Elise Phillipson was 45 when she returned to university, on what she calls her \u201csecond or third life\u201d. She had first studied hotel management; as a nine-year-old growing up in Hong Kong, she asked her father what she should be, and he suggested she work in a hotel.<\/p>\n
In adulthood, she retrained as an English teacher, married and raised two children. By the time her youngest started primary school, she found herself wondering again what occupation was right for her.<\/p>\n
Her husband urged her to look at the books on their shelves. \u201cPsychology,\u201d he said. As a teenager, she had briefly considered the profession, but there was a stigma \u2013 \u201conly crazy people study psychology\u201d.<\/p>\n
Yet friends always came to her with their problems; it was as if \u201cgood listener\u201d was tattooed on her forehead, she laughs. Eventually, she took degrees in psychology and counselling, then completed a master\u2019s while living in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
In 2022, at the age of 52, she started practising as a psychotherapist.<\/p>\n
![\"Elise](\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/03\/26\/b9e6ea7b-f5e6-4c5e-8a7e-fc9f7a261973_c9d106aa.jpg\" "\\"Elise")
<\/div>\u201cIt felt really natural,\u201d Phillipson says, \u201clike this is what I\u2019m meant to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n