I grew up in a world devoid of spiritual meaning. Born in the former Soviet Union to a family of Russian, Ukrainian, and Jewish origins, my ancestors survived famine, war, and displacement by harnessing a set of beliefs that helped them survive—beliefs based on reason, intellect, and discipline. Although I have always had a strong intuition, curiosity, and connection to unseen realms, I learned to suppress these qualities by working hard, controlling my emotions, and always viewing the world through the lens of skepticism.

For years, this way of living served me. Like in many immigrant families, higher education was seen as the only avenue for success, and I excelled in school, graduating at the top of my class, earning a PhD from Harvard, and building a career in academia. I published peer-reviewed academic papers in prestigious journals, became a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, cofounded a successful educational nonprofit called Plant Futures, became an expert consultant in my field, and was mentored by the celebrated author Michael Pollan. I published my first book based on my dissertation called The Good Eater: A Vegan’s Search for the Future of Food in 2024.

These accomplishments were signifiers of success in a world that rewarded mastery of the mind. I had done everything “right,” and yet, beneath the surface, something was missing. Over time, I felt a deep realization that no matter how much I accomplished, fulfillment remained just out of reach. While on the outside my life seemed to be aligning on a clear pathway, inside I felt a deep sense of emptiness despite creating things I deeply cared about in the world. Eventually, I asked myself the question I had been avoiding: What if everything I had been taught to seek was never meant to bring inner peace?

The Breakdown

After completing my graduate work, against the advice of my family and mentors, I decided to leave academia in search of a more fulfilling path. I expected an exciting journey discovering what I cared about most, but instead I experienced a “dark night of soul”—a deep spiritual unraveling in which all the structures I relied on collapsed. Severe anxiety and depression surfaced, overwhelming me in ways my intellect could not rationalize or outthink. I tried to navigate this time the way I approached everything else—through research, frameworks, and analysis. But for the first time in my life, my mind had no answers.

What followed was a long, nonlinear, and painful process of breaking down everything I had been taught to believe about security, worth, and fulfillment. It was a reckoning with the reality that intellect alone could not bring me home to myself. At the time, I did not have language for what was happening to me. I only knew that I felt lost, untethered, and like the scaffolding of my life had collapsed and I had no idea how to rebuild it.

In retrospect, this critical period of my life was what the psychologist and environmentalist Bill Plotkin calls a soul initiation—a transformative descent into the depths of one's psyche, where our identity dissolves and we encounter the mysteries of our soul. Through this process, I realized that despite spending a decade honing my intellect, I had never been taught how to listen to the intelligence of my body, to trust my intuition, or how to move through life without trying to control every outcome. The path ahead was not one I could intellectualize my way through—it required something I had spent my whole life resisting: surrender.

The Breakthrough

My path to healing has been the most challenging, and the most rewarding, experience of my life. Although I had practiced yoga and meditation since adolescence, it was only when I immersed myself in somatic healing, ancestral, womb, and inner child work, plant medicine, feminine embodiment, and energy practices that I truly began to unravel my conditioning.

I trained in Aletheia coaching, a transformational, presence-based method integrating somatic work, parts work, and non-dual awareness for deep personal transformation. I trained at the Mindfulness Training Institute and in the Vipassana, Insight, and Mahamudra meditation traditions, sitting multiple silent retreats at Spirit Rock, Esalen, and Dhamma Vaddhana. I explored Internal Family Systems therapy, Non-Violent Communication, and the Ideal Parent Figure protocol, learning to rewire the deeply ingrained patterns that kept me in survival mode. As it is for many, plant medicine became a portal for connection to unseen realms. In ceremony, I experienced a Kundalini awakening which unlocked spiritual gifts I had been tapped into as a child (including intuitive singing) but had suppressed during my upbringing.

Through this intensive work, I began reconnecting to something far greater than myself—what I call intelligence beyond intellect. Across many modalities, I experienced a profound dissolution of identity, encountering the intelligence that moves through all of existence. At last, I understood what I had been missing: a relationship with the unseen realms, a trust in life itself, and the ability to surrender to divine flow. This work helped me confront my deepest shadows—the ways I had silenced my own voice, bypassed my emotions, and molded myself to fit into a life that never truly resonated.

Breaking intergenerational cycles of trauma was not just about my healing—it was about healing for those who came before me and those who will come after me. The poet Diego Perez (yung pueblo) speaks of the choice between being guided by human survival or human spirit. For the first time in my lineage, I had the privilege of choosing the latter, and I fully embraced my role as a cycle breaker. My journey continues to unfold, and now I am privileged to share the wisdom of my path in service of others.

My Soul’s Purpose

My Soul’s Purpose is to guide seekers in remembrance of their inherent divinity—a precipice I once navigated myself. I work with high achievers who have built lives of success but feel disconnected from deeper meaning. Those who have mastered the mind but yearn to reconnect with their intuition, their body, and their soul. My work is not about abandoning intellect but integrating it with something greater—learning to surrender, to trust, and to move through life with a sense of alignment rather than force. Through 1:1 mentorship, workshops, retreats, and channeling, I help individuals break free from conditioned striving and step into intuitive, embodied transformation. My approach is an integration of my own journey training and experience:

• Aletheia Coaching – Training in a transformational, presence-based coaching method integrating somatic work, parts work, and non-dual awareness for deep personal transformation.

• Meditation & Presence-Based Inquiry – Training with the Mindfulness Training Institute, as well as extensive silent retreat experience in Vipassana, Insight, and Mahamudra traditions (Spirit Rock, Esalen, Dhamma Vaddhana).

• Yoga, Dance & Embodiment – 200-hour yoga teacher training, and experience in feminine embodiment practices, breathwork, and a decade exploring dance and movement modalities.

• Healing Protocols – Experience with Internal Family Systems, Nonviolent Communication, and the Ideal Parent Figure protocol, as well as ancestral, womb, and inner child somatic healing.

• Energetic & Altered States – Experience with plant medicines, psychedelics, and energetic practices invoking altered states of consciousness for spiritual transformation.

• Intuitive Vocals – A lifelong gift reawakened through plant medicine, allowing me to transmit healing frequencies, Kundalini activation, and spiritual insight through sound.

I do not offer simple answers or quick transformations. Inspired by the coaching framework in which I was trained, my work is about unfoldment—the process of undoing, unlearning, and peeling back the layers of conditioning that keep us trapped in cycles of control and over-analysis. My role is not to impose new frameworks onto your life, but to help you uncover what is already within you, guiding you back to the wisdom of your own intuition, your body, and your own higher self. This work is not about learning something new—it is about remembering the wholeness that has been within you all along.

If my story resonates with you, there is likely a soul connection between us, and I invite you to explore my offerings.

Photo Credits: Aurielle Laredo @aurielle.jpg & Andrea Scher @andreascher.