Before we begin, I'd like to invite you to do a small exercise. Take a moment and reflect on what comes to mind when you think of the name Marilyn Monroe.
Still Learning: Self in Progress
This blog combines therapeutic insight with lived experience. I write about mental health, identity, and the emotional texture of everyday life — especially through the lens of living abroad. Many posts include activities and reflection tools to help you engage actively with the ideas to form your own insights.
You'll find essays, exercises, and honest observations — some personal, some professional, all designed to prompt thought and self-awareness. This is a space for exploration, for asking questions, and for staying with complexity a little longer.
Recent Posts ...
Men will literally do anything except go to therapy.
Violent Stories and Soft Minds
03/03/2026
This post is the fourth part of Batshit Crazy and Weirdly Touching: Notes on Culture, Violence, and Identity, a six-part series where I explore how the things we grew up watching, hearing, and laughing at quietly shape who we become.
What Counts as “Bad” Violence?
02/24/2026
This post is the third part of Batshit Crazy and Weirdly Touching: Notes on Culture, Violence, and Identity, a six-part series where I explore how the things we grew up watching, hearing, and laughing at quietly shape who we become.
"What will the French retirees think of me, a foreign senior? Why would she leave her home country at 65? Is she brave or crazy?"
"Should I do therapy in a language that's not my native one?"
Guns, Guilt, and Gospel Harmonies
02/17/2026
This post is the second part of Batshit Crazy and Weirdly Touching: Notes on Culture, Violence, and Identity, a six-part series where I explore how the things we grew up watching, hearing, and laughing at quietly shape who we become.
This post is the first part of Batshit Crazy and Weirdly Touching: Notes on Culture, Violence, and Identity, a six-part series where I explore how the things we grew up watching, hearing, and laughing at quietly shape who we become.
I started my morning with an article in The Guardian that was funny, harrowing, and so psychologically insightful that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The headline alone is a masterpiece: Thrillseeking made me feel alive – until the day I hurtled down a volcano on a mountain bike.
What happens when we step outside the culture we were raised in? Between Worlds: Reflections on Culture, Identity, and Living Abroad is a five-part series exploring how life abroad reshapes our sense of self, belonging, and how we relate to others.