Daria Shubina
Psychologist
I provide psychological counseling for people in tech and STEM fields. Career, burnout, psychological wellness, neurodivergence and giftedness are among the topics I cover.
The video and the text below contain approximately the same information and explain in detail how I came to this profession, what topics I work with and my approach. Choose the format that works better for you.
About me
Hello! I'm Daria and this page is about my services as a psychologist.
I'll start by saying that I don't have a typical psychologist background. I studied physics and after doing a PhD in nuclear physics I realized that the part I liked the most there was doing more pragmatic tasks, like developing software for data analysis. I taught myself the basics of software development and started working as a software engineer. I've been in the software industry for the past 13 years, most of these years I've worked as a backend engineer, and also a few years as an engineering manager and director.
During the past 6 years I've been doing a degree in psychology in my free time in parallel with a full-time job in tech. Now that I have officially graduated (BSc in Psychology by UOC), I'm starting this new project, where I want to combine my knowledge of the tech sector and psychology.
What I offer
I do psychological counseling, which is mostly oriented to the people in the tech industry and in STEM fields more broadly, because this is where I think I can offer something unique. I work with a range of different topics, which I'll list below, because I think that sometimes it's not obvious that one can actually talk to a psychology professional about these topics.
Directly work-related topics
- Things one can discuss with an engineering manager, like career path, what software-engineer growth means, whether one should try becoming an engineering manager, whether one should go back to being an IC (individual contributor), etc.
- Things one doesn't always feel safe discussing with one's manager: burnout, feeling of golden handcuffs (not liking one's job, but not being able to leave because one won't find a similarly high paying job), not feeling the job is meaningful anymore, questioning one's work identity, etc.
Non work-related topics
- Any psychological well-being topics. This can be anything: from a vague feeling that something isn't right and just wanting someone to discuss it with - to specific topics, be it relationship problems, existential crises, or anything else.
- Identifying clinical problems. My degree included clinical specialization and diagnostic training for mental disorders, for example major depression or OCD. Spanish regulations require an additional Master's degree to treat these professionally, which I don't hold. I can recognize when a problem is clinical and refer you to the right specialist.
- Cross-cultural topics: moving to another country and immigration, using a non-native language or being multi-lingual. I think this is one of the topics where I'm also uniquely positioned, because I myself lived in multiple countries, went through the integration into another culture and speak multiple languages. Often these topics produce feelings and general sensations that are difficult to pin-point and difficult to share with people who didn't go through it.
- Neurodivergence. The tech sector has a higher percentage of people who have (often subclinical) autism or ADHD. Some traits are praised, while others stigmatized. Talking about the experience of being neurodivergent can be valuable.
- Giftedness. Many gifted people experience isolation and social-integration difficulties, but our society often doesn't recognize these problems because being gifted is considered akin to winning a lottery, so a person might not feel like they have a right to complain.
My motivation
The main motivator for me is the desire to help people. Over the course of my life I've always been fascinated by the idea that talking to someone can actually help you. It doesn't help some people at all, it moderately helps many others, and it changes the lives of some others too. Sometimes it's quite difficult to find the right psychology practitioner. At times I wished someone with that kind of background that I now have existed, so I just want to be that someone for others.
My approach
When we start working together, I see you as a person, not a problem to solve. A specific psychotherapeutic approach or technique follows from the person and their situation. You might want to talk to someone because there are too many thoughts you don't want to burden your closest ones with. Or you might have concrete problems to discuss. Either way, a plan will emerge once I understand you better.
In psychology terminology, my approach is rooted in humanistic schools of psychotherapy, such as Rogerian/person-centered and existential psychotherapies.
It might be hard to actually seek help if you're a high-achieving and self-sufficient person, as many people in tech are, who are used to solving their own problems. So, I'm not offering any expert verdicts or magic recipes that would solve your problems: it will be a flat-hierarchy conversation, where we can think together about whatever you bring.
Get in touch
Sessions are conducted via videoconferencing, last one hour, and cost 50€. I work in English and Spanish, in Central European Time. Contact me at contact@dariashubina.com to ask for an appointment or if you have any questions.