I am a licensed Gestalt psychotherapist practicing traditional psychotherapy and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP).
Hi, I am Svetlana
About Svetlana
Hello, my name is Svetlana. I was born in Ukraine and came to the US more than twenty years ago, as a young adult, to gain new life perspectives. By nature very curious and introspective, since childhood I have been interested in human psychology and how people worked on the inside.
I always say I have lived many lives: experiencing the world of theater through playwriting and acting as an undergrad student with major in Theater; working at the United Nations while pursuing my Master’s Degree in Social Affairs; and eventually embarking on the path of psychotherapy with a major in Gestalt psychotherapy and a strong interest in Jungian psychology. These and many other life experiences have informed my knowledge of “how people work on the inside” and deepened my understanding of what it means to be a happy human being.
As clinicians, we often choose this profession because of our own struggles in earlier years, our recovery from some traumas, and the desire to help others to do the same - I am no exception. Someone once said, “a good clinician can only take their clients as far as they’ve gone themselves”. During this life journey I have been dedicated to my self-discovery and healing. I tell my clients that there was a time when I was drowning too, and then I learned how to swim. Now it’s my deep desire to help others to swim as well, even when the seas are rough. After all, “calm seas never made a skilled sailor”.
I always keep myself abreast of new developments in the field of psychotherapy and have been taken additional training in couples work, end-of-life doula training, somatic work, mindfulness, and dreams. At the same time, psychedelics (which literally means mind manifesting) caught my attention years ago as an additional tool to address mental health issues. I personally believe they played a key role in my own journey of spiritual self-awakening.
Studies show that mind-expanding tools like psychedelics, meditation, silence retreats, self-inquiry, breathwork, and shamanic work can create greater brain plasticity on a physical and psychological level. This allows for a deeper understanding of our modus operandi, creating the groundwork for sustainable change. Our consciousness is like an iceberg, with the tip of the conscious mind showing above the water, while the subconscious and unconscious minds are immersed deep underwater, untouched and unobserved. Eckart Tolle, the author of “Power of Now”, once said, “all the suffering comes from an unobserved mind” and “awareness brings change”. While mind expanding tools are not for everyone, when used in the correct set and setting they can potentially take us deeper into realms that are otherwise limited or not available at all.
As a therapist, I remain committed to my honest self-inquiry and to the process of providing the best care possible to my clients. I am a believer in therapy and beyond.
“Out beyond ides of wrongdoing and rightdoing
there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about”
-Rumi