ABOUT ME

Hello, I’m Josephine, but most people call me Jo! I’m a postgraduate psychology student at UNSW, migraine advocate, founder of Grace x Strength and mother of two boys. I’m particularly interested in how our experiences shape the brain and body, especially in relation to migraine, pain and cognition.

My first degree was in Computer Science and Marketing at UNSW. After graduating, I spent much of the next two decades working in marketing across technology, retail and telecommunications. Along the way, I became a mother, trained as a yoga teacher and eventually founded Grace x Strength, an online yoga platform rooted in my Christian faith.

Yoga became a big part of my life during my second pregnancy. Compared with my first pregnancy and birth, the second was far less painful - both physically and emotionally. At the time, I attributed much of that difference to the yoga practice. That experience led me to pursue yoga teacher training, followed by several years of teaching. During those years, however, my migraine condition (that I had lived with since childhood) became increasingly debilitating, despite my dedicated yoga practice. It was then that it challenged some of my assumptions about yoga and pain management.

Later, I began therapy during a particularly stressful period in my life and noticed a positive change in my migraine symptoms. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was about therapy that led to the decrease in symptoms, but it made me curious about the relationship between psychological experiences, the nervous system and chronic pain. My yoga background had provided me with much knowledge about the body and the nervous system, but I wanted a deeper scientific understanding of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms involved in pain and sensory processing.

That led to a pivotal moment. After many years away from university, I returned to UNSW to study psychology.

These days, my interests are increasingly focused on how psychological and neurocognitive processes shape how we experience pain, including the possible influence of stress and early childhood experiences. I'm working towards a research-focused career where I can investigate these questions more deeply.

My years of yoga teaching, migraine advocacy and entrepreneurship remain an important part of my experience. I've completed more than 1,000 hours of yoga training, with certifications in Yoga Therapy, Chair Yoga and Kids Yoga and remain registered with Yoga Alliance. I was also a founding member of Migraine Australia and spent several years as an ambassador advocating for greater awareness and understanding of migraine. I continue to run Grace x Strength, although my current professional focus is increasingly on psychology and research.

Outside of studying and family responsibilities you’ll find me at the ballet studio, travelling, tending to my plants or catching up with friends.

With Love,
Josephine xx

P.S.
If you’ve ever wondered where the name LoveJosephine came from, it actually started with this blog. I used to sign off my posts with “With Love, Josephine x” and somewhere along the way LoveJosephine became the name for this space.

There’s another meaning behind it, too. My Chinese name means “Sky Love”, which made the name feel even more fitting. And I suppose that’s why LoveJosephine has stuck… it gives me a place to share all the different parts of who I am and what I care about.