Find­ing Bal­ance in the North: Deb­o­rah’s Jour­ney from Corn­wall to Oulu

What hap­pens when a life built across con­ti­nents – from Bahrain to Barcelona – meets the tran­quil rhythm of north­ern Fin­land? For Deb­o­rah Jones, Oulu became the unlike­ly set­ting for the most ful­fill­ing chap­ter of her life.

Deborah’s jour­ney to Oulu began in 2021, but it wasn’t a direct land­ing.

In recent years, she and her hus­band nav­i­gat­ed a wide array of glob­al cities: San Fran­cis­co, Lon­don, Ire­land, and more. But when her hus­band received an offer for a Marie Curie PhD posi­tion in Oulu, she didn’t hes­i­tate. It was her turn to fol­low him, just as he had once fol­lowed her to Bahrain.

– I knew noth­ing about Oulu, but I trust­ed the adven­ture, she recalls. Trad­ing sun-drenched Bahrain for a ‑30°C Finnish win­ter. And while sev­en months preg­nant, Deb­o­rah explored the snowy streets by bike, right up until a few days before giv­ing birth.

– Oulu made a great first impres­sion by giv­ing me the gift of safe mobil­i­ty – even dur­ing preg­nan­cy.

Nature, Qui­et, and Four Mag­i­cal Sea­sons

What struck Deb­o­rah most was how Oulu seemed to defy the ordi­nary urban expe­ri­ence. The city was not only clean and safe

– it was peace­ful, orga­nized, and respect­ful of both peo­ple and nature.

– In Oulu, silence isn’t awk­ward – it’s wel­comed. Peo­ple respect per­son­al space. Even the emer­gency sirens are qui­eter, she laughs.

Her daugh­ter, now trilin­gual in Eng­lish, Finnish, and Irish, has grown up mar­veling at autumn leaves, fairy snow, and the smell of thaw­ing spring grass.

“The bicy­cle tracks, nature, and com­pact city life let me bal­ance every­thing.”

Liv­ing here, Deb­o­rah says, has allowed her to be all the ver­sions of her­self she val­ues: a hands-on moth­er, an osteo­path­ic spe­cial­ist at See­ley Chi­ro­prac­tic Clin­ic, a per­former, and an active mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty.

– The bicy­cle tracks, nature, and com­pact city life let me bal­ance every­thing. That’s a rare gift.

The Gift of Time, and Equal­i­ty

Although Deb­o­rah left a thriv­ing osteo­path­ic career and an excit­ing music jour­ney behind in Bahrain, she’s found a dif­fer­ent kind of suc­cess in Oulu.

– Being in Fin­land allowed me to be a present par­ent with­out sac­ri­fic­ing my iden­ti­ty. That kind of bal­ance is rare, and it’s what true equal­i­ty looks like.

She’s returned to per­form­ing, even singing Finnish songs at local fes­ti­vals, and is cur­rent­ly work­ing on a new orig­i­nal music project with a local col­lab­o­ra­tor she met through net­work­ing.

– Oulu’s music scene is filled with oppor­tu­ni­ty and soul­ful­ness. I do offer some­thing unique as a lead­ing lady. Most cov­er bands are male-led and most women drop out of music in all coun­tries. I offer the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of non heavy-met­al music from a lead­ing lady of inter­na­tion­al cal­i­bre.

– I con­nect with the audi­ence in a real and fem­i­nine way and I believe that music heals. My work in music is almost an exten­sion of my work in the clin­ic. It heals the soul, while my clin­ic work heals the mind and body.

Despite lan­guage bar­ri­ers, Deb­o­rah con­tin­ues to pur­sue Finnish stud­ies and has adapt­ed pro­fes­sion­al­ly by work­ing under her inter­na­tion­al cre­den­tials.

– We have been made to feel most wel­come in Oulu. I’m from Corn­wall, which is cur­rent­ly part of Eng­land, but for­mer­ly its own coun­try. We have large­ly lost our lan­guage unfor­tu­nate­ly, so I respect Finnish his­to­ry and the sur­vival of such a unique lan­guage.

– I have been blessed to work in my career area for 12 years. I am British-trained and qual­i­fied with one of the high­est marks in my final clin­i­cal com­pe­tence exam­i­na­tion. It would have been a real shame to be here and be unable to help peo­ple. How­ev­er, I def­i­nite­ly feel like I could do more if I could speak Finnish and am cur­rent­ly learn­ing part-time.

A Place to Belong and Con­tribute

Deb­o­rah is pas­sion­ate about inte­gra­tion. She encour­ages new­com­ers to not only ben­e­fit from Oulu’s offer­ings but also con­tribute some­thing mean­ing­ful.

– If you want to move here, come with the inten­tion of giv­ing back. Respect the cul­ture, embrace the qui­et, and bring some­thing com­ple­men­tary to the table – some­thing that adds, not replaces.

– I think it’s also impor­tant for locals to be flat­tered by the inter­est from for­eign­ers. Any­one who set­tles in Oulu likes your cus­toms and wish­es to adopt them, not change them.

Deb­o­rah has spent the last 12 years help­ing oth­ers through osteo­path­ic med­i­cine and lifestyle advice. She finds that prac­tic­ing what she preach­es through bal­anc­ing work, home and hob­bies such as ten­nis, to be the per­fect recipe for a hap­py healthy life.

Whether she’s float­ing in a well­ness tank at Floa­sis, prac­tic­ing jiu-jit­su at Kamp­pailuk­lu­bi, explor­ing local fun­gi with her daugh­ter, or per­form­ing at an exclu­sive city event, Deb­o­rah feels deeply at home in Oulu.

– I’ve lived in many places, but Oulu is a mod­el city for the future – inno­v­a­tive, inclu­sive, and in har­mo­ny with nature.

And per­haps that’s the most pow­er­ful part of Deborah’s sto­ry: Oulu didn’t just give her a new place to live. It gave her the space to thrive.