My curriculum vitae

Education

• Compulsory schools: 1983-1991 in Fribourg.
• High school: 1991-1995 at the College St-Croix, Fribourg, 1993 at Mudgee High School, Australia.
• Veterinary school (med.vet.): 1995-2000 at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Berne.
• Veterinary doctorate (D.V.M.): 2001-2002 in the Centre for Zoo, Wildlife Pathology and Fish Diseases, Institute of Pathology, Veterinary Faculty of the University of Berne.
• Philosophical doctorate (Ph.D.): 2003-2008 at the Institute of Parasitology, Veterinary Faculty of Zurich.
• Languages: German, French, English, Spanish, (Mongolian)

Veterinary medicine

Internships and projects

I am dedicated to veterinary medicine for a long time. Even in high school I conducted some projects on the Australian sheep and wool industry and the biology of wombats. Little projects and internships followed during my graduate school, with whale researchers in South Africa, in Swiss and Australian large animal practices, at the centre for zoo, wildlife pathology and fish diseases and in the zoo clinic of the Kansas State University. In 1998, I participated at the "symposium on wildlife utilisation in southern Africa" and since 1999 I am actively joining the annual conferences of the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians (EAZWV).

Research

Between 2001 and 2008 I have investigated equine piroplamsoses for the International Takhi Group (ITG). This disease caused a number of losses during the reintroduction of Przewalski's horses to Mongolia. In my DVM and PhD theses I evaluated the risk posed to the reintroduction project by these infectious agents. Initially, I confirmed the disease as a cause of death using pathology and immunodiagnostics. In an epidemiological study I determined the state of immunity (antibodies) and the state of infection (piroplasms) in the local horse population. To analyse the results, I developed mathematical transmission models and applied various statistical procedures. The results were published in scientific journals. Feel free to contact me for the complete list of publications at doc@system-vet.ch.

Holistic veterinary medicine

Since the start of my veterinary degree I have been interested in alternative healing methods in veterinary medicine. In 2001, I organised a series of lectures on the subject in collaboration with the Institute of Complementary Medicine (KIKOM) of the Medical Faculty of the University of Berne and the Swiss Veterinary Association for Acupuncture and Homeopathy (STVAH). During my personal quest for inner balance and peace I was able to gain experience with a variety of techniques (compare below). In 2008, I learnt to work with qi from a Taiwanese qigong master. Since then, I have integrated them in a scientific model and developed the concept of system-oriented medicine. Currently, I treat exotic pets as a consulting veterinarian on house visits, at the clinique vétérinaire de la Blécherette in Lausanne, at the clinique vétérinaire de Beaumont in Fribourg and at the Kleintierpraxis Lyssbach in Lyss.

Communication

Teaching

In graduate school I had the opportunity to work as a tutor in anatomy and physiology. I was able to expand this experience by teaching zoo animal keepers at the Circus Knie and as a substitute teacher for mathematics at the high school in Wohlen. In 2003 I won a prize in a competition for science journalism put forward by the academic society of Berne. In 2007, I was tutor and lecturer in an interactive lecture on project management at the Educational Engineering Lab of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Zurich. In the same scope I participated in a study on global leadership. As a sportsman, I was organising the indoor training for a voltige team in Avenches in 1997 and 98, and between 1998 and 2008 I was giving the competition training for judokas at the Sport Centre Nippon Bern. Currently I teach animal husbandry and diseases for the Swiss Federation of Zoo Shops.

Honorary work for associations

After my exchange year in Australia, in 1993, I was doing interviews with candidates for AFS Intercultural Programs. Between 1998 and 2000 I was student representative in the commission for the revision of the curriculum at the Veterinary Faculty in Berne. In the same period, I was exchange officer for the International Veterinary Students Association (IVSA). Later, I became board member of the Section for Assistant Veterinarians (SAA) of the Swiss Veterinary Association (GST). In that function I supervised a master thesis on the work satisfaction of veterinary assistants in Switzerland. In addition I represented the SAA at ACTIONUNI, the Swiss researchers association. 1999 to 2000 I was co-chairman of the student working group of the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians. For this association I designed the first homepage and was later appointed information officer. Since 2009, I work on a project of the Vivarium Lausanne to establish a veterinary and rehabilitation unit.

Personal development

Health

I am convinced that I need to have a conception of health myself before I can heal animals. Whilst I find myself in a condition that I cannot accept as healthy I must search for solutions. I define health as the state of inner peace and physical relaxation, as well as physical and psychological freedom to do what I want. As I was suffering from migraines, hay fever and sensitivity to stress my path soon quit academically accepted methods. The first good experiences I had were with a foot reflex zone therapist, followed by an acupuncturist, a naturopath, a masseur and an osteopath. On the other hand, an anthroposophist physician, a nutritionist, traditional Chinese doctors and physiotherapists were not able to help me. I began to realise that not only the technique, but also the sequence of their application and the person applying it had a significant influence on the efficacy of the therapy. On my further quest (against my scientific convictions) I came to a Hawaiian shaman, mental healer and dowser, an astrologer, soto zen meditation, Hellinger family constellations, a kinesiologist, a qigong master and finally to a cranio-sacral therapist. Every visit was an inner fight and needed a lot of tolerance and open-mindedness for totally unknown concepts and convictions. Each visit also changed something in me - my mind and my body. I came to the conclusion that the fundamental of a medical consultation is not the action of the medic, but the changes he is able to initiate inside me and how sustainable I implement his advice. The more convincing the medic was the more I trusted his advice and the more I obeyed to them. In my daily practice I try to consider these methodological and psychological experiences.

Culture

Different cultures, languages and travelling fascinate me since childhood. With my parents I travelled a lot and visited most Mediterranean countries and the Middle East with a 4x4 and a tent. At the age of 16 I left for my exchange year in Australia. Later I went on internships and expeditions in South Africa, Australia, USA, Israel and Cuba. During my veterinary and PhD theses I took a further cultural hurdle and spent a total of nine months working in a ger in the Mongolian desert of Gobi. In this time, I became aware of many cultural foundations that are taken for granted in the western world, but are not at all evident. The experience most distant to my home culture was a stay in Taiwan in 2008, where I spent three months with a qigong master and his family.

Sport

The influence of Asian culture on my life began at the age of six when I started taking judo lessons. Since that date, with only short interruptions, I train two to five hours a week, have the first dan and gave a weekly competition training between 1998 and 2008 at the Sport Centre Nippon in Berne. As compensation I practiced voltige (acrobatics on the horse) for ten years and then replaced it by ballroom dancing after a short visit to ski acrobatics. Over five years I took lessons for the ten standard and Latin dances as well as the Caribbean dances. Judo and ballroom dancing converged to a technical ability that was, however, lacking the freedom to spontaneously react on the opponent or the music. This was a reason to go to Cuba for three months and study rhythm and body control with a professional dancer. Later, I took up zazen (zen meditation) to acquire the spiritual bases of Asian martial arts. This was then complemented by the teachings of my qigong master. Latter experiences lack an appropriate description, but they result in smoother, more efficient movements and close to perfect timing on the tatami and the parquet.

Massage

When I was 14 I took a course for sports massage and have been treating my mates ever since. As an optimisation and with growing knowledge on anatomy, physiology and biomechanics I continuously reduced the physical effort and intuitively reached a form of acupressure. I integrated the experiences that I made myself as a recipient of various techniques. Over time, my treatments were complemented with aroma therapy, Chinese dietetics and eventually constructivist epistemology, zen and qigong.

Philosophy

During my Ph.D. I spent a lot of time on the philosophy of natural sciences and especially epistemology. How our scientific theory relates to reality only becomes clear, if one becomes aware of its history, the physiology of senses, neurosciences, communication as well as the psychology and sociology of the scientific environment. My own experiences at the University of Zurich gave me ample examples for this, and various contemporary precursors provided the psychological and sociological explanations. Through this interplay of experience and interpretation I came upon Hacking, Ziman, Watzlawick, Bateson, Schurz and Simon. Their work builds the base of my system-oriented approach to medicine. And through judo and my stays in Asia the Taoists Laozi, Zhuangzi, Confucius, the 14th Dalai-Lama and Boddhidarma with his succession of zen and martial arts masters have left wide trace in my conception of life.