Oh... not another health guru

Hi, I’m Emile a 26-year-old French-American hybrid and the newest member of Triumf. Born and raised in Northern California, I have spent the past 10+ years living, studying and working between the United States, France, Brazil, the Netherlands and finally Estonia. Similarly, my educational background is just as diverse, with the experience of studying humanities in the US, business in Brazil and biological sciences in the Netherlands. I am a stark generalist and believe that context is necessary to understand anything. Therefore, Triumf’s interdisciplinary approach, ambitious as it is, is really what drew me to the table.

From what I have learned, I have come to understand that health is much more complex than what we can perceive from only one field. Medical professionals are rarely exposed to each other’s disciplines and are not often inclined to look outside of their own. Even if they are, they rarely get the time to do so. This points to the inconvenient truth that no matter how many different specialists you have, it will not matter as long as they cannot communicate with one another effectively.

I believe that health is systemic and defined by the stresses that we have evolved to tolerate. That is, when we fail to incorporate emotional, physical and nutritional components into the equation, we cannot possibly understand the true stresses put on a living organism. In failing to recognize these bodily limits, we provoke chronic stress and inflammation. Pain is a by-product of this process which we will do almost anything to avoid.

Medications and lifestyle change suggestions are important elements in a comprehensive treatment but will rarely be sufficient on their own. Countless studies have shown that an important component of pain is often emotional. Yet there is still a stigma towards mental health and inaccessibility to its services are vast.

Triumf aims to offer a much needed mental health service to children with chronic illnesses in a gamified format as well as provide them with the resources to reduce vulnerability and increase independence. It is when people are children that they are especially at risk of experiencing chronic emotional stress that colors their perception for a lifetime. It is this perception that in turn fuels their illness.

I look forward to working with the Triumf team towards finding meaningful interdisciplinary solutions to health as well as trying to do my part in encouraging integrity, honesty and authenticity in all walks of life.