The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me. Or, conversely, I myself am a question which is addressed to the world, and I must communicate my answer, for otherwise I am dependent upon the world’s answer.
Carl Jung
I have an intimate connection with the Earth and the waters. I felt it since I was born, spending most of the time in nature, by the waters, in the forest, with my friends and mostly my animal friends. Then came the obsession with snowboarding and surfing, that gave me a possibility to make nature and water my lifestyle.
Earth and water became my purpose, my meaning, my spirituality when I heard and listened to an inner call to write a book about intimacy with water. Fully committing to that path radically changed my way of being and working. It’s interesting how connecting with the waters, writing about the waters has brought me into such an intimate relationship with earth. There’s this feeling that opens in my centre, in my heart and it is like a tunnel that goes straight down to the centre of the Earth and just overwhelms me, it pulls me in and down and it’s like nothing else matters but this love with her. I feel I am always taken care of, I am always safe in her embrace. I can always learn anything I wish from her, I just need to ask and listen.
With my dog at Waterfall Peričnik, Slovenija
At the same time I was alway very sensitive in many ways. To this day I remember when I was eight years old writing in my diary these words: “I wish I wouldn’t have feelings!!!” I always had intense emotions and they made my life difficult. Now I know I am not the only one having difficulties with emotions. Many of us are sensitive or what Dr Orloff (2009) describes as an empath: “highly sensitive, finely tuned instruments when it comes to emotions. They feel everything, sometimes to an extreme, and are less apt to intellectualise feelings.” (p.196). I used to believe emotions get in the way of dealing with external life; they get in the way of our cognitive mind that likes to control things by way of will. I did not understand them and I didn’t like them controlling me. All my life I was told I am too sensitive for this world, but with more awareness I chose to turn this story around: If we all allowed ourselves to be more sensitive and open, the world would be a different place.
When I stepped into the psychotherapy world I started realising that the emotional world has depths and levels I never knew about, but most importantly I became aware of the immense inherent intelligence of our emotional bodies. When in my personal psychotherapy I experienced a moment of surrendering to my emotional life, it felt like the first time I was open for life to flow through me. That is when I started asking myself: what is this opening and how do we stay open instead of closing down? That question soon transformed into “How do we get in touch with ourselves and how can therapy support us in that? How can we listen to ourselves if we don’t even know who we are and thus who to listen to?”
This was the song that I would listen on repeat when I was a teenager. Now I know it wasn’t a coincidence. This embodied way of living is what I have been longing for all my life. How to become embodied being and how to keep choosing that way of living every moment?
Becoming embodied means feeling everything, not controlling my experience but allowing it, reading my emotions, observing my thoughts. A shift from thinking my thoughts and observing my feelings, into observing my thoughts and feeling my feelings, letting them move me.
Embodiment is the direct connection to our power – the power of our emotions, sensations, inspiration, and imagination. Rather than running away from our experience, from our predicament of an embodied being, instead owning it, honouring it, finding beauty and gratitude for this gift of existence.
And so instead of exploring the unknown depths of the universe as an astronaut, which was my childhood dream, I ended up exploring the unknown depths of our being in these bodies and the body of Earth. Phenomenological science for systematic research of experience was the only way that made sense to me, in order to embark on such an exploration.
My undergraduate phenomenological research was about dialoguing with dreams, which led me to work as a phenomenological researcher at University of Ljubljana. When I found out there was a therapeutic approach with foundations in phenomenology I immediately knew that was my way onwards.
Thus I finished my doctorate in Existential psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology at New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology in London, where I am now a lecturer and supervisor.
I believe it is our embodiment that allows us to deeply discover ourselves and truly meet another in an intimate relationship. When we come in touch and awareness of our emotions, intuitions, dreams we tap into a well of inner resources we have been gifted with in order to live a life that is meaningful, fulfilling and exciting to us. Re-connecting to our own truth, our bodies as well as the body of Earth and integrating all aspects of ourselves is what brings us into alignment and fulfilment from where we can start to flow through life with inspiration, openness and presence.
From all of the above you can gather that my approach is unique and always dedicated to the deep inner exploration. However if there is a need for names and labels I would say my specialty is:
I am UKCP registered
I speak English, Slovenian, Serbian, Spanish
My educational and experiential foundations:
