photo by bjornrapp.com
I'm Hiba, a Psychologist based in Lausanne.
A Swiss-Jordanian mix, I have a Masters Degree (MSc) in Psychology from the University of Lausanne (UNIL). I am a member of the Swiss Federation of Psychologists (FSP) and the Vaud Association of Psychologists (AVP).
My story
As a child growing up between two cultures and never really feeling at home in either one, I became fascinated with humans and why we do what we do. This was probably an attempt to make sense of the world around me.
Studying psychology felt like a natural choice but towards the end of my university years, a close family member had a psychotic break and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
This was devastating, and I no longer felt comfortable working in clinical settings - it felt too close to home at the time.
So I went into the corporate world instead, working for eight years in international communication agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi.
I loved applying human insights to better understand consumers and shoppers - and this experience also helps me understand how crazy and high-pressured working life can be.
At 29, I started to feel restless, like there must be more in life than my corporate life. I took six months off to travel around the world with my then husband. This trip turned out to be life-changing but not in the way I had hoped: I got sick at the end of the trip and discovered I had a chronic disease.
This turned out to be a wake-up calI and I started exploring what felt meaningful to me. An important aspect of this included going back to my first love of psychology and training as a therapist - and also divorce, the awkwardness of dating again in my late 30’s, and the messiness of living life on my own terms.
Along the way, I have been fascinated with how the mind, body and soul are connected. My personal practises of yoga, tarot, astrology and my continued dedication to my own work and spirituality all feed my vocation as a therapist.
I feel honored to be a human with her own struggles and life experience accompanying others on the difficult yet rewarding work of finding and being on their own unique path.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”
