Grüezi & Aloha
Matthias Ryffel
Inspired. Creative. Highly sensitive & empathic. Adventurer. Change Professional. Dreamer. Surfer. Climber.
In my role: impartial, resource-oriented, emotion-focused, challenging, systemic, trauma-informed.
I guide people and organizations towards their next breakthrough – through conflicts, changes, and developmental steps.
In doing so, I am empowering and benevolent in my dealings and uncomfortable in my arguments – because both together make the difference.
I prefer working where my clients are active. Sometimes that's a classic meeting room, sometimes it's the mountains or the waves, and sometimes it's a Teams meeting on my laptop.
"To speak of wilderness is to speak of wholeness. Human beings came out of that wholeness."
Gary Snider
My path
Matthias founded ChangePerspective in 2020 to bring his experience as a mediator and conflict resolution expert to where people and organizations need it. He grew up in the canton of Zurich, with one foot in the rugged Glarus region, where, as a boy, he fell under the spell of the mountains. His parents introduced him to the wilderness and gave him the freedom to pursue his adventures. Through his involvement in the Scouts, he became immersed in healthy group structures from an early age.
As a teenager, he found vitality and freedom in boxing, stories, and freestyle sports. His thirst for adventure soon led him to ice and rock faces, on touring skis down steep powder slopes, and far abroad in search of the most beautiful waves.
During his studies, he wrote reportages from street festivals, boxing gyms, and ice walls, following in the footsteps of his idol Hemingway. Influenced by the Arab Spring, he studied Arabic and traveled independently to Egypt, Iraq, and Syria to write about the war.
These experiences led him to the Foreign Ministry and into peace work. For the swisspeace Foundation, he continuous to support peace efforts and strengthens local mediation capacities in countries like Iraq.
In his late twenties, his mediation training and personal crises reflect his own inner conflicts, leading him to mindfulness and inner work. He starts radically exploring his own potential and begins using his abilities to help others. The foundation for his future role as a mediator, coach, and process facilitator is laid.