I am a humanitarian psychologist with several years of experience in the Middle East. After serving with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders in Palestine and China, I decided to dedicate my work to understanding the connection between meaningful work and burnout. In 2014-15 I was an ELAC Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, which lead to the publication of my first book The Idealist’s Survival Kit. 75 Simple Ways to Avoid Burnout. I’ve come to realize that changing the world is a much sexier idea than changing ourselves and our organisations. And that while aid workers need to practice self-care, it is up to their organisations to foster a healthy work environment, which is the real key to burnout prevention.

My home and “secure base” is in Oxford, UK where I live in a typical English terraced home, full of art, photos and memories from my beloved Palestine.  My passions are photography and hiking, and I particularly love walking on old pilgrimage routes. This year, I hiked 650 km on the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain, and one of my dreams is to walk from Rome to Jerusalem. I’m not religious, but I find beauty and something sacred in walking, it’s profoundly healing and it restores my faith in humanity. Chance encounters among “ramblers” often have a special quality.

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