My journey as a trauma counsellor started at Life Line in Pretoria, South Africa. At Life Line I manned a crisis line and conducted face to face sessions dealing with high risk suicide, rape, domestic violence and assault survivors. When I became the director of the centre I carried out training and mentoring of trauma counsellors.

Instead of feeling taxed by these emotional encounters, I continuously found myself in awe of the strength and resilience people had within them. Not only to overcome these adversities and survive but also how some managed to thrive and not get stuck in their past negative experiences. These experiences began my journey in research on emotional resilience. My academic studies were focussed on how unresolved trauma affects our physical wellbeing and how this can exacerbate medically unexplained chronic pain.