It All began With the Right Questions
As a curious person, I've always wanted to know how things work. What drives people and their decision-making? Going deep down the rabbit hole on every question is what eventually led me to strategy and psychology, the ultimate curiosity about the human mind.
Who Am I
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As a brand strategist and personal counsellor, my approach lies on the same basis whether working with organizations navigating a brand or commAs a brand strategist and personal counselor, my approach is built on the same foundation whether I'm working with organizations navigating a brand or communication challenge, or with individuals navigating a personal one.
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Even though companies and individuals are different kinds of clients, the processes and tensions involved in situations that need resolving are quite similar in nature. The way I work through both is not quite the same, although each client and project has its own particularities — which is a great gift for someone who loves creativity: every process and every project is about something new, and needs a custom-made solution.
There are always three steps that cannot be missed:
Listen: Before any strategy, I listen to the team, or the person in front of me, without rushing to impose a framework.
Assess: Market research, competitor mapping, internal dynamics, or a person's situation and life details, providing context for the existing tensions, through deep investigation and the right questions.
Direction: A positioning, a name, a strategy, or a next step. I don't impose ready-made solutions. I build direction together with my clients, since every client and every company knows itself better than I ever will, and once some tension has been removed, they will find the best path for themselves, with me accompanying them.
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My Values
Impartiality and Curiosity: I never assume or judge before I listen and thoroughly investigate, something I carry with me from Gestalt practice. We all arrive with our own ideas. I hold onto my curiosity deliberately, so I don't walk in with a conclusion I'd already made before actually taking in all the information.
Human Before Business: Every business decision is still made by a person, with their own history, instincts, blind spots, and the psychology that quietly shapes how they lead. Someone might speak from old experience rather than the situation in front of them, or simply have an off day. I stay the point of calm in the room, so that whatever's underneath the job title never derails the process.
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.17 years in Branding & Advertising
.BA, Political & Business Journalism, HSE
.Professional Retraining Diploma, Psychological Counselling Using Gestalt Therapy Techniques, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis
.Agencies: Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Erickson, Brandia Central
.Fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Russian
.Located in Lisbon, work Worldwide
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It started with a degree in Political and Business Journalism, always chasing the same question: what's really behind the headline? Before I'd even finished, I was already working in advertising, where brand strategy caught my attention immediately: positioning a brand, and shaping how people see it, is fascinating work.
Over 17 years, at agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann Erickson, and at small design studios alike, a new question took over: what's really behind a client's decision? That curiosity eventually led me to train in Gestalt-based counseling at the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis. The insight turned out to be universal: companies, individuals, and brands all build a 'self' through the same process, shaped by the same underlying tensions.
Manifesto