This is Rigmor, my thesis supervisor and career adviser who is maybe still upset that I chose psychiatry over neurology 🙂 I started working in Denmark in 2009. I graduated in 1995, had been mainly teaching and doing administrative work in Manila, and knew very well that my clinical skills were rusty. The challenge of restarting a career in the clinics was compounded by having to deal with a new culture and language. Treatment guidelines were different. The unwritten rules were indecipherable. I made embarrassing mistakes. Worst of all, my previous professors were not around to vouch for me and there were zero doctors from the university where I came from.

Rigmor looked at my work and saw how it can be better, which is invaluable because I consistently underestimate myself. That’s how I made it this far. That’s why mentors are important.

I started this portrait on February 6 and finished on February 25, 2021.