I am 42 years old. I am a Ukrainian in exile, living in Germany. I am a psychologist, sex therapist, and Gestalt therapist. I am an author and presenter of programs for women.
Since 2001 I have been working as a psychologist in a secondary school. After losing my pregnancy, I faced confusion and disbelief in the world. I felt small and helpless in the face of its challenges.
I was in a deep personal crisis, from which I sought a way out, first through spirituality and then through psychotherapy.
In 2016, I joined the MIGIS Institute to find answers to my personal questions and to get tools for working with people in similar situations. In addition to the main Gestalt therapy training program, during my 7 years at the institute, I completed 7 additional specializations: systemic family therapy, trauma work, child-parent relationships, work with psychosomatic disorders, relationship specialization, sexology, and group therapy. During this time, my private practice gradually grew and my professional identity was strengthened.
When I came to therapy, my personal request was to change myself, to find some other self that confidently overcomes difficulties, that everyone admires, that people would want to build relationships with. But later, I came to the conclusion that you don't change or search for yourself, you recognize and allow yourself. They take out their fantasies, dreams, desires from dark drawers, having previously dismantled the rubble of shame and fear. They release their blocked emotions, their naughty girl, their permission to enjoy life. We have not been taught this skill since childhood, and in therapy we can train it.
I wrote a book called Anti-Niceness: The Path from a Little Girl to Mature Womanhood, where I opened the door to the world of female identity through my personal experience. All the questions that a woman faces when she sees that she no longer fits into the mold for behavior set by society.
My specialization was the therapy of women who were going through age-related or personal crises, who were interested in the questions of what kind of woman I am, what is my sexuality and where is my arousal, what kind of relationship with men do I want, what is my self-realization, how to express my physicality, how to accept myself in different ways, and how to enjoy life.
After the full-scale invasion in 2022, I emigrated to Germany without my husband and two children, where I lived through one of the most severe depressions of my life. I was divorced from my beloved, with whom we had lived for 20 years. My husband had always been a reliable rear guard for me, but when the war broke out, he decided to go to defend our country. It was a shock for me. Suddenly, I became a military wife, the only adult in my family who was responsible for the lives and safety of my children. I had to make difficult decisions, do things I hadn't done before, learn things I hadn't planned to learn. In a foreign country, without family and friends.
This crisis and depression was a great initiating event for me. I learned new facets of myself, learned to ask for help, and did things that were very scary.
These events finally shaped me as a therapist who can be a support to a client in going through difficult life experiences.
The topics I work with in therapy are:
- formation of female identity;
- going through age and personal crises;
- female sexuality and self-worth;
- relationships with men and self-realization;
- life in emigration.
I help women go from feeling insecure, a good girl to a happy woman. My main advantage is that I have several degrees in psychology and 15 years of experience. I use Gestalt therapy and psychoanalytic approach.
My values are family and freedom. I try to combine my professional achievements with the pleasure of traveling, finding it my hobby and inspiration.
My work is aimed at creating a space for women where they can find support, understanding and inspiration to overcome personal challenges and unleash their potential.
