ABOUT DR. MARILYN CYR
Founder of Rooted Again London
The Question That's Driven Everything
For over two decades, I've been fascinated by one question: why do some people rebuild after major disruption — and others don't?
As a neuroscientist and psychologist, I spent nearly a decade studying decision-making, habit formation, and compulsivity at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. I investigated how people get stuck in patterns and what it actually takes to shift them. My research was about the gap between knowing something and being able to change it.
My own relocation to London turned out to be the same problem, lived from the inside.
MY STORY
In September 2025, I moved to London with my partner and two young sons. I'd relocated before — from rural Quebec to Montreal, Montreal to New York, New York to London. Each time I thought I knew what to expect. I'm a neuroscientist. I understand stress physiology. I know what happens to a nervous system under sustained uncertainty.
Knowing didn't protect me from feeling it.
I had everything I needed on paper — a loving family, meaningful work, a beautiful neighbourhood in West London. I still felt profoundly isolated. The friendships I'd built over years were an ocean away. The routines that grounded me were gone. The version of myself that felt capable and connected seemed to have been left behind in New York.
I looked for community. I joined groups. I went to events. I kept encountering the same surface-level interactions — pleasant, polite, and unsatisfying. Everyone was busy. Everyone was fine. Nobody wanted to talk about the quiet disorientation of starting over.
So I built what I needed.
Rooted Again London launched in January 2026 with a single free meetup in Ealing. Within months it had grown to over 130 members — not because I marketed it, but because the need was real and the design worked.
WHO I AM
I hold a PhD and PsyD in Experimental and Clinical Psychology from the Université du Québec à Montréal, with doctoral research conducted in collaboration with the Douglas Mental Health University Institute at McGill University. I completed a clinical internship at McGill University Health Centre's Allan Memorial Institute, specialising in OCD, eating disorders, and mood disorders.
I then spent nearly a decade at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute — first as a postdoctoral researcher, then as a Research Scientist — studying the neuroscience of compulsive behaviour, decision-making, and habit formation in clinical populations.
I left that position in 2023 when my second child was born and my firstborn needed sustained care. Motherhood interrupted the institutional path. It didn't interrupt the thinking.
I'm currently an independent researcher, developing a theoretical framework at the intersection of narrative identity, nervous system regulation, and social cognition. The community is where that framework lives in practice.
WHAT ROOTED AGAIN IS
Rooted Again isn't a networking group. It's not a therapy group, a book club, or a wellness programme.
It's a peer community — free, deliberate, and grounded in nervous system regulation science. A space where relocated women can show up honestly, build genuine friendships over time, and make sense of who they're becoming.
We meet monthly in West London, capped at 10 to maintain depth over scale. No small talk required. No pretending you're fine when you're not.
The community continues between meetups — through WhatsApp, coffee dates, and the organic connections that form when the conditions are right.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE THREE ROOTS
Rooted Again is built around three things that research consistently shows matter more to long-term health and wellbeing than diet, exercise, or income — and that relocation systematically disrupts.
Reconnection
Genuine community and social connection are the strongest predictors of longevity and wellbeing. But relocation doesn't just disrupt friendships — it destroys community, which is a different and less visible loss. Most relocation support ignores this distinction entirely.
Reorientation
Major transitions don't just change your circumstances. They change your sense of who you are. The narrative you've been telling yourself about your life no longer fits, and building a new one — one that moves forward rather than backward — is neither automatic nor easy.
Regulation
When a nervous system has lost every familiar anchor, it doesn't have the regulatory capacity to connect well. The standard advice — join groups, put yourself out there, give it time — isn't wrong. It's just addressing the wrong layer. Regulation is the substrate that makes everything else possible.
These aren't abstract concepts. They're the specific things relocation disrupts — and the specific things Rooted Again is designed to rebuild.
WHERE I AM NOW
I live in Ealing, West London, with my partner and two young sons.
Building a life—and a community—in West London
I built Rooted Again because I needed it. I keep building it because I know I'm not the only one.
If you're a relocated woman who's doing everything right and still feels something essential is missing — you're not wrong about that feeling. You're just missing the right room.
LET'S CONNECT
Join us at our next monthly meetup, join the WhatsApp Community, or just reach directly.
Have questions?
Fill out the form below and I’ll be in touch within 48 hours.