MILENA | thefourthsolution

milena

I love change, adventure, uncertainty, and the unknown. Life to me is an adventure, or rather: when it is an adventure, then it is alive. I struggle when life becomes predictable. I love radical thinking and get fired up by the impossible.

I grew up in Germany and have since lived in many different countries - two life-changing years in Kathmandu/Nepal, Vietnam, Israel, Sri Lanka, Malawi, Spain, Cornwall, Somerset and a remote wilderness location on the West Coast of Scotland, travelled across Tazania in landrover and across Southern Europe in an American RV for nine months and am currently based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

For over two decades art was my oxygen. My work as an artist/sculptor can be seen here: hylesophy.com . When, some years ago, my life took a turn -and fell apart- my mind, overwhelmed by events beyond my control, got stuck like a record player that played the same handful of thoughts over and over again. For over one year, I suffered from PTSD. It was in those darkest moments that I suddenly understood on a deep level that I am not my brain and discovered inner peace -and thus liberation- as if beneath my thinking.

The discoveries I made during that time about the nature and true cause of suffering (ALL internal processes) and about how to transcend it, followed by the richness of my own so-called 'post-traumatic growth' I today know to be some of my greatest treasures.

My rich life experience informs my work as a coach; it allows me to hold the multifaceted experiences and identities of my clients and to hold open the door to their inner peace, freedom, agency, joy and power.

I INVITE YOU INTO A NEW PARADIGM

I do not believe in taking you from A to B. I am interested in assisting you in changing the alphabet and developing your own rules and grammar -

And I do not think anybody has ever been inspired by mediocre goals that lack bold vision and heart.

Our world is what we think it is, and exceptional things happen when and because we presuppose their existence, when and because we believe in, and exclusively filter for, the exceptional in ourselves and in each other. It is already there, at the core, deep inside each one of us - deep inside of you.
This -your- core is diamond-like. It is unchanging. Nothing can be added, and nothing can be taken away.

And it does not -i.e. you do not- need fixing.

It -you- cannot be damaged. But it CAN get hidden under layers of (painful) experiences that leave imprints in your nervous system that are then obstructing and shrouding it -i.e. your-sheer brilliance and power - often to the point where it can feel like it has been lost altogether.
Working with me, we peel those layers back one by one. And when we do, everything changes.

I invite you into a new paradigm where exponential growth and success in the external world are not the primary focus and goal of our work together. Instead, the goal is, first of all, for you to be fully rooted in and live from this core -from your intrinsic WHOLENESS- where you are already worthy, enough, safe, loveable, and powerful within by nature.
NOTHING needs to happen on the outside for this to be true on the inside.

Working with me you discover that this inner state does not depend on and cannot get disturbed by external events. You learn to hold this connection - and know that any sense of disconnection is always a surface level illusion that is temporary. Greater joy and regenerative growth, impact, and success in the external world are then a natural side effect and consequence of this crystal clear connection and expression of this diamond core.

By its/by YOUR very own nature, your impact on the world is thus naturally and more powerfully regenerative.

The extractive and toxic paradigm that has ruthlessly exploited human and natural resources over the last decades,

and that has pushed human civilization to the brink ends (t)here.

We are socially conditioned to believe that happiness comes from, and all our problems exist and solutions are to be found in, the external world (whereas in truth, they are ALL created within). I invite you to take the shortcut:

Go inside.

Teaching

I have worked as a guest lecturer at the University of Art Berlin, where I was in charge of the teaching programme for first-year art students.

I have a special interest in and passion for the development of innovative educational methods that enable people to be fearless, autonomous, unmanipulatable, and fully self-determined in their decision-making processes.

I am the co-founder of artistunderground.co.uk, a not-for-profit organisation concerned with updating art education to 21-st century challenges and potential.

I have an MA in Art and am a certified Life Coach, EMDR Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Wingwave Coach, Integrative Change Worker/Life Coach, as well as Hypnotherapist, and am certified in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and trained in Positive Intelligence. I am a member of the International Association For Counsellors and Therapists (IACT).

Group Coaching

In collaboration with the Scottish Charity Venture Trust, I ran a 9-month personal development/photography program called 'Women in Focus', working with women with extremely difficult/traumatic life stories, and drug, alcohol, and crime issues. It included a one-week wilderness experience run by the charity. Long before I had any formal qualifications as a coach, my main tools at the time were: love, an exclusive focus on each woman's dignity, beauty, talents, and strengths - and homemade cake. :-) Free from any preconceptions and oblivious to professional protocols guiding me on how to work with 'offenders', we did things that later I learned I should never have done such as exchanging personal phone numbers and swimming together in wild rivers and the open sea. The very absence of any distancing 'professionalism' was my superpower and an absolute key to the extraordinary success of this project. We met as equals; beneath our vastly diverse life experiences and backgrounds, we touched deep common ground. Over time, with my focus on each woman's strengths, all of these came to light and grew; being heard, supported and seen in that light, their self-perception -and lives- changed. They began to make self-empowering positive life choices - went back to college, got back driving licenses, ended toxic relationships, found employment, and started to build healthy families and lives free from crime.

Together we created a movie-like presentation with quotes from our conversations (which I had recorded with their permission) and photographs they had taken, documenting their lives and positive development throughout the program. This project was so extraordinarily transformational and successful -and the movie so powerful- that it led to an invitation by the Scottish Parliament where an event was specifically hosted to present it to a select audience of MPs, journalists, and professionals in the criminal justice system.

Each of the women spoke in parliament about the life-changing impact of this project. This event impacted the debate about women's needs within the criminal justice system.

SCHEDULE A ZOOM CALL