Julien Gryp

Julien has had more than a decade of experience leading a successful wellness and recovery centre at the New Life Foundation in Thailand. Leading a team of more than 35 staff, he headed all areas of operations, including management, administration, fundraising, human resources, programming, hospitality, and community relations. In just a few short years, Julien and his team built New Life up into a thriving, self-sufficient international organisation fulfilling its mission of providing support for individuals going through challenging times in their lives.

Julien first gained direct experience with the healing benefits of mindfulness as a fully ordained Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, and coordinator at the international department of the acclaimed recovery program at Thamkrabok Monastery in Thailand, where he worked for over eight years prior to taking up his role at New Life. A practitioner of meditation for more than twenty years, he is also a keen student of evidence-based research on topics like motivation, identity, anxiety, burnout, stress, depression, and addiction. At New Life, Julien has the opportunity to combine all these interests with his love of nature, community life, and being of service to others.

For the past five years, Julien has been developing the Portugal branch of New Life alongside leading New Life Thailand. He is now based in Europe leading the new Portuguese centre, while continuing to oversee operations at the Thailand centre. Looking forward, he is excited about continuing to explore initiatives to ensure that New Life reaches its full potential as a supportive space for growth, learning, and connection for its staff and community members across the world.