Maria Dolgopolova – Jungian psychology and psychoanalysis

Up and until very recently I ran a successful full face-to-face time private practice in Moscow which I established in 2015 (I have been practicing with clients under supervision since 2011). I continue to work with all my clients online due to the latest circumstances since October 2022. I still see about 21-25 patients per week mainly in the age range from 20 to 40. I had a successfull outcome with people of older and younger age group, but the most popular age of my clients permanently was ten years more or less than my own age.

Since 2021 my professional activities include therapeutic groups (face-to-face and online) providing psychological support alongside with clinical educational seminars for psychologists. Two recent groups for psychologists related to the follow subjects: “Clinical manifestations of aggressiveness. Strategies of long-term psychotherapy”, “Love and hatred toward ourselves. Strategies to work with self-destruction in long-term psychotherapy” (chemical and not-chemical dependency, PTSD with self-harm behaviour, psychosomatics, masochistic patterns and traits of character, risk-taking behaviour, including a destructive romantic relationship).

2022 was extremely unusual in my professional path. Less than in 12 months I transformed from an ordinary psychologist with a face-to-face private practice in Moscow and studying in Switzerland into a "multicultural specialist" and then received my own experience of changing the place of living. Most of my clients from Moscow within less than one year became residents (expats) of other countries or "round-the-world travelers". In both cases someones who have to immerse themselves into a different culture. That means most of my clients from Moscow transformed from settled people of the beloved city into inexperienced "digital nomads" or into career migrants. Fortunatelly, some of my clients always belonged to a different country than my own. It is a challenge for me to explore new conditions and plenty of cultures (that are not well-known yet) through myself and through clients. However I find this challenge highly inspiring and exciting.

For much of the last 2-3 years, my experience has been working with refugees or expats, many fleeing Ukraine and Russia, often due to forced relocation as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war and consequent political instability. I continued working online, dealing with war-trauma and supporting clients to re-construct their lives in a totally new setting (country, life-style, shifts in work-processes). I frequently assisted (as a psychologist) people who were focused on issues with unexpected changes, who faced crises and searched for any solutions to cope with them, who had to find themselves again and transform themselves in a rapidly changing world.

I come from a background in psychology. My father and mother were both psychotherapists and educationalists using the Gestalt approach. My father was well known for his pioneering work, eventually founding and setting up the Moscow Gestalt Institute and Psychodrama which he ran for over 20 years. The Institute still operates employing over 300 people.

I hold BSc and MSc degrees in psychology from Moscow State University. My scientific adviser Prof Igor Kadyrov, former president of the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society, included me in a small team of scientists conducting psychotherapeutic process research with endogenous mental disorders including schizophrenia and mood disorders at the advanced psychiatry clinic in Moscow.

My Masters thesis was centered on thinking processes in patients with paranoid schizophrenia. I have long and in depth involvement in scientific work; at university we focused on the investigation of psychotherapeutic process in psychoanalytic approaches among patients with further using outcomes for research. We applied the Horowitz method amongst others. I was accepted and worked on PhD about thinking processes in patients with endogenic disorders (mood disorders and schizophrenia) in Moscow State University. I placed this hold being whilst I set up my practice increasingly finding interest and relevance in the work of CG Jung.

Personal information about me. I have been married for 10 years with a 3-year-old daughter. We have been living (my daughter, husband and I) until very recently in our own house just outside Moscow. I have a wide spectrum of interests in addition to my professional and family life. The main such interests today are traveling (we were staying in Great Britain, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and Thailand for the last year), friendship and human relations (in a non-professional way), sport, education and reading.