About Me
I took my first steps in the field of psychology 8 years ago, and in the field of psychotherapy 5 years ago. This field is as professionally meaningful to me as it is personally valuable. I chose it as a result of my own life challenges, longing for a more conscious way of living.
For me, psychotherapy is an opportunity for an honest encounter with yourself and with the other. An encounter in which you see the fog of your deeply rooted fears, while also realizing that they are just that — fog. An encounter with your own frustration, which moves you in a new and different direction. An encounter in which your personal wisdom is born. This wisdom often turns out to be transformed pain from the past, a present readiness to accept your reality as it is, and a personal responsibility toward your own future.
Psychotherapy is far from an easy process, but it is deeply worthwhile for those who believe they deserve it. It is a commitment to the most important path — the path toward yourself, a path of genuine growth, a path inward and downward, not only outward and upward… Change is undoubtedly a painful process, but the alternative — stagnation and the maintenance of illusions — often proves more dangerous and destructive.
My work as a psychotherapist is my personal source of continuous learning, inspiration, and effort. It is my daily encounter, one that deeply challenges and fulfills me. I am grateful that through it I can be an active participant in, and witness to, another person’s growth.
“Love, work and knowledge are the wellsprings of our life. They should also govern it.” - Wilhelm Reich
Qualifications
- Experimental Psychology, Parts I and II; History of Psychology, Parts I and II; Psycholinguistics; Introduction to Psychology; Cognitive Psychology, Parts I and II; Physiological Psychology; Foundations of Social Cognition and Behaviour; Educational Psychology, Parts I and II; Personality Psychology, Parts I and II; Developmental Psychology in Childhood and Adolescence, Parts I and II; Statistical Methods in Psychology, Parts I and II; Health Psychology; Social Psychology, Parts I and II; Organizational Psychology; Work Psychology, Parts I and II; Psychological Assessment, Parts I and II; Adult Developmental Psychology, Parts I and II; Psychology of Abnormal Development, Parts I and II; Psychopathology, Parts I and II; Differential Psychology; Ethnopsychology, Parts I and II; Clinical Psychology, Parts I and II; Methodology of Socio-Psychological Research; Economic Psychology; Counselling Psychology; Ethics; History of Philosophy, Parts I and II; Systematic Philosophy, Parts I and II; Sociology; Gender Role Psychology; State Examination.
- Introduction to Body Psychotherapy; Evolutionary Psychology; Dynamic Psychology, Parts I, II and III; General Psychology in Neo-Reichian Theory; Psychoanthropology; Interpersonal Communication; Neo-Reichian Psychodiagnostics — BBCT and BBI; Anatomy and Physiology; Neurology and Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology; Basic Concepts in Psychoanalysis; Neo-Freudianism; General Psychiatry and Psychopathology; Psychopharmacology; Medical Psychology and Professional Ethics; Group Psychotherapy; Psychopathology in Neo-Reichian Theory; Bioenergetics; Bioenergetic Massage and Breathing Techniques; Trauma Work; Psychosomatic Medicine; Sexology; Practicum in Neo-Reichian Psychodiagnostics — BBCT and BBI; General Psychodiagnostics; Short-Term Therapies; Family Therapy; Psychotherapeutic Work with Children; Addiction Work in Neo-Reichian Therapy; Theatre Therapy; Art Therapy Techniques in the Context of Neo-Reichian Therapy; Thesis titled: “Fragmented Self, Bodily Shadow, Integration”; Final Theoretical Examination.
- Comprehensive individual practical internship in Clinical Psychology at the “Prof. N. Shipkovenski” Mental Health Centre, Sofia, Bulgaria (300 hours).
- Psychiatric internship at “St. Ivan Rilski” State Psychiatric Hospital, Novi Iskar, Sofia Region, Bulgaria (100 hours).
- The training at the Bulgarian Institute for Neo-Reichian Analytical Psychotherapy includes hundreds of hours of personal individual and group psychotherapeutic work.
- Additional personal-experience groups I have participated in, totaling over 500 hours, include: experiential training groups for working with early developmental trauma; the experiential group “I Am Movement” involving body, breathing, art-therapy and meditative practices, work with trust, boundaries, emotions, self-awareness and resources; a group titled “Adopting Our Inner Child”; an art therapy techniques group; practical workshops on “Boundaries”, “Interpersonal Communication” and “Fears”.
- 10th National Psychotherapy Conference “Working with the Missing”, Sofia, Bulgaria, February 2020.
- International Scientific Conference “50 Years of Psychology at Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’” on the topic “Psychology — Tradition and Modernity”, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 2022.
- 18th International Congress of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy, “Identity in Times of Change: Constructing, Deconstructing, Reconstructing”, September 2023.
Practice
I work in private psychotherapeutic practice under supervision. I provide individual psychotherapy sessions in person in Sofia, Bulgaria, as well as online sessions by arrangement. I also participate as a co-therapist in psychotherapy groups. I work in English as well.
The method I use views the individual as a whole — body, soul and psyche. More information about it is available here.
I work with the following issues:
- anxiety-depressive states and panic attacks
- personal dissatisfaction, low self-esteem and social anxiety
- interpersonal, relationship and intimate dissatisfaction
- professional distress
- life crises and challenges
- emotional eating and addictive behaviours
- traumatic experiences, developmental and shock trauma
- psychosomatic conditions
- loss and separation