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.

Anna Eraut, psychotherapist in the UK, originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine.

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 all changed in February 2022, when my focus pivoted back to Ukraine but in hindsight it gave me a unique set of skills and a broad perspective on organisational dynamics that enabled me to develop the ADAPT programme.

Independence Monument in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv, Ukraine, seen through anti-tank barriers.

The development of ADAPT

In February 2022, after the Russian invasion, the immediate need was for crisis support and I began working in Kyiv with Ukrainian staff of a major, UK-based company, and also in Budapest, with staff who had been evacuated there.

My work, both in Kyiv and Budapest, forged ADAPT, my unique, flexible approach to dealing with the situation as it developed – finding ways to support the staff and their families and help them to cope in a new country after a sudden upheaval. It included psychotherapy, group work, leadership coaching as well as team workshops and webinars for psychological education.

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 focus has been on:
Dealing with the immediate challenges of those working under extreme circumstances and the psychological aftermath
Adjusting work and life practices to cope with new situations for those displaced both physically and psychologically by the war
Group of professionals engaged in a collaborative workshop, discussing materials and sharing insights.

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.