Bridging two worlds
My journey spans multiple disciplines and cultures.
Originally from Kharkiv, I am trilingual, speaking English, Ukrainian, and Russian. I have lived and worked around the world, giving me a breadth and depth of experience that enables me to relate to my clients’ real-world issues.
My early careers were as a university researcher and then editor in Budapest. I hold two distinction MA degrees in humanities. In 2007, I moved to the UK and began my career as a psychotherapist. I hold an MSc in Psychotherapy from the renowned Metanoia Institute in London and am a UKCP accredited therapist.
Additional qualifications in EMDR therapy, Couples Therapy and other psychotherapy approaches enhance my crisis support capabilities. I am also a qualified yoga teacher as using body work and mindfulness is an important part of my holistic approach.
As well as my private practice, I ran webinars and workshops for companies and for mental health professionals. I also taught at Metanoia and for several years I was a visiting lecturer on the post-MA Advanced Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy Programme at Regent’s University, London.
That changed in February 2022, when my focus pivoted back to Ukraine. The period that followed sharpened my understanding of organisational dynamics under extreme pressure and led to the development of the ADAPT programme, applicable to any conflict zone or crisis situation.
The development of ADAPT
In February 2022, following the full-scale Russian invasion, the immediate need in Ukraine was for crisis support. I began working in Kyiv with the Ukrainian staff of a major, UK-based company, and also in another country with staff who had been evacuated there.
Out of this work, ADAPT took shape – a flexible, responsive approach that evolved alongside the situation itself. Rather than a fixed package, ADAPT is a modular framework that integrates psychological support for individuals, work with leadership teams and group educational formats, adapting in real time to changing conditions. Developed in response to the war in Ukraine, it is designed to be applicable in a range of high-pressure environments.
Initially, we had to explore a way of working when there was no life balance, to find a way of coping with a world turned upside down, and also find a way to help people through the stages of trauma and grief to land at a place of some stability.
The workshops I’ve led in Ukraine, together with the webinars I’ve developed and delivered both remotely and during return visits, have become effective tools for guiding and sustaining teams — both in their work and in their personal lives.
The ADAPT model enables leadership teams in any crisis situation to function at their best, while maintaining a motivated team and a successful business in the midst of the uncertainty and rapidly evolving situations brought on by the crisis.
