Is this all there is to life?
 

No, there is more. There is so, so much. There is lightness, spaciousness, heightened awareness, sharper perception of reality, clear inner and outer seeing. There is wisdom and playfulness, compassion, profound connection to self and others. There is love. There is peace. There is freedom. The process of shedding the veils that prevent people from inhabiting this reality, from becoming whole and fully alive, is perhaps the most arduous yet most rewarding and meaningful inner work that stands before us all. I love being of service as an ally to those who feel that longing and walk that path.

 

Throughout my life, I often faced extraordinary adversity all alone, which has been unnecessarily time-consuming and painful to say the least. Yet it has given me direct knowledge of the extremes of human experience, a deep understanding of the functioning of the human psyche, as well as brought me in close encounters with the full spectrum of the human condition. Drawing from this deep well of personal experiences, it is my innermost calling to now support others in their process of opening up and awakening to their highest potential (see my Focus Areas below), and help them bring more harmony and contentment into their lives so that they can be of service to their communities and beyond. The world needs us all.
 

If this resonates with you, I'd love to meet. You can schedule a (free) intro call here or shoot me an email here.

Motivation
 

Personal development is a lifelong, nonlinear endeavor - a hero’s journey that requires determination, perseverance, and most of all a whole lot of courage. For those who dare to venture out onto the path of serious inner exploration and self-inquiry, more often than not treacherous obstacles and occasional setbacks await. Indeed, as we find, the journey can get daunting when we feel we have to do it right despite wandering in the dark without any guidance or previous ‘life training’, and quite likely carrying an invisible load of family conditioning and relentless socio-cultural expectations on top that we didn’t even ask for. Wouldn’t it be great to have a supportive ally along on the journey to hold our light torch so that we do not have to do it all alone?
 

In my case, early life family crises, a range of adverse childhood experiences, severe health issues, a collapse of meaning and identity, and the devastating toll all these events took on my relationships and career, have forced me to commit fully and unconditionally to self-healing and personal growth. In my quest for survival and for building a better life for myself over the past 15 years, I’ve spent thousands of hours in deep introspection and meditation, explored and directly tested countless healing modalities (including psychoanalysis, coherence therapy, CBT, DBT, IFS, family constellations, EMDR, art therapy, theater, yoga, focusing, authentic relating and circling, psychedelics, etc.), and distilled my view of how to effectively support people through their inner transformations. Nobody should pay such a high price for playing the cards they have been dealt - it is my mission to help create better psychological support systems and safety nets in our communities, and be of service with the knowledge I have gained. 
 

Also, I coach because I believe that changing the world and doing good better starts at our own doorstep. Most of us try to do our best and yet walk around with many unreflected issues, often unknowingly causing harm in and around ourselves. Becoming our most authentic self and developing our potential often has immediate healing effects on our environment and tends to start a number of positive feedback loops both in our own lives and in the lives of our loved ones. I presume that addressing many of the pressing global challenges the world is facing today is going to require us to inhabit higher states of consciousness than we’ve done up until now, and I’m personally invested in assisting my clients develop emotional and spiritual maturity and achieve personal fulfillment so that they can do the most good with compassion and purity of intention.
 

Focus Areas
 

• Developmental trauma and complex childhood PTSD (learning nervous system re-regulation, restoring the connection to your body, recovering from addictions and self-defeating behavioral patterns, mending the damage in relationships to self and others, putting an end to self-sabotage, developing healthy and sustainable self-care routines);

• Emotional maturity (processing difficult emotions and their root causes, uncovering and transforming existing subconscious tendencies / mental programs / core beliefs, shadow integration, work with internal parts, deepening self-awareness, cultivating inner ease and harmony);

• Meaningful relationships & dating (developing empathic communication and deep listening skills, learning to relate authentically, setting and communicating healthy boundaries, navigating conflicts, expanding your field of compassion, combating loneliness and isolation, healing codependency, finding and maintaining romantic partnerships, structured dating, relieving blocks in relationships, deepening attunement in intimacy);

• Intercultural adaptability (moving to a new country, navigating different cultural paradigms, changing social milieus, developing life strategies with respect to your your native culture / socio-economic class / early formative experiences);

• Finding your life's purpose (navigating the countless options and challenges of modern life, sorting out through your priorities, recovering from burnout, leaving commitments that don't serve you anymore, aligning your career and social activities with your deepest inner calling, reconciling and distilling differing inner needs and desires into one coherent life path, finding your vocation / ikigai);

• Self-transcendence (opening to higher spiritual realms and deeper transpersonal qualities of being, developing your intuition, non-dual meditation training, Tantra Yoga, energetic work, altered states of consciousness, psychedelics).

 

Approach
 

I believe that everyone is on their own very personal, self-directed path, so the role of my coaching is ultimately to help clients gain increasingly more clarity and agency in discerning what they really want and how to get closer to it, expand their capacity for holding difficult emotions and leaning into challenges with more ease, and process and release any blocks they encounter on the way. In a coaching session, the client has my undivided attention through deep listening, mirroring, reflecting, acceptance, witnessing, and holding space for their process. Based on their personal context, I might suggest different cognitive and body-based therapeutic approaches inspired by both Western and Eastern traditions for navigating the labyrinth of their being. Our sessions can take many shapes and forms that are very individual for each person, with the common denominator always being our attention to and felt sense of the present moment. As we gently illuminate the blindspots and embrace various inner parts, the client will start to shed many veils and awaken into increasingly more refined and authentic versions of self, into more wholeness. Be it at work or in personal life, I am deeply invested in my client’s thriving and realizing their innermost Truth.
 

Profile

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I am currently based in Prague, Czech Republic. In the past decade you would have found me living in Germany, UK, Norway, USA, and Switzerland, or vagabonding around the world. Most recently my interests have circled around building collaborative intellectual and/or creative conscious communities: among others, I helped create Fixed Point, a new Czech center for rationality and effective altruism. Here I manage the Prague Fall Season and the Epistea Residency, a fellowship program for researchers working on improving the world, particularly in the field of epistemics, civilizational sanity, and existential risk. In addition, I teach workshops in personal development, psychosomatic disciplines, and authentic relating for curious, talented minds (CFAR, ESPR). 
 

Before moving to Prague I worked as a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and in academia at the University of Washington, as well as taught and mentored university students and did a bunch of public science outreach through the Pacific Science Center and the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle. I hold a Master of Science degree in Earth and Space Sciences & Astrobiology (with a PhD on hold) and nowadays I train in acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and as a tantric yogini at Hridaya Yoga France.

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Languages
 

English, German, Czech.
 

Does any of this resonate? Let’s set up an introductory call to see how I can serve you best.

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Testimonials for Jana

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" In the very first interaction I attempted to explain my life situation and Jana immediately paraphrased it back to me with more crystalline clarity and accuracy than I had myself. From sitting with me while I fill out a tax form, to mediating a high-stakes conversation, to processing existential grief—Jana’s compassion, capacity to understand, and ability to identify and adapt to the kind and intensity of intervention that’s called for have been exceptional, in my experience, even among other coaches I’d consider world-class. " 
 

– David Dalrymple, Programme Director @ Advanced Research + Invention Agency

 

" Jana has this deep understanding of things that comes from people who have touched and seen the cores of who they are and decided to remember and care. I feel understood and seen on many levels. " 

– Katarína Šamuová, Nurse & Social Media Specialist @ Perfect Clinic 

 

" Jana is a highly skilled and remarkably insightful coach. She quickly grasps an issue with questions of piercing accuracy all while holding space in a deeply compassionate manner. I found her reflections extremely helpful and am very grateful to have worked with her. " 

– Client who wished to remain anonymous verified by TBCT

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