Rima was born in Holland and grew up mainly in London, but also in Indonesia and Australia. Her strong intuition guided her in many ways, for example she has been drawn to Polynesia all her life.

Rima graduated with honours in Anthropology from Cambridge University, where her dissertation was based on the shamanic meanings of the hula dance of Hawaii. Since 1990 she has been researching the ancient meanings of the Polynesian language. The recipient of several prizes and awards, she holds the only Ph.D. in Huna in the world, from University College, London. The subject was the spiritual significance of the ancient language as manifested through place names. She is the only teacher of Huna whose work has been recognized academically.

A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute, as a postgraduate Rima has lectured at international academic conferences on subjects including history, mythology, religion, the nature of knowledge, the power of the sacred, Polynesian linguistics and Pacific literature. She was the only academic to organize a panel on shamanism at the world's largest Geographical Association meeting, the American Association of Geographers in Honolulu. Rima taught undergraduates at the University of Hawai'i, and University College, London and postgraduate social scientists at the Open University.

Rima has spent many years in Polynesia, travelling widely throughout the islands. She walked through the rainforest to talk to the Kahuna, the keepers of the knowledge, took boats to sacred islands in search of ancient temples and participated in festivals and rituals. She explored the meanings of her experiences through her writing, documented in her first book The Sacred Power of Huna: Spirituality and Shamanism in Hawaii.

After studying Huna for fifteen years, she began teaching the sacred tradition in 2004. She gave up academic work, as she felt drawn to help people understand the power of Huna, and to help others integrate the intellectual with other kinds of knowledge. She now reaches a world-wide audience with her books and courses. Her popular books on Huna are published internationally and in translation, and her next book Travelling Magically: How to turn your journey into a life-changing experience (which brings Huna knowledge to a wider audience) is out in August 2008.

She is a prolific public speaker, presentations include the Doctor-Healer Network, the British Museum, The Theosophical Society and the College of Psychic Studies, as well as the Daily Telegraph International Travel Show.

In her private readings, Rima helps people communicate with the lighter, brighter world beyond, helping people to understand their purpose in life and providing advice from a higher level than her client might normally be able to access. Her original research, on Polynesia as a greater system of growth and spiritual significance through the hidden meanings of the ancient language, continues.

A published poet, she loves to walk and dance, and is particularly fond of Tahitian dancing. Maholo nui to the Akua and the 'Aumakua, and the legions and regions of angels, unstinting in their help and grace.