Canadian Social Worker
Marlène Doepner is a school social worker and counsellor based in Ottawa and Gatineau, Canada. She has been working in student support for over two decades — crisis intervention, mental health promotion, advocacy, and direct community work with schools and families.
The work is not glamorous. It is essential. Social workers sit at the intersection of housing, healthcare, education, and mental health. They are the people called when a student is in crisis and the family has nowhere else to turn.
Outside the office, she travels. Seriously and often.
Interviews
You Should Visit Germany (& Not Just for Oktoberfest)
Marlène and her partner Miguel have covered significant ground in Europe. Next trip starts in Normandy — the D-Day beaches, the memorials, the weight of that history in person. From there, the Netherlands for a wedding. Then Germany for family.
Germany is Marlène’s home territory in Europe. Her Dad’s hometown has Roman hot springs and spas — the kind of place that makes you understand why the Romans went to so much trouble to get there. Their approach to the country is practical: drive for flexibility, park once in each city, and walk. It works. You see more and spend less time looking for parking.
Berlin is a favourite. The art, the energy, the hidden corners that only locals know about. Stuttgart’s Mercedes Museum is another highlight — the ramp alone is worth the visit. And the Autobahn. If you have never driven on a road with no speed limit, it is an experience that is difficult to explain and easy to remember.
South America: Marlène Doepner Interview
Marlène has travelled through Peru and has bigger plans for South America overall. Her summary of Peruvian travel is honest: the bus rides are eight hours through mountain roads that make you grip the seat and try not to look down. Occasionally you pass a bus that didn’t make the corner. That is a specific kind of reminder that the journey is real.
The Nasca Lines — fly in the morning. That is the advice. You will not sleep well on the overnight bus anyway, and the lines are better seen without exhaustion behind your eyes.
The mountains around Machu Picchu do something unexpected with the weather. You climb out of rain into sunshine at the summit, then walk back into rain on the way down. It sounds miserable. It is actually one of those contrasts that makes the whole trip feel more real than any postcard version of it.
Marlène’s overall approach to travel: go while you can. The work will be there when you get back. The opportunity to stand somewhere genuinely extraordinary — that has a shorter shelf life