Frequently asked questions

Neither, though it draws on the best of both. I'm a registered Clinical Counsellor, so clinical training informs everything I do, and I'll recognise when something needs a different kind of care. But this work is built for people who are functioning well and still sense something is off. We look at the forces shaping your decisions, and we stay practical. You leave with decisions made, in order, and an understanding of why they had been so hard to make.

Almost certainly not. Before you decide you need a new business, a new career, a new marriage or a new country, it's worth finding out what actually stopped fitting. Most of what you've built is worth keeping. We work out which parts are load-bearing, which are simply habit, and what needs adjusting, so you can recalibrate without dismantling a life you've worked hard for.

Usually sooner than you expect. Once you've seen the structure you've been living in, it's very hard to unsee, and people often notice shifts within the first couple of weeks. Lasting change takes longer, and lasting change is the point. My aim is for you to finish with the understanding to keep things aligned yourself, so that when life moves again, as it will, you know what to do.

Very possibly. Most people who come to me aren't in crisis. The marriage is fine, the business is fine, the diary is full. That's usually why the question has been so easy to postpone. If you've changed the role or resolved the relationship and the feeling followed you anyway, that's worth paying attention to. You don't need a breakdown to justify taking your own life seriously.

It rarely arrives as a crisis. More often it's a quiet, persistent sense that something no longer fits, even while you're performing well. Sometimes that's tiredness, and rest will fix it. Sometimes the structure itself no longer fits who you are now. Part of our work is telling the two apart before you change anything you can't undo.

Often, yes. The results are strong, but the effort no longer means anything, and working harder only deepens the exhaustion. I won't simply tell you to slow down. We look at what is driving the effort, the roles you've taken on and the standards you've never questioned, and work out what is load-bearing and what you can put down. If the exhaustion is affecting your health, please see your GP first.

Yes. Moving countries changes far more than your address. It removes the people, routines and roles that quietly told you who you were. I've lived in eight countries and raised my three children across four of them, so I know what it is to arrive somewhere new as someone you no longer quite recognise. Together we work out what you're bringing with you, what you can leave behind, and what you need to build so the new place starts to feel like yours.

That's more common than you'd think, and it's a perfectly good place to start. Often the question people arrive with turns out to be standing in for the real one. If you can describe the feeling, even roughly, we can find the question together. Part of my job is naming what you can't yet see from the inside.

Yes. My one-to-one work and Family Advisory are for people of all genders, and many of my clients are men in senior roles. A Seat at the Table is for women only, because some conversations come more easily in that room. If you'd value something similar among men, ask me what's coming.

Then please tell me, and I'll be honest with you. If getting through the day is hard, you may need a different kind of support first, and I would rather point you towards it than begin deep structural work at the wrong moment. I'll help you find the right person. If you are in immediate danger, please contact your local emergency services now.

If you're carrying one clear question, start with the Clarity Intensive: ten days, three sessions, one question worked through properly. If it isn't one question any more, the Clarity Retainer gives us six months to look at what sits underneath all of them. If you're a woman who would rather do this alongside others, there's A Seat at the Table. Families work with me through Family Advisory, whether or not they have a family office. If you're unsure, that's exactly what the first conversation is for.

The Intensive is three sessions over ten days, about four and a half hours in total. The Retainer is three to four sessions a month for six months. A Seat at the Table is two 90-minute group sessions a month, plus two private sessions with me. Whichever you choose, leave yourself some space between sessions. That's where a great deal of the real noticing happens.

Both. Many clients work with me online, wherever they are in the world. I see clients in person in Melbourne and in Hong Kong, where I travel every month. A Seat at the Table runs online, with the option of closing the six months together in person at a retreat.

You leave with an honest map of the structure you've been living in, a clear plan for what changes and in what order, and the understanding to keep it aligned yourself. Some people finish and that's that. Others find the Intensive was a door into something larger and continue into the Retainer, where we begin exactly where we left off. Nothing is repeated, and you're always welcome back when life moves again.

I no longer offer ad hoc sessions to new clients. If you would like to work with me one on one, refer to my Clarity Intensive session.

You are retaining my attention for an extended period of time (three to six months or longer). That means three to four meetings a month, and a direct line in between for the decision that lands on a Tuesday or the thing you noticed at 2am. I hold only a handful of retainer clients at a time, which is the only way that line means anything. You already retain a lawyer, an adviser for your wealth, someone for the board. Very few people retain anyone for the life all of that is meant to serve.

This is outlined in the terms and conditions.

Yes. Who my clients are, and what they bring, stays with me. Many are well known in their industries or communities, and my Hong Kong practice has been built entirely on referral for eight years. Discretion is a large part of why. As a registered counsellor I'm bound by a professional code of ethics, and the only exceptions are the ones that code and the law require, such as a serious risk to someone's safety or a court order. I'll explain those clearly at the start so there are no surprises. I discuss my work in supervision without identifying anyone. Families and their advisers are welcome to have me sign a non-disclosure agreement before we speak.

No. Many of the families I work with hold significant wealth and have no family office at all. They may have a trusted lawyer, an accountant and a private bank, or simply a founder who has always kept the decisions close. What they share is a transition ahead: a business, a property portfolio or an inheritance passing to the next generation, and a sense that the conversations around it haven't kept pace with the structures. The work is the same either way. I help each person say what they actually want while there is still time to plan for it, so the handover is decided together and nobody discovers it at the reading of the will.

Yes, and that's often where the most useful work happens. I can work privately with you while also leading conversations with your family members or co-owners. Each relationship has clear boundaries. What you tell me privately stays private unless you choose to share it, and when others join, everyone knows the purpose of the conversation and how it will be handled.

Yes, and I have done for almost two decades, often as part of a wider family engagement. I work with young people preparing for boarding school or university overseas, and with a rising generation deciding what role, if any, they want in the family business. Many are growing up between cultures, and part of my role is helping them and their parents understand each other.