About Patricia

My mission is to help people live life fully, passionately and purposely.  I’ve fulfilled this mission through a diversity of roles: author; psychologist and life coach; radio presenter; seminar leader; personal trainer, and instructor of powerful group exercise classes.

My journey began in 1984 at Cornell University.  I was a horseback rider, runner, and passionately interested in the link between mind and body.  I graduated with a BA in biopsychology, and spent several years in pharmaceuticals as a Quality Assurance Inspector on a factory floor.  I began to question why most working people seemed depressed and unmotivated.  Organizational Psychology promised some answers, so I returned to school in New York City to complete a Ph.D. in Organisational Psychology at the City University of New York.  My focus became how to encourage, motivate and inspire people using physical fitness as a vehicle.

In 1996, I moved to Melbourne, Australia with my husband, where I joined consulting firm William M. Mercer as a Human Resource Consultant, specializing in performance and reward.  My work there was the springboard for my first company, Executive Inspiration.  Soon, I was leading workshops in teambuilding, bringing executives into the gym, and challenging them to be more than they believed they were.

In 2002, we moved to Hong Kong.  There, we adopted two children, one stray cat, and I set up my new business, For Your Inspiration.  Work revolved around personal training, life coaching, teaching BodyPump, and honing my writing skills.  My concurrent focuses were parenting, learning about a new culture, and adventure racing.

 In 2002, I published my non-fiction book, In Pursuit of Joy: Life Lessons Through Exhilaration, based on the lessons I have learned through sport and fitness.  These are lessons about perseverance, values, gathering strength, and how pain can provide a clear path forward.  And of course, about joy.  My experiences illustrate powerful life lessons that lift the reader, and enable them to take action in their own lives.

My second book, Akilina: Out of the Woods (a novel) is both a heart-pounding adventure story describing one woman’s quest for empowerment, and the story of a deep descent to self.  It is based largely on my personal experiences, brought to life by the book’s heroine, Halley.  Transformational, gripping, and life-changing, Akilina is a hand to hold during dark times, a book to make you feel less alone.