I have been an internal medicine specialist for over 15 years at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. Medicine has been my passion all my life, and continues to be. Growing up, I always believed in the power of meditation. 

My personal journey with my beloved mother led me to the path of mindfulness.  A few years ago, she was diagnosed with an incurable illness, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). As a medical practitioner, I lost all hope and did not know how to give my mother hope, knowing that there is no treatment for this disease. She was disappointed with my sense of failure as a physician and challenged me to look into myself and reconsider the way I practice medicine. 

She urged me to seek the path of hope and to join her in her journey to live a life with dignity and pride.

I feel very grateful for the privilege of having lived the journey with her. Together we travelled, practiced mindfulness and yoga. She remained strong, confident, centered and independent until her last day. She passed away on March 15th, 2017. Since then I have been inspired to pursue the path of mindfulness, to formally educate myself as a mindfulness teacher and to share what I have learned with others. 

In this process, I have been very deeply inspired by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues, whose amazing work at the University of Massachussetts  has served to promote mindfulness practice in North America and throughout the world. 

It has been my honour to meet with Dr. Kabat-Zinn at a number of mindfulness retreats (May 20th, 2018, July 20th, 2018 and May 10th, 2019).  

I feel deeply passionate about promoting mindfulness in Ottawa and especially creating opportunities to teach mindfulness to children and teachers in schools. 

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful supportive family and friends who have been part of this journey with me.