About Me

Hi, I’m Phoebe.

I was born and brought up in Taiwan. After gaining a B.S degree in Nursing, I worked in the field of palliative and geriatric care. In late 2004, I moved to the UK to work in nursing. After a number of years, I then retrained as a counsellor.

In my nearly 30 years of experience as a medical professional, first as a geriatric & palliative care nurse, then a counsellor & psychotherapist in children’s hospice and cancer support charity, I have witnessed time and time again how our trauma and unprocessed grief have a fundamental impact on our physical and emotional well-being. Over the last three decades, many academic and clinical researchers have revealed that mental/emotional health is inseparable from physical health. General anxiety, depression and any emotional difficulty in life often has its origins in what happened to us. We carry these heavy burdens on our shoulders in auto-pilot mode as our false identity, until some significant and stressful events happened. Those events force us to pay attention. They commonly are: physical illnesses (cancer, life limiting conditions) and grief: the loss of our loved one’s mind to dementia or their life, a relationship or a career.

The traditional gender inequality and female oppression was very present in Taiwanese society and in my family at that time. I naturally accept that I am less worthy than my brothers, and that I don’t matter. With the loss of my father to cancer at age 6, I would find safety by hiding behind my 3 elder brothers. At the same time, working hard to earn significant adults’ approval. I deeply believed that love is conditional until I had children of my own.

Life is a continuous journey of self discovery. Through adversity I gain wisdom. My Buddhist & Taoism cultural heritage has a strong influence on my holistic approach to human health, physically, mentally and spiritually. I encourage you to open to the possibility of growing from life adversities. The loss of health, a relationship or a career can be seen as a reminder of and an opportunity to re-evaluate what no longer worked in your life. From it, positive changes can be made. It’s never too late to start “LIVING FULLY”.