Life changed.
So did we.
REALIGN grew from two different perspectives brought together by the same belief: when life changes, simply being told to:
“stay positive” or “get back to normal” isn’t enough.
Dan brings lived experience. Marysol brings professional psychology. Together, we’re building something designed to help people understand where they are, what has changed, and how they can begin moving forward.
Our story
Why Realign Exists
Meet us
Dan and Marysol
Why REALIGN Exists
Because life doesn’t come with a reset button
BORN FROM REAL LIFE
Because life doesn’t come with a reset button.
REALIGN was born from real life. From the moment everything changed, and from the countless moments that followed when nothing felt like it used to.
We experienced the physical, emotional and mental impact of a life-changing diagnosis. We also saw the gap between what people go through and the support that’s available.
So we created REALIGN
A holistic approach that brings together lived experience and psychology to help people understand where they are, what has changed, and how they can begin moving forward.
Lived Experience
Cancer changed my life. There’s no getting away from that. But strangely, some of the hardest parts came afterwards. Recovery wasn’t simply about getting better and carrying on as normal. I had to learn how to live with uncertainty, anxiety, depression and, at times, a version of myself I barely recognised. For a long time, I was determined to get back to the Dan I had been before cancer. Eventually, I realised I was chasing someone who didn’t really exist anymore.
Long before REALIGN, much of my working life had been spent in higher education, teaching, travelling and working with people from different countries, cultures and walks of life. I’ve always loved meeting people, listening to their stories and trying to understand what makes them tick. Perhaps that’s why the counselling side of what I do has always come naturally to me. Whether it was a student thousands of miles from home, a colleague having a difficult time, or simply someone who needed to talk, I learned a long time ago that sometimes people don’t need you to fix everything. They just need someone willing to listen.
REALIGN brings those two parts of my life together. What I learned professionally from working with people, and what I learned personally when life decided to turn everything upside down. I don’t pretend to be a psychologist and I certainly don’t have all the answers. What I do have is lived experience, years of working with people and a genuine belief that the right conversation can make a difference. REALIGN grew from all of that — not to tell people how to live their lives, but to help them understand where they are, work out what comes next and, when they’re ready, keep moving forward.
Dan Bennett
CO-FOUNDER | DIRECTOR OF REALIGNMENT
Author of My Poker Face
Professional Insight
I’m Marysol — a psychologist, a wife, a mother, and someone who has learned that life does not always ask our permission before it changes. I have spent years studying human behaviour and trying to understand why we think, feel and respond the way we do. But some of my greatest lessons came when the things I had studied professionally became things I had to live personally. Standing beside someone you love while their world changes teaches you something that no textbook can fully prepare you for.
That experience changed the way I understand emotional support. I learned that when someone is going through something difficult, the people standing beside them are often living their own version of it too. We want to help, to be strong and to find the right words, but somewhere along the way we can lose connection with ourselves. I also learned that we don’t need a diagnosis for that to happen. Illness, grief, relationships, uncertainty or simply reaching a point where the life we once knew no longer feels the same can all leave us trying to understand where we are and who we are now.
That is what I bring to REALIGN. My background in psychology gives me the professional understanding, but my own experiences have taught me the importance of listening, empathy and meeting people where they actually are. My role is not to tell someone who they should become, or to pretend that every difficult experience can simply be turned into something positive. It is to help people understand what they are feeling, reconnect with themselves and begin discovering what comes next. We cannot always choose what happens to us, but we can learn how to meet ourselves there — and decide how we want to move forward.
Marysol Martinez Hinojosa
CO-FOUNDER | DIRECTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
Our Story
REALIGN exists where lived experience and professional psychology meet.
Dan knows what it feels like when life changes suddenly and the old version of normal no longer seems to fit. Marysol understands the psychological and emotional impact those changes can have — not only on the person going through them, but also on the people standing beside them.
Together, we created REALIGN to offer honest conversations, practical support and a different way of thinking about what comes next. Not to tell people who they should become, but to help them understand where they are now and begin moving forward in a way that feels right for them.
