About
About me
I am Cătălina Elena Balanișcu.
Glad to virtually welcome you on this page!
It is difficult for me to describe my professional life with only one word, to choose if I am only a psychologist, a coach, a business consultant, a parenting counselor, personal development coach or a future psychotherapist. All of these are roles and specialties I have pursued over time. These roles can only define me as a professional at a certain moment in time. I am a person who is constantly growing and what I know and I am today, is quite possible to be different from what I will be as a professional in a year or a few months, either because I have learned something new or because I have discovered new ways to structure and apply what I already know, in order to give my clients the most up-to-date version of me. So, I invite you to read my professional CV at this link , I will update it as changes occur, and going forward I will tell you a little bit about my personal development so far.
As every story begins "Once upon a time, there was a little girl..."
Of course, in my childhood, there were relevant elements for my further development; parents, extended family, teachers, and other people, who either gave me wings or maybe cut them off without knowing. As a child, the love for stories, followed by the love for writing, playing “teacher" with the other kids, all these experiences cultivated my curiosity for the inner lives of people, their life stories, and the "lessons" they learned throughout their journey. In high school, I discovered psychology, and it was as if all of my thoughts and concerns began to be organized differently, my diary, the poems and the stories I used to write, now also had a therapeutic role, even if I didn't know it at the time.
Although it seemed that after high school I would attend Psychology, I finally chose Political Sciences.It is a choice I do not regret, because in essence, the lessons of political sciences are about the system, the social system, the political system and how it can influence individuals. I immersed myself in books and debates with my colleagues, I enjoyed everything this period of studies meant and the best take away for me was the courage to discuss openly, to look at the system and believe that it can be improved.
Then I started working in business, in various administrative or operational departments and continued to grow as a professional, having multiple management responsibilities. I learned a lot, on the job, I started to speak "corporate" fluently. I participated in many trainings and development programs organized within the companies where I worked, developing many soft skills. I learned to work with people, to build teams, to implement employee motivation and development programs, to contribute to the growth of the people I worked with and the companies I worked for. My Linkedin profile has many more details on this.
After 17 years of working in various entrepreneurial or corporate systems, after being involved in multiple business transformation programs, after going through a major crisis in my personal life and accessing psychotherapy services, after participating in many personal development programs throughout the years, after all this, I decided to go back to school, to formally study psychology. I was 40 years old when I graduated the Psychology Faculty, and immediately after, I started the psychotherapy training.
I have started an organic professional transition, from management towards coaching and counseling. My initial plan was to continue working as a full-time manager, and in parallel to complete my studies and training in psychotherapy. But life offers us multiple opportunities to get on track, to adapt and improve our initial plan. So for a while, I worked consultant as a consultant in the business area, part-time, and this allowed me to study and grow faster as a mental health professional. According to my interests at the time, I started a long-term training program, which allowed me to look at the parent-child relationship from multiple perspectives. Thus, I obtained the parenting certification. Then, I studied the impact that the relationship between parents has on the development of children, accessing a program of parenting coordination. In order for this picture to be complete, upon completion of my undergraduate studies, I carried out a scientific research, which addressed the role that parental stress and the coparenting relationship can have in the development of children, both in intact and in separated families. I also decided in the meantime to certify myself as Coach in NLP, Timeline Therapy and Hypnosis, having previously been the beneficiary of coaching services, which showed me that there are a variety of methods we can use in working with people. I also followed a certification program as a personal development counselor, obtaining the certificate of personal development counselor recognized in Romania.
Pe măsură ce făceam pași tot mai fermi în tranziția spre rolul de psiholog și îmi clarificam direcția viitoare de dezvoltare, a apărut și jobul care să îmbine foarte bine psihologia, managementul și dorința de a sprijini oamenii care au nevoie. Astfel, am accesat un proiect din zona serviciilor umanitare, ca și psiholog – angajat într-o organizație internațională, coordonând un program de sănătate mintală pentru refugiații ucraineni din Iași. Imediat după finalizarea studiilor de licență în psihologie, m-am înscris și într-un program de Master în Psihologie Clinică și Psihoterapie și am început și formarea complementară în Psihoterapia cuplului și familiei. Am obținut atestatul de liberă practică în psihologie clinică și continui să învăț, să devin în fiecare zi, cu fiecare client, un specialist mai bun și un om mai înțelept.
În acești ani, am învățat foarte mult, am experimentat ca și client sau cursant, mai multe tipuri de servicii și programe de dezvoltare. A fost o perioadă de tranziție, în care unii oameni îmi spuneau că trebuie să aleg, că nu se mai înțelege ce vreau să fac, că merg spre psihologie, dar nu ies din zona de business, că parcă sunt împărțită între două lumi. Eu răspundeam, iritată uneori, că oameni sunt peste tot, și în business și în cabinetul psihologului, școli, centre de consiliere, iar eu nu vreau să aleg între corporație și psihologie, pentru că nu se exclud reciproc, pentru că iubesc și psihologia organizațională și psihoterapia sau psihologia clinică. Aceste discuții m-au ajutat să îmi clarific că experiențele profesionale anterioare, studiile realizate și preocupările mele, sunt profund sistemice. Eu privesc omul din perspectiva sistemică (a relațiilor sale) și sistemul prin prisma indivizilor care îl creează. Această abordare îmi permite să susțin procese de creștere atât individual, cât și în grupuri, pentru oameni care lucrează la dezvoltarea lor, dar și pentru companii sau alte organizații care investesc în angajații lor.
Așadar, viața este o continuă transformare, o poveste pe care o scriem în fiecare zi, pe care o rescriem peste ceva timp, descoperind noi sensuri ale experiențelor trecute, un roman de dragoste, de acțiune, un manifest sau orice alegem noi să scriem.
Te invit să vorbim despre povestea ta, despre ce ai scris până acum, ce ai putea rescrie din trecut sau ce îți dorești să creezi pentru viitor!
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