Born 1945 in Germany, Iris was brought up in Cape Town, South Africa. She studied Gestalt therapy and Integrative therapy at the Fritz Perls Institute in Dusseldorf, Germany. She also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Spiritual Guidance through Transpersonal Dreamwork from CCPE (Centre for Counselling and Psychotherapy Education), London, UK.

Iris worked at the Dermatological Clinic of the Universitäts Spital Zürich, offering Psychooncological assistance to terminal cancer patients. She has extensive experience working as a child and adolescent therapist as well as with severely disabled children. Places she worked at include: the Epilepsie Klinik in Zurich (Switzerland), the Kinderzentrum in Munich (Germany) and the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town (South Africa).
Since 1996 she has been regularly collaborating with Dr med and Homeopath Diana De Pedroni in Locarno.

She has additional training in Montessori pedagogy, cognitive behavioural therapy and couple therapy. Iris also pursued studies in Gestalt Therapy with Miriam and Ervin Polster and Joseph Zinker (Zürich, Switzerland), and in Focusing with Dr. Agnes Wild-Missong (Zürich, Switzerland).

She works in private practice since 1988 in Bellinzona and Zürich and resides in Ticino, Switzerland since 1977.