Hi, I’m Kirien 🌱
(you can pronounce that any way you like, and use any pronouns you want for me.)
I’m a relational and somatic therapeutic practitioner based in Oslo, Norway. I work in English and Norwegian, both online and in person. My offerings may appear to cover a large range of methods, but they are all just different ways of approaching the same principle: bringing attention to what is here right now, increasing capacity to stay with it, allowing experience to unfold without rushing to decide what it means or what should happen next.
The first thing that people tend to notice about me is that I am quiet, grounded, slow moving and unassuming — much like the snail logo on the top of the page. People often experience me as someone who can help them slow down, relax, see new perspectives, and increase capacity to be with challenging things.
My core interests have been the same since childhood: meditating (being slow, quiet, present) with others, having long slow heartfelt conversations about “complex” or “deep” topics, understanding human suffering and contributing to alleviating it. What you see here is the latest and most mature version of the only things I have ever wanted to do with my life, and which I often actually did to the greatest extent I could — as private work, informal work, voluntary work, community service work — already starting at age 11.
A few facts that matter to some people (but increasingly matter less to how I see myself): I’ve lived in 6 countries and 9 (mostly major) cities. Oslo, Norway is the only city and country that I once lived in, left, and returned to live — ever. Mandarin is my first language, but nowadays my Norwegian is much better. I spent 8 years working in the tech industry. I was raised as a girl and spent most of my adult life trying to pass as a cisgender man. Nowadays I wear whatever I want and think gender roles are truly silly.
Modern twists on ancient paths
I joined my first group meditation at age 13 and immediately felt that this was all I wanted to do with my life. As soon as I turned 18, I travelled to a Buddhist monastery with the intention of staying indefinitely. Just like in the story of Buddha, an inner restlessness propelled me back into the world, saying: it’s too soon, you haven’t seen enough of the world’s suffering to know what it truly needs to be met with, yet. Go see more. Get involved, get entangled, get caught up in conflicts and dramas and illusions and understand how easy it is to get stuck.
Meditative activities and practices continued to be how I spent all the remaining time, energy and money I had left — while on the surface, my “day job” had me living in and navigating worlds that felt the opposite of natural to my being. I began taking trainings in group facilitation and therapeutic practices, never with an idea of professionalising them, but simply to be around other people who shared my interests and values.
I practiced them myself, embodied them thoroughly as ways of being, shared them with friends, offered them as a way to make new friends. I dedicated all my “private” time to my practices while my “public” time was spent observing and navigating institutional structures that had something to teach me about human suffering.
Eventually, the same restlessness spoke again: now it’s time you learn how to share the fruits of these practices with the world. With people who don’t know you, and will come to know you, first and foremost through them. The world has taught me so much, and it is only right that I learn how to give back.
Training and practice journey
This is not a list of credentials in the typical sense. It is a way of acknowledging and “source-citing” the training and practice journeys that have shaped how I hold space, how I meet human suffering, what I instinctively pay attention to, and how I tend to show up with people.
Some of these became practices that I still actively offer, in or very close to the original formats that I learned them; others have settled in deeper and more foundational ways — in how I communicate, how I pay attention, how I move through the world as a practitioner and as a human being. Some also taught me through the power of contrast; how I do not want to work or orient myself.
Each accordion tells a little more about what brought me there, what I learned, and what remains with me now. Not everything has a certificate attached at the end, and not everything has “ended” in a neat way (yet).
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Various lineages of Buddhism, most importantly Plum Village, where I went for a long stay in 2012
Main reason I started:
"Meditating with other people" and "cultivating compassion to help alleviate the suffering of the world" sounded like the only thing I wanted to "do with my life".Main learning:
Meditation is not just sitting on the cushion with eyes closed, it is a way of moving through the world, a way of interacting with everyone and everything.Main way it shows up today:
I offer meditation instruction and mindfulness coaching that primarily focuses on how any daily activity can be approached in a meditative way. -
With Sami Noaidi, Astrid Ingebjørg Swart (2020-2022) & Teacher of Ecoshamanism, Mandy Pullen (2025)
Main reason I started:
Wanted to learn directly from non-western, lineage-based practice traditions that honour being in right, reciprocal relationship with land and place.Main learning:
A deeper understanding of my own migratory and cosmopolitan ancestral lineage, acceptance of its unique gifts, opportunities, limitations, challenges.Main way it shows up today:
A method of distance / non-touch Reiki that combines shamanic journeying (can be booked as a standalone offer). -
Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT), certified in 2021
Main reason I started:
Wanted to learn how to talk to other people about relational reciprocity and communication with land, place and nature - in a way that would be least likely to be misunderstood.Main learning:
The transformative power of using simple, open, sensory (phenomenologically descriptive) language, and staying anchored in the sensory layer of experience.Main way it shows up today:
Any time I guide a meditation or "grounding / arrival" exercise, it comes from this style. I never tell you what to do, how to think - instead I give gentle suggestions about what you might want to try noticing. -
With Kat Mertens, certified in 2025
Main reason I started:
Wanted a practice that would support my grounding in the Netherlands when I first moved there, and Kat from the Netherlands was my teacher years ago from ANFT.Main learning:
The importance of non-directive language when guiding meditations (again), how nature connection practice can be adapted to indoors, laying down.Main way it shows up today:
Eco-Relational Presencing is a half & half of Authentic Relating and Forest Therapy, also adapted to online and indoor environments - directly inspired by how Yoga Nidra and Forest Therapy came together to become EcoNIDRA. -
Level 1 in 2018, Master level with Mariana Luna in 2025
Main reason I started:
People kept telling me that supportive physical touch from me is unusually relaxing, and therefore that I would be good at Reiki.Main learning:
What touch can communicate between bodies that words cannot, and how shockingly powerful (and difficult, in regular life) it can be to just "do nothing" for an hour.Main way it shows up today:
I actively offer Reiki, in person and online, and I also teach it as a practice of self-care and caring for the people close to you. -
With Stacey Griffin, certified 2025
Main reason I started:
I felt a strong desire to be a source of calm and quiet in loud urban environments, but I didn't know how to get my message across through the noise. I refuse to raise my voice to do so. I was told that singing bowls and gongs might help.Main learning:
For many people whose brains are extremely busy, and who cannot stand being quiet or still, sound baths may at times be the most, or even only, accessible form of meditative practice.Main way it shows up today:
I really enjoy making 30-second sound bath reels on IG - a very loud and constantly overstimulating place. I incorporate Tibetan singing bowls into hands-on Reiki sessions. -
The Relateful Company, certified in 2024 & ART International (level 1 & 2)
Main reason I started:
Wanted to get better at socialising in groups, and knew about myself that I needed an environment where people spoke slowly, reflectively, with minimal "small talk" and interrupting or talking over one another.Main learning:
How to facilitate groups, particularly online, the importance of setting clear context; how to guide another person through a conversation-based process of self-inquiry.Main way it shows up today:
This is the base skillset I use in any talking or dialogue-based session, and every time I facilitate a group. -
University of Bergen (2022-2023) & Yorkville University (2024-2025), both unfinished
Main reason I started:
Wanted formal and highly rigorous training in being with people having intense experiences such as self-injury, suicidality and dislocation from consensus reality.Main learning:
I do not feel comfortable working with human suffering through the lens of diagnosis, pathology, manualised treatment protocols, or being seen as “the expert”.Main way it shows up today:
I am not a psychologist and I do not want to be one. I use very few terms, concepts and frameworks that come from academic, clinical, or even popular psychology. People who come to me wanting to talk about such terms and concepts are usually asked: “What do those terms mean for you?” -
Norsk Gestaltinstitutt Høyskole (2025-2030)
Main reason I started:
People kept telling me that the way I work, especially when I facilitate groups or conversation-based sessions, sounds like Gestalt. The more I looked in this direction, the more evidence I found to support that claim.Main thing I hope to learn:
Gestalt training seems to have the rigour that I was looking for from clinical psychology, and Gestalt theory appears to offer a unifying framework for many of the practices I have gathered throughout my life. It might also give me words to talk about what I already do, better than I’ll ever come up with myself.Main way I hope it will show up in the future:
I hope that “Gestalt therapist” can eventually become my primary professional identity, around which everything else can organise itself. That is not the case yet, of course.
What working with me is like
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Experience before explanation
I much prefer to communicate what my work is like through giving you opportunities to experience it for yourself in an embodied way — show, rather than attempt to tell. For this reason, I always have at least one ongoing donation-based offering at any given time, and invite anyone who is considering longer-term work with me to begin with a full 60-minute session without charge.
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Slow and spacious is part of the method
Holding a space in which nobody will need to rush, is an absolutely essential aspect of what makes my work effective. I never offer sessions that are less than 60 minutes (this includes the typical “15-30 minute intro calls”), try to avoid “back-to-back” bookings as much as possible, and do my best to make sure that every in-person session has 30 minutes of padding before and after.
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I am not the expert of you
I never claim to be the expert of your experience, or to have knowledge about you that you do not have access to for yourself. I can’t tell you why you struggle with certain things or what decision you should make. Anything that could resemble interpretation or advice is only shared, with your permission, in an “owned” way — this is what I notice right now, this is what is coming up for me right now, does that resonate with you?
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There is no right or wrong
Everything I offer is an invitation and an experiment — a suggestion, a possibility, for you to feel into and notice, how or if you would like to participate — and if you do choose to engage, for both of us to see what we discover, together. You can always say no to anything I suggest, and there is no right or wrong way to do or experience any session, practice, activity, question or guidance.
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A human-to-human encounter
I am a real human first and “practitioner” second. I welcome feedback with gratitude when I have overstepped, misunderstood, or made a move that did not feel good for you. I believe in resolving potential challenges around lateness, no-shows, payments, boundaries and communication (etc) in a relational manner, and resisting the temptation to hide behind formal “policy” jargon.
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Money can be part of the conversation
I have never turned someone away solely for financial reasons, and I am always open to bartering and other non-monetary forms of exchange if necessary. If we agree to work together on a regular, long-term basis, the financial side of our time together can always be negotiated and revisited again when necessary, to make sure that it is sustainable for each of us and for the quality of our relationship.