A perspective shift can change everything.
Why I created Know Thyself and Writing for Insight
Writing has been a constant companion throughout my life — from poems and songs as a child, to diaries in my teens, and through my university years. But the way I write now is very different.
During the COVID years, my life shifted dramatically. The breakdown of my marriage, the loss of my parents, and navigating grief and upheaval overseas with young children marked the most demanding season of my life. I relied on a notebook and pen to think, process, pray, and stay grounded. Drawing on therapy, philosophy, psychology, and spiritual study, I began to notice something essential: nothing truly settled until it was written down. Writing stopped being a way to document my life and became a way to understand it.
Once you’ve done the work of understanding yourself, it becomes easier to see how many people - even the most accomplished and outwardly successful - move through the world armed and armoured: defending vulnerability, repeating familiar patterns, and unknowingly recreating the same obstacles in leadership and relationships. Our relationships with others are inseparable from our relationship with ourselves. When that relationship is marked by misunderstanding or avoidance, it echoes outward. When it is marked by clarity and acceptance, the world becomes a gentler place.
I created Know Thyself and Writing for Insight to share practices for self-inquiry to elicit epiphanies that can remain private, and serve as tools for gaining greater ease, clarity and alignment long after our sessions end.
This work doesn’t aim to change who you are; It helps you see yourself clearly.
When you are at peace with who you are now, change, when it comes, arises naturally.
About me
After graduating from university in Glasgow, I spent 20 years in Tokyo, drawn to roles rooted in creativity, communication, and connection—from anchoring TV news to co-creating a Montessori kindergarten, a DEI-focused non-profit, and a shared-living community.
Two decades of challenging and enriching experiences, including raising children in another language and culture, deepened my interest in how we grow—individually and together—and how assumptions about ourselves and our inherited beliefs influence our capacity for compassion and collaboration.
Now back in Scotland, I’m distilling those experiences into reflective writing programs that help people access authenticity and find clarity. At the heart of my work is a desire to share everyday tools that help us navigate the world with greater ease—whether in intimate relationships, learning spaces, or leadership roles.
I hold an MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, an MA in Sociology from the University of Sheffield, and a BA in English Literature from the University of Strathclyde. Outside of work, I love reading about neuroscience and philosophy, impromptu kitchen dance parties with my kids, long walks, deep talks, crosswords, and coffee.
“I absolutely loved the Know Thyself program. Rachel’s calm, reassuring presence created such a peaceful and nurturing space that I immediately felt safe to open up and explore whatever came up in my writing. I was completely enveloped in her warmth and gentle guidance. It was a very special experience for me and one I’d strongly recommend.”
— C, KnowThyself (in person)