About me and my work

I believe our goals need to excite us, be aligned with who we are and make us somewhat nervous. While my clients are reaching for those goals, I invite them to pay attention to their inner dialogue, because it is this dialogue that impacts how we react to both successes and failures, how our relationships are shaped and what goals we set in the first place.​

I know that deep coaching work has been carried out when my clients fall in love with all parts of themselves, sometimes again, sometimes for the first time, and are able to integrate all that they have, whether it is processed anger or enthusiasm, to act boldly and with humility.

Methodology:

I coach with three lenses in mind:

• ICF’s Core Competencies, which are based on the following approaches: humanistic, cognitive-behavioural, solutions-focused, systems theory and transformational coaching

• Psychodynamic: identifying and upgrading subconscious patterns that stand in our way of attaining goals

• Adult Development theories: different stages of development are accompanied by unique sets of challenges and opportunities for growth. As we develop, we are able to navigate complexity better.

At 15, I left my home in Turkmenistan to go on my first big adventure - Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) in USA. Ten months, four schools and three host families later, I experienced my first buffet of cultures and various conditions that either encouraged or stifled growth.

At 21, I graduated with distinction from the University of Technology, Sydney, with a double major in International Business and Application Development. It was at this time that I also fell in love with professional fashion photography - by witnessing how the best photographers in Australia operate at the highest levels of their industry. I started to ask - could this be a possible career for me too? Having the right conditions, I decided to give fashion photography a go and I after years of hard work, I found my success there.

At 34, with 30+ magazine covers (GQ, Marie Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan) and incredible collaborations with some of the highest performing teams (Chanel, Armani Beauty, Givenchy) I started asking myself - what would I love to do for the remainder of my professional life? I went searching. In the meantime…

At 35, I started creating Talented-U, a place where I’d share all I knew about building a successful freelance career and offer tips for those looking how to do better (to this day, this is one of the proudest things I’ve done). Here, I acted as a founder and led my team to design and deliver solutions, produce courses and interview leaders of creative industries, all to help and inspire others to not give up, to continue searching and crafting ways to express themselves professionally.

At 36, I discovered professional coaching, went on my first training course and started experimenting with my colleagues. With some, we had great wins and they became my coaching clients for several years, coming back for sessions as they progressed to new chapters of their lives. With others - it didn’t seem to work as well and I wanted to understand why.

At 37, I attained my first coaching certifications from Co-Active Training Institute (Harvard Medical School calls their coaching model a gold standard) and then enrolled in a Master’s in Psychology in Executive Coaching. After graduating, I wrapped up all of my other projects and focused on professional coaching full-time.

Since then, I’ve been living my own professional dream v3.0 - working on deep levels with leaders in organisations, entrepreneurs and creative professionals on intentionally building their desired futures, from senior executives to creative directors, to stratup founders and freelance professionals.

I live with my family and two young boys in Sydney, and work internationally.

• PCC ICF

• CPCC

• M.Psych in Executive Coaching

• Certified Leadership Circle Profile Practitioner

• Coaching supervisor

• Coach credentialing assessor with ICF