Psychology was my first choice.

Why psychology

I grew up in Vlasivka, a small town in central Ukraine. After school I didn’t know what to do with my life — only that I wanted to study something that genuinely interested me, and do it properly. That was psychology. I knew it barely paid. I went anyway.

I studied at Kremenchuk Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi National University: a bachelor’s with honours, then a master’s specialising in crisis psychology, conflictology, gerontopsychology and gender ethnopsychology.

Where I practised

During my studies I was the psychological first responder at a government-funded legal clinic: free counselling for people whose frustration with the system was about to turn into a formal complaint. Often what they needed first was to be heard properly.

I also spent a year practising in a juvenile detention centre — about the hardest room you can learn in. It taught me patience, and that trust is earned slowly and lost fast.

The years in between

A psychologist in Ukraine earned about $170 a month, so I made a pragmatic move into tech and project management. The lens came with me. Most of that work turned out to be about people anyway: teams under pressure, conflicts nobody wants to name, change nobody asked for.

Starting over

In 2022 the war made me leave Ukraine for Copenhagen, with no way back. I know from the inside what it costs to rebuild a life in a new country and a new language — I’m still learning Danish. That experience doesn’t replace training, but it means I don’t need the basics of displacement explained to me.

Outside work I have a young son, and I play chess.