Our story
A gap we couldn't ignore.
Founded September 2020.
International students and the staff who support them were underserved by existing mental health systems. Time zones, language barriers, cultural fit, insurance complexity. Each one adding distance between a young person abroad and the support they needed.
mindhamok was founded in September 2020, developed alongside clinicians and international education specialists with decades of experience inside study abroad programs, universities and insurers. We had seen the same crisis calls, the same delays, the same families trying to navigate care from thousands of miles away.
We built mindhamok to change that. By putting prevention first, equipping staff with the training and support they need, and ensuring that professional help is accessible to anyone, anywhere, without delay.
Our mission
To help people all over the globe better understand their health and wellbeing, and to make prevention-first mental health support the standard for every student, traveller and professional living, studying or working abroad.
Our vision
For mindhamok to be synonymous with the wellbeing of people everywhere. A world where crossing borders never means losing access to care, and where wellbeing is a given, not an afterthought.
Tiziana De Macceis
Co-founder & Co CEO
Tiziana graduated in Foreign Languages and is fluent in four languages. She spent a decade as a director in electronic trading in London before pivoting to entrepreneurship and training in Gestalt humanistic counselling. That combination of commercial rigour and deep understanding of human wellbeing sits at the heart of how she leads at mindhamok. Tiziana oversees operations and clinical quality, managing existing client relationships and ensuring the organisation delivers on its commitment to prevention-first care.
Keith Miller
Co-founder & Co CEO
After graduating from Loughborough University, Keith spent many years working and travelling across Australasia, Asia, Europe and the USA in leadership roles spanning FinTech, people development and coaching. Throughout his international career, he developed a deep understanding of what it takes to support individuals through challenge and change. Passionate about purpose-driven work and the relationship between wellbeing and performance, Keith co-founded mindhamok to address something he believed was missing from international education: a prevention-first mental health solution built around the reality of life abroad.
Leanne Elliott
Clinical Lead
Leanne is a BACP-accredited trauma counsellor with a BSc in Psychology and Criminology from the University of East London and post-degree diplomas in Counselling Theory and Practice. Her clinical expertise spans trauma, anxiety, depression, mood and personality disorders, and self-harm. She has a particular specialism in international student wellbeing, working closely with young people and education staff on the emotional challenges of studying abroad, including culture shock, adjustment anxiety, homesickness and academic pressure. At mindhamok, Leanne leads all clinical operations, shapes policy and standards, facilitates the mindhamok workshop series and represents the organisation at major sector events including NAFSA and the Forum on Education Abroad.
