Let me tell you a story...

​

Once upon a time, I was this little girl in southern Finland, putting on my first ballet slippers. I was four years old. Ballet gave me dedication, strength and a deep love for movement and the arts. It also left wounds and marks I only understood many years later.

​

I crossed the Atlantic to study business and visual arts at Queens University of Charlotte. I spent a semester in Hong Kong, learning Chinese and happily running after a soccer ball with the university team for a little while. Back in the USA, I graduated and moved to Salt Lake City.

​

There I worked at the Outdoor Recreation Center of the University of Utah and went on many multi-day river trips all over the Northwest of the USA. I climbed cracks in Moab. Then I started in customer service at Black Diamond Equipment. Six months later, Black Diamond asked me to move to Switzerland, with three weeks’ notice. I said yes.

​

In Switzerland, I sold ice axes and built a credit control team. I climbed mountains and skied the backcountry in the Alps and the Jura. I performed a solo clown project while pregnant with my first child, and broke my leg three weeks before he was born.

​

And then there was the dark side. I burned out. I lived with deep depression for seven years. Much of it had roots in my rigorous ballet training. The biggest decision of my life was to stop living other people’s expectations and simply be myself, every day and in every situation.

​

That decision opened the door to my purpose. In 2021, I created the TIM This Is Me app to help young dancers grow strong in their minds and not take themselves too seriously. While guiding dancers through the programs, I realized that what I was doing had a name: coaching. Boom. I had found my calling, the way I can help other people in this world.

​

Today I work with athletes in every sport, performing artists, entrepreneurs and leaders. Movement is at the heart of my work, combined with methods from contemporary psychology and neuroscience. And joy is in every session.

​

My newest adventure? I am part of the ensemble in the musical 9 to 5 here in Basel, and venturing into the world of singing. Life keeps inviting me back on stage, and I keep saying yes.

​

With love,
Coach Paula

​

Author
International best selling author of A Note To My Family, I Am Your Legacy (2023)

​

Education and certifications
Bachelor’s in Business Administration, minor in Visual Arts, Queens University of Charlotte (USA)
Certified Business Coach and Consultant
Certified Pilates Trainer
Sports Psychology for Athlete Development
Sports Nutrition

​

What I stand for
Kindness
Humor
Love
Simplicity
Service
Openness