I studied Forestry at the University of Dresden, Germany. My studies took me to Canada, Ecuador and Sweden. As part of my doctoral and postdoctoral research, I worked in the field of forest ecology at the University of Freiburg and was active in the graduate school 'Environment, Society and Global Change'. The observation that socio-ecological crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss and social polarisation are intensifying in spite of extensive factual knowledge aroused in me a strong interest in understanding the deeper motivations of human action. This led me very quickly from the environmental psychology literature to the contemplative sciences, and in particular to their roots in Buddhist psychology and meditation. What can we learn from these different knowledge systems for our personal well-being and for transforming society towards social and ecological sustainability?
In 2016, I initiated the seminar 'Linking Mind and Environmental Sustainability' at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Fribourg. Later, I trained as an MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) teacher at Bangor University and with the Mindfulness Network, Wales, UK, and completed the Mindfulness in Schools Teacher (MiSP) training in London. In addition to my work as a forest scientist, I have been working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Systemic Health Research at the University Medical Centre Freiburg since 2020.