I’m the founder of The Art of Being Human and a facilitator, writer, and teacher dedicated to the simple but radical practice of meeting ourselves as we are.

For many years, I believed the path to happiness was through self-improvement — becoming better, wiser, more enlightened. What I’ve come to see is that real freedom begins when we stop fixing ourselves and start discovering who we already are.

My work weaves together self-inquiry, presence-based facilitation, and embodied awareness, integrating The Work of Byron Katie, Surrendered Leadership (Circling), Compassionate Inquiry, and other approaches that invite honesty, curiosity, and love.

Over the past two decades, I’ve facilitated thousands of one-to-one sessions and led workshops, retreats, and professional trainings around the world. My podcast on self-inquiry has reached more than half a million downloads, and I’ve written several books in Danish and English, including How to Live in the Now and How to End the Stories that Screw Up Your Life.

If you’d like to know how this work came to life in me — here is the story of my own journey home.

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This Is My Story
I grew up in an environment that did not appreciate my aliveness.

My parents had both been stunted by losses in their early life, and my teachers didn’t enjoy my creative mind and quick wit. No one seemed to be able to meet me, so I concluded at an early age that there was something the matter with me. I vividly remember crying myself to sleep at night because God had “made me wrong,” and I vowed to fix myself so I could fit in and make the grown-ups happy.
 
Trying to Be Perfect
This was the beginning of my great self-improvement project.

I caged in my aliveness, put up protective filters around my heart, and weaponized my sensitivity to keep anyone from coming too close. I learned how to navigate social situations with apparent ease and how to harness my aliveness so I could rise above the crowd and shine when it was required. I became well-liked and successful. But the success came at a high price. I was caught in the prison of my own self-assuredness, too scared to let go and be seen in my imperfection. Instead, I strived to always be on top and to my surprise and satisfaction, I discovered “self-development” – an entire industry that was ready to support me.

I began reading every book on self-help and self-development I could get my hands on. I joined programs, did workshops, participated in courses, and attended lectures. I dived deep into coaching and psychotherapy. I met contemporary teachers, went on retreats, and practiced meditation. I was on a quest for perfection and every new tool I found was another steppingstone.

By the time I turned twenty-eight, I was married to a wonderful woman, had three lovely children, and my own company. I had worked in a high-profile consultancy firm and formed a successful theatre company. I had spent a while as adjunct professor at two universities, been the head of a popular center for psychology, written a bestseller, and was giving lectures all over the country.

But the thing I was looking for at my core kept eluding me. It seemed that no matter how much I improved myself, I never got to that peaceful, happy state I was dreaming of. There was always more to do. Stuff to correct. Things to improve. In my heart, I still believed that who and what I am was fundamentally flawed. And that my job was to cover that up by improving myself beyond it.
 
The Turning Point
Then one day, I found myself at a retreat in Ireland when a man named Tony came up to me and said: “You know, there is something about you having it so together that makes me not want to approach you.”

That was when I saw it.

I had been trying so hard to make myself good enough to be acceptable, even lovable, in the eyes of others — but in that moment I realized that this path would never take me home. It would never bring me the peace and happiness I was looking for. Even if I were to succeed on the outside, I would always know that it was fake — that what they were loving wasn’t actually me. It was a cover-up, a false self, an illusion. And consequently, it would never satisfy me.

In a flash I saw how much effort I was putting into keeping this whole illusion going, and I saw the built-in aggression in the self-improvement project itself: “You are not good enough. You must make yourself better to deserve love.”

But we will never be good enough for love. There is no such thing. Love is not deserved. Love cannot be earned or traded for. Love is without conditions.
 
From Self-Improvement to Self-Discovery
That moment planted a seed in me and gradually my approach began to change. Instead of blaming and shaming myself, trying to push the inconvenient truths about myself away and shove everything unsuitable under the rug, I finally stopped running. I decided that it was time to turn around and do for myself what I had been wanting others to do for me. It was time to truly meet myself, get to know myself, and learn to appreciate myself as I am.

I went from self-improvement to self-discovery — from trying to cover myself up to uncovering myself instead. And I fell completely in love with what I found: the innocence and kindness and beauty and love that I am.

And to my surprise, as I fell in love with myself, I fell in love with the world as well.
 
The Sweetness of Self-Love
This is the greatest gift in my life. Allowing myself to be who I am — backing myself up, standing by myself, even when it’s difficult or feels vulnerable, inappropriate, or inconvenient — is the most precious practice I have ever encountered. Where there used to be a hollow pursuit of an ideal of perfection and a constant fear of being found out, there is now a soft, raw, vulnerable, honest welcoming of myself. And where I used to meet the world with rejection and a push for change, there is now care and understanding instead.

And so, this is what I do. I help people fall in love with themselves. I help people realize the beauty and innocence of who they truly are and let go of the idea of self-improvement with its built-in misunderstanding that there is something that needs to be fixed.

Trying to fix ourselves is never going to nourish us, never going to quench our thirst. Our thirst is for being accepted, loved, and welcomed as we are — fully, unconditionally. That’s what we’re striving for, and anything less is too small for us.
 
What I Do Now
I am a Certified Facilitator of The Work of Byron Katie, a trained Leader of Circling & Surrendered Leadership, and an INLPTA Master Coach, with intensive training in Compassionate Inquiry, Radical Honesty, and Authentic Relating.
Since founding The Art of Being Human in 2001, I’ve facilitated thousands of one-to-one sessions and led hundreds of retreats, workshops, and courses around the world. My podcast on self-inquiry has surpassed half a million downloads, and I have published several books in Danish and English.

What I’ve learned along the way is simple: when we stop trying to fix ourselves and begin to meet what’s here — the abandoned parts, the suppressed emotions, the protection strategies, the automated reactions — who we are behind all of that begins to show up. And when that happens, the world begins to shift.

My work is to hold space for that shift: the journey home to ourselves, where we can finally see that nothing needs to be fixed and everything belongs.