1. Hi I’m Sonya, otherwise known as “The Travelling Psychologist”.  I’ve held this moniker for a long, long time.  I live in beautiful Calgary, otherwise known as Mohkinstis (the meeting of the Bow and Elbow rivers) on Treaty 7 land in Southern Alberta.  I am an actual psychologist and an Associate Professor in Counselling Services at Mount Royal University.  I love my work with students and the community in which I work.

From a very young age, I have always had a passion for travel and seeing the world.  My family didn’t have a lot of money for extravagant travel when I was growing up  and much of our travel was limited to camping and picnicking in the Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia.
Wherever we went, I was always one to get out and explore. When not being in the outdoors, I have vivid memories of poring over our Encyclopedia Britannica volumes, focusing in on faraway places and thinking about eventually getting to those places.  That eventual day came when I was able to start venturing out into the world and exploring those places I saw in the encyclopedias.

As an adult, I have been extremely fortunate in my opportunities to travel and it is my passion.  While I do enjoy my home, I still continue to spend a lot of time thinking about what the next grand adventure will be.  Different cultures, languages and people from faraway lands are both inspiring and make life so rich.

Since the establishment of my blog in 2011, I have some amazing adventures.  2011-2012 was a special year for me.  For the 4 years prior, I took a reduced salary from my job at the university .  Over the 4 years, I accumulated/saved 80% of a salary which allowed me to take off the year to travel.  I was so fortunate to work in a place that supports employees to do this and I had family and friends who cheered me on and helped me make things happen. In August 2011, I had finally earned my “deferred salary” year.   Many of my entries in my blog are from that year.  In that year I dreamt big – my motto was “Dream big or go home”.   I stayed true to my motto.

In that 2011-12 period, I was lucky enough to start the year with travel to San Francisco and New York before heading to SE Asia and Nepal for 5 months.  I travelled to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Nepal.  I did two builds with Habitat for Humanity in Cambodia and another in the south of Nepal. I trekked the mountains in the north of Vietnam and did the Annapurna Circuit, rode elephants, ate bugs, sailed and kayaked in the south seas.   I finished the year travelling to Europe where I completed my walk on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in the north of Spain.  All of the experiences were amazing, deeply meaningful and helped to broaden and shift my perspectives.

I loved my experiences so much that I signed up for another deferred salary leave and did it again in 2018-19.  That year was less extravagant in the way of travel, but I had some wonderful experiences of making a return to SE Asia and adding Myanmar to my list of countries visited.

To this day, I have travelled to 28 countries and know that I will add more.

My hope is that I can add some retrospective blogs of countries visited – better late than never I suppose.  I look forward to sharing more of special experiences that I have had.

With kindness, Sonya