‘Singapore has the busyness of a big city but it is less stressful than others’

Jennifer Greene’s wanderlust started early. At 17, having just completed her Leaving Cert, she convinced her parents to let her go to China for the summer to teach English. Since then, she has continued to travel widely, backpacking around the world at age 23 and subsequently around Central America solo. She also spent time as a volunteer in a favela in São Paulo in Brazil.

Greene didn’t spend long in her native Mayo when she returned from China, heading first to Dublin to study psychology, initially at UCD and then at the University of Ulster, before moving to the UK to complete her doctorate at the University of East London.

She then spent seven years working for local government in London’s inner city while also supervising and tutoring on University College London’s doctoral programme in educational and child psychology.

In 2017, Greene relocated to Singapore and is now working as a consultant educational and child psychologist and clinical supervisor at the Other Clinic in the city. “After decade in London – and with Brexit having just been voted in – I felt I needed a change even though being in London gave me access to amazing professional development opportunities that would not have been so readily available had I gone home,” she says.

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A lot of my work in inner city London was with people from disadvantaged backgrounds; here it is the other end of the economic spectrum

“I also wanted to move for a better work-life balance and I have always wanted to live in a warmer climate. I absolutely love the climate here, although many people struggle with the humidity. I think I’m still thawing out from growing up on the chilly west coast of Ireland.

“We chose Singapore because it ticked a lot of boxes for me and for my partner Ben, who is from Australia,” Greene adds. “There was work here for both of us, they speak English and it’s an international hub so if we need to, we can get home quickly.

“I like pretty much everything about living here – the food, the lifestyle and ease of travel throughout Asia. It has the busyness of a big city that I like because I get bored easily, but Singapore is less stressful compared to other cities. It’s small and easy to get from A to B and, compared to London, my commute is short and easy.

“It’s also a green city with 300 parks, four nature reserves and several man-made beaches. Singapore is an island surrounded by islands so we can hire a boat to go sailing and swimming, we can pop over to a spa in Indonesia or go off the beaten track on a cycle around a little jungle island full of monkeys and wild boar.”

Singapore has quite strict rules around civic behaviour and, as a result, Greene says she has never felt safer.

“You can literally leave your phone or laptop on the table and go up to order a coffee and no one will touch it. Yes, there are things we grumble about and things people don’t do, like chew gum, but the system works really well, the infrastructure is incredibly efficient and there is good access to healthcare.

“There are no rapid changes of government every few years when initiatives get ripped up and started over by incoming parties, so there is stability and good long-term planning and those doing the planning tend to be experts in their field.

“Singapore is a young country and what they have achieved in a short time on a tiny piece of land is phenomenal. It is a wealthy society but coming from London, the cost of living didn’t shock us. The focus on building Singapore into an international financial and tech centre has been extremely successful with really good supports and incentives for entrepreneurs, investors and start-ups. Indeed Ben who is an accountant, has recently set up his own fintech business.”

Greene works primarily with children and teenagers from the expat community and she says there has been a spike in requests for support since Covid.

“The restrictions were strict here and the pandemic had quite a profound impact on children in the zero to five age bracket who missed out on key elements of social and emotional development and also on 11-15 year olds whose brains were in the rewiring phase as they moved from childhood into adolescence and their older teens during this time,” she says.

“Unfortunately we saw a marked increase in school refusal, anxiety, self-harm and suicide ideation by older children although this experience is not peculiar to Singapore, the trends are similar everywhere. They just showed up faster in some places than others.

“A lot of my work in inner city London was with people from disadvantaged backgrounds; here it is the other end of the economic spectrum. But people have similar mental health problems whatever their backgrounds or where they come from.”

Greene and her partner rent a condo as buying is prohibitively expensive, but low tax rates make it possible to save and buy a property elsewhere. Lockdown put paid to visiting home for over two years but once the restrictions were lifted, Greene made several trips home to catch up with family and friends.

“You can’t beat the ease of the Irish or being at home for the banter. That said, there’s a big Irish community here, mainly working in finance and healthcare, so the craic is never too far away!” says Greene who admits to missing a few things about home such as Clonakilty black pudding and Irish sausages.