calmed myself down the only way I knew how, and boarded the plane. But life had a different plan. Arriving in Durban, our van was broken into and almost everything was stolen, including my backpack with my wallet, passport, and plane ticket. When the van was found, it was entirely empty except for a small miracle on the back seat: the robbers had left my passport, ticket, and a roll of film behind. A generous stranger sent us money for basic necessities the next day.

A local doctor told me I seemed a little stressed and prescribed something to relax my muscles and calm my nerves. That medicine was the catalyst. It forced my body to finally relax, and the side effect was that I couldn't "hold the wall up" any longer. I felt like a soda bottle shaken for years, and the cap was suddenly taken off. A complete emotional overflow. I experienced a total burnout breakdown.

My team leader, Pearl, gave me the grace I couldn't give myself: permission to just rest. My dad was ready to fly to South Africa to pick me up, but I knew that if I went straight back to Switzerland, I'd push myself right back into the box of productivity. So I stayed. I spent the first month doing nothing but sleeping and eating. By the second month, I had the energy to take walks and process my emotions. By the third month, we travelled to Cape Town, helping the community and reconnecting with friends.

That breakdown changed my life. It stopped me from living on autopilot and helped me begin the long process of healing from the wounds of abuse I lived through as a teenager. It took about three years of navigating depression after that breakdown to truly start building the foundation for the woman I am today.

It takes immense courage to stop pushing past your limits before your body forces you to. My mission now is proactive prevention: giving you the tools and the supportive safety net to notice those limits long before you're forced to.