Mikkel Anthonisen

Mikkel Anthonisen is a doctor and sailor, formerly employed at the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center (DMSC) at Rigshospitalet, and later a chief physician at Herlev Hospital’s neurological department, specializing in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Mikkel Anthonisen is also the founder and chairman of Oceans of Hope – Sailing Sclerosis Foundation, a sailing project for people with MS (PwMS), and from 2014 to 2015, he sailed around the world with PwMS as active crew members on a sailboat. Oceans of Hope continues to conduct voyages around the world each year, and in 2019, Mikkel Anthonisen started the Oceans of Hope Research Project in collaboration with DMSC, the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, the University of Southern Denmark, and Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry to more systematically and scientifically describe the effects of sailing on people with MS.

The research focuses on aspects such as quality of life, symptom experience, self-efficacy (empowerment), and social capital. Mikkel Anthonisen is also a psychotherapist and coach, lecturer, and author, including the book Oceans of Hope – Around the World, Back to Life (Sailing Sclerosis Publishing, 2016), which covers the circumnavigation with PwMS from 2014 to 2015, as well as co-author of the book The Potential of the Unconscious (Frydenlund, 2014), with a contribution on the connection between psychotherapy and coaching as a basis for creating meaningful action.