About me
Hello, I am Jelena.
I am a graduate psychologist and a gestalt psychotherapist working under supervision. I completed my psychology degree at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, and I am currently pursuing a master's in medical psychology. I continued my professional development through gestalt psychotherapy training at Lidija Pecotić's school.
I have been working with people for nearly ten years. Already during my studies, when I also enrolled in gestalt training, I began working through projects and volunteering as a psychologist with children living on the street. Later I gained experience as a case-working psychologist at the Center for Social Work, and then through years of work in HR and people development in organisations.
Over time I turned more and more toward what interested me most from the beginning - psychotherapeutic and counseling work. Today I devote most of my work to individual psychotherapy and psychological counseling, group work, and trainings, while in parallel I collaborate with companies on the development of people, teams, and relationships within organisations.
Continuous professional development is also an important part of my work. Alongside gestalt psychotherapy training, I have completed an introductory course in constructivism, training for working with psychotherapy groups, and training in dispute mediation. I regularly take part in trainings, workshops, professional gatherings, and supervision, because I believe a psychotherapist's work does not end with one diploma or the completion of one school.
How I approach the work
In my work I start from the idea that we cannot understand a person outside their life, relationships, and everything they had to adapt to in order to get through that life.
I am interested in what is happening for you, how you got here, what you are trying to do for yourself in a way that may no longer help, and which need behind that remains unmet.
Some of our reactions look like a problem today, and once they were the best we knew how to do. Withdrawal, silence, constant adapting, the need for control, putting our own needs aside - all of that has its story. Therapy, for me, is not a place where we only remove those reactions, but a space where we can understand them and check whether you still need them.
The idea that change does not come from forcing ourselves to become someone else matters to me. It often begins when we can see honestly enough where we are now - what we want, what we feel, what stops us, and what happens between us and other people.
In the work I pay attention not only to what you talk about, but also to the way you enter contact: where you move closer, where you withdraw, what you keep to yourself, where you say “yes” when you mean “no”, and where you stop yourself before you even check what would happen.
Responsibility also matters to me. Not in the sense that we are to blame for everything that happened to us, but that we can recognise where today we have the possibility to choose differently.
That image is close to me in psychotherapeutic work as well. We cannot choose every event, relationship, or circumstance that will come our way, but we can get to know the way we move through them - where we tighten up, where we withdraw, where we try to control, and where we can still make a different choice.
And it matters to me that in that process there is also kindness toward ourselves. That we can look at what we do without needing to condemn ourselves right away. Change that grows from understanding ourselves makes more sense to me than change that comes from a war with ourselves.
Education and work
- Graduate psychologist, Faculty of Philosophy in Niš
- Master's studies in medical psychology (in progress)
- Gestalt psychotherapy training, Lidija Pecotić's school - psychotherapist under supervision
- Introductory course in constructivism
- Training for working with psychotherapy groups
- Training in dispute mediation
- Volunteer work as a psychologist with children living on the street
- Case-working psychologist, Center for Social Work
- Years of work in HR and people development in organisations
- Individual psychotherapy, psychological counseling, group work, and trainings
- Collaboration with companies on the development of people, teams, and relationships
You can get a sense of the everyday tone of my work on Instagram @razgovori_sa_jelenom.