Growing up in an atheist family in the 80s, I was what Annaka Harris refers to as “a trippy kid”, happiest hanging out on my own in imaginary worlds and prone to getting tangled up in questions nobody seemed to have the answer to.

Without any spiritual context in which to explore these questions, I turned to science and the certainty it seemed to promise. I began my academic life studying medicine, but quickly realised it was minds that held the most intrigue for me, and went on to study Experimental Psychology. My degree stimulated an interest in the mysteries of the nervous system, eventually leading to a PhD in Integrative Neuroscience.

My doctoral thesis focused on the epigenetic mechanisms underlying addictive behavioural patterns. After completing my PhD, I spent a further six years in academia, working across a range of research projects, from investigating potential new treatments for Parkinson’s disease to studying electrical communication within mycelial networks. I remain deeply grateful for the knowledge, critical thinking and many moments of awe that my years working as a neuroscientist gave me.

Somewhere along the way, however, I realised that the more deeply I tried to understand the individual parts of the nervous system, the further I got from the vastness and mystery of the whole. Science taught me to look closely and, eventually, I found myself wanting to look more widely. My research had shown me fascinating things about the workings of the brain, but hadn’t brought me any closer to understanding the fundamentals: love, suffering, meaning.

In many ways, this brought me back to where I had started. I became interested in what might emerge when different ways of seeing are allowed to sit alongside one another. This led me to move away from academic research in 2020 and train in Integrative Counselling. Alongside my therapeutic work, I continue to follow those original threads of curiosity through neuroscience, yoga, spirituality and the many ways we experience being human.