Natalja Olijevska
Natalja Olijevska,
Christian Counselor, MA
Natalja graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, USA with a Master of Arts in Counseling (M.A.) in 2013. She continued her professional training at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute in the Advanced Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (APP) program , where she studied for two years.
Upon completion of the Master's degree in counseling, Natalja also worked at the Center for Counseling and Pastoral Care in St. Louis.
Her further experience was during 2014-2015 in Scotland, Dundee where Natalja worked with Momentum Counselling Services. She also served the community there as a volunteer counselor at Insight Counselling. During that time, Natalja became a member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy BACP.
Prior to her career as a counselor, Natalja worked as a social care projects coordinator at the International Church of Riga which was led by missionaries from North America. She also worked as a hospital chaplain at P. Stradina Clinical University Hospital in Riga and at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, USA.
Natalja has been working at the Christian Counseling office since September 2015. Her belief is that healing can happen in the context of a relationship based on trust and acceptance within the therapy. Throughout life, people develop emotional, behavioral, motivational and physiological responses to their situations. The complexity of every person makes Natalja consider the importance to work with the whole person. In order to serve well, each case is individually tailored, with improvisations based on the needs and specifics of each person. In addition, she takes every opportunity to gain more professional knowledge and experience by attending seminars, participating in discussions with colleagues, attending supervisions and working toward certification as a Christian Counselor in Latvia.