My story
As a liberation practitioner, I support your empowerment and agency
Let me introduce myself
I’m Sylwia Korsak – Liberation Practitioner from Bristol, UK.
Counsellor, coach and consultant specialising in liberation psychology & digital wellbeing
I am an experienced liberation practitioner offering online counselling and coaching for various life challenges. I offer extensive mental health support and specialise in digital wellbeing (negative tech bias, digital fatigue, online abuse, geek discrimination, addictive behaviours). I am a certified Geek &VR counsellor, coach and digital wellbeing tutor.
I offer consultancy services for digital burnout and social media marketing.
I work in person and support therapeutic groups in Nature via Kinergy Bristol.
Passion & profession
From a communiction and digital marketing specialist to a trusted counsellor, coach, tutor and published author.
Always learning and supporting others
Journey of my life
A liberation practitioner, counsellor, coach and consultant
I am a qualified integrated counsellor and coach experienced in supporting people and organisations around complex digital wellbeing and mental health challenges.
2016: CORE ACADEMIC TRAINING
My core academic training included German, Hungarian, and American studies: language and communication studies (including early social media communication and creativity), psycho-linguistics, developmental psychology, and cultural and business studies.
2007-2024 : DIGITAL MARKETING
I worked for the first UK social media agency, 1000heads, in its early days, supporting international campaigns and acting as a company ethicist. Later, I moved on to set up NFPVoice, an agency supporting the not-for-profit sector. I completed digital marketing studies at the Oxford College of Marketing and continued working there as a tutor specialising in social media marketing. I am now offering digital marketing services and training via VoxelHub.
2016 - 2022: COUNSELLING & COACHING
I have completed six years of core counselling training (UWE Bristol, Iron Mill College Exeter, L4) and coaching qualification with the Institute of Leadership in London (L5). During my studies, I volunteered for the leading UK mental health charities: Relate, Cruse Bereavement Care, Mind, OTR Bristol, Changes Bristol and Kinergy. I stayed at Kinergy as a paid one-to-one and group counsellor. I am studying at the Masters in Existential Psychotherapy course with the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in London.
2021 - 2025: VR & GEEK THERAPIES
I have completed ProReal.world VR Counselling and Coaching Certificate and trained as a Certified Geek Therapist. I offer relevant CPD training at the Iron Mill College in Exeter. I have published a geek therapy essay on the psychology of the Witcher in 2024.
Sylwia has a breadth of skills and experience. She's an exellent social media strategist and marketeer - one of the best that I've met. She also makes digital technology simple. She's a passionate advocate for and supporter of women in technology. She's an outstanding mentor, teacher and coach.
Linda Baines
My Practice
As a liberation practitioner, I am trained in many approaches to offer a way of working that empowers you and suits your needs.
Liberation work means I bring many psychological approaches (traditional and more progressive, too), all centred around your wellbeing, safety, choices and empowerment. Your comfort, psychological safety, and preferences are my priorities.
I can help you find the right therapeutic approach. In our sessions, we can explore and make meaning from your experience of the world through a safe, trusted, non-judgmental conversation. We can create a calm, trusted space for your healing. We can identify the roots of your challenges and find ways to move forward. We can reflect on oppression and misuse of power in our lives and identify safe and sustainable ways to resist it. Together, we can identify opportunities for healing – some can be practical, and others may require deeper psychological exploration. Finally, we can also explore liberation towards a healthier, happier life. Additionally, I am passionate about good digital wellbeing and trauma recovery. I offer NET therapy for PTSD. I am a certified Virtual Reality counsellor and a founder of a digital wellbeing startup, Voxel Hub. I am a certified Geek Therapist.
I combine my experience in teaching, business, charity work, digital activism, and youth projects to offer an affirming view of good mental health in the digital age. I support people struggling with negative tech bias, technophobia, digital fatigue, online abuse, geek discrimination, and addictive online behaviours.
I work with leaders, professionals, parents and mental health practitioners wishing to embrace digital age opportunities safely.
I worked for leading local and national counselling charities in one-to-one and group settings online, via telephone, in person and in Nature. I deliver CPD courses for Iron Mill College of Counselling in Exeter. I’m a member and follow the ethical guidelines of the BACP (counselling), Institute of Leadership and Management and EMMC Global (coaching).
Like all ethical practitioners, I am in ongoing personal (liberation) therapy and have an experienced (somatic) supervisor.
I am trained as an integrated counsellor, which means I can combine a wide range of therapeutic approaches in a cohesive way that is aligned with liberation psychology principles. Here are the core therapeutic approaches from my training and work experience:
1. Liberation psychologies
2. Psychodynamic therapy
3. Person-centered therapy
4. Positive psychology
5. Systemic therapies
6. Attachment-informed therapy
7. Transactional analysis
8. Gestalt therapy
9. Existentialist psychotherapy
10. Geek therapy
11. Virtual Reality therapy
12. Nature therapies
13. Addiction therapy
14. Trauma-informed therapy
15. Sexual abuse therapy
16. Jungian therapy
17. Sand tray therapy
18. Narrative therapy
19. Somatic/Polyvagal theory-informed therapy
20. The Antidiscrimination Focus (TADF.UK)
21. LGBTQIA+ therapy
22. Youth therapy
23. Feminist therapy
24. Group therapy
25. ASIS suicide support
26. NET (Narrative Exposure Therapy) for PTSD
27. IFS (Internal Family Systems)
28. PTMF (Power Threat Meaning Framework)
My Integration
Integration principles
My integrative approach is relational, directional and feedback informed. It places the client's agency at the core of the process, carefully combining the four leading theories: humanist, systemic, psychodynamic (gradually shifting towards existentialism) and positive psychology and adjusting the balance of those theories to the client's preferences and goals.
My approach is integrated, not eclectic. Instead of a toolkit of random practices, I carefully integrate interventions around core liberation psychology principles. I start with the client's agency. I believe that the client is the hero of their journey, and my role is to assist them. To join the client's journey safely and confidently, I have developed a theoretical compass respecting the client's needs and my core values.
The following four directions are the backbone of my approach, which can be enriched and developed further. I don't pick and mix theories and tools randomly with this compass. I have clarity on the integration - the sense of gravity - which I hope to offer to my clients.
West and East
I come from a humanistic upbringing and a continental, systemic education. Starting my U.K. training with Cruse in 2017 and arriving at systems (VR and eco-therapy) in 2022 helped me define the West and East of my approach. I strongly believe that those two approaches are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in life we often function and perform our identities in syncopation or healthy tension between those two approaches. I want to move softly and fluidly between individualism and systemic thinking in my work to support diverse clients and their unique experiences. In the reality of global pandemic, while we are facing the ecological crisis and distress, we need to work collectively while also respecting the diversity of our kind.
South and North
I trained as a teacher in psychoanalytical psychology during my German Teacher Degree studies in Poland and Hungarian Linguistics Studies at ELTE University in Budapest. Parallelly, I also studied American Studies and trained as a coach using insights from positive psychology. I find early childhood experiences and subconscious processes crucial for our work. However, if we aim to support healing, we need to respect our roots and the shadow while also allowing space for thriving and well-being. I appreciate the value of hopefulness, optimism and future-focused thinking. I am currently studying existential psychotherapy and slowly moving away from the oppressive legacy of psychoanalysis. However, I want to acknowledge all my psychoanalytical Elders and colleagues who continue to apply this approach in an anti-oppressive way today.
Liberation Psychologies
Liberation psychology is a psychological approach that aims to address individual and systemic forms of oppression, as well as social injustice.
Liberation practitioners assist their clients in recovery from trauma towards healing but also thriving. To stress the importance of collective care and remember the freedom to question even the role of the practitioner in possible collusion with the oppressive parties, liberation practitioners refer to “psychologies” – a multitude of methods of work that operate within but also outside of the mental health profession (such as creative arts and community projects).
You can learn more about this approach from my Therapy for Social Change talk here.
The liberation psychology movement was developed and first documented in Latin America by Spanish-Salvadoran psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró. Martín-Baró’s work was influenced by his experiences of violence and social injustice during the Salvadoran Civil War.
The core principles of liberation psychologies include:
- Social context - mental health issues are often caused by social structures like racism, poverty, and colonialism.
- Critical consciousness - people should be aware of the social forces that affect their lives.
- Empowerment - people should be able to challenge oppressive systems and take collective action.
- Solidarity and community healing - healing is a collective process that involves building community connections.
- De-ideologized reality - people should change their relationship with inner oppressors and critics.
- Critical realism - people should be aware of the interconnectedness of culture, psyche, self, and community.
- Methodological eclecticism - liberation psychology draws on many different areas of thought, including Marxism, feminism, and critical theory.
- Transformative action - liberation psychology aims to bring about change at the personal, interpersonal, and political levels.
``You are worthy of safety, rest, care, compassion, love, respect, and opportunities to fulfill your purpose.``
Dr Thema Bryant
“Language is never neutral.”
Paulo Freire
``Psychological knowledge should put itself at the service of society. Where the wellness of the few does not depend of the suffering of the rest. Where the achievements of some do not require the neglect of others. Where the interests of the few don't demand the dehumanisation of all.``
Ignacio Martín-Baró
``Resist the tendency to build a life that feels painfully similar to the life you had to escape.``
Dr Thema Bryant
“It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.”
Paulo Freire
Public Speaking & Publications
Public events and academic work
Continuous professional development and giving back to the community are very important to me. Here are some of my recent public and academic events and publications.
- 2024.11.25 – Geek Therapeutics – The Psychology of the Witcher: Never Lost, Always Found – a collection of academic essays – purchase here
- 2024.02.02. – Iron Mill College – Digital Self-Care CPD training
- 2023.11.24 – Iron Mill College – Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies CPD Training
- 2023.09.15. – TASC Network – Introduction to Liberation Psychologies for Social Justice talk
- 2023.10.23. – OnlineEvents – Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies: Virtual Reality Experience CPD Workshop- purchase here
- 2023.10.11. – Oxford Geek Night Keynote: Introduction to the Geek Therapies
- 2023.09.25. – OnlineEvents – Introduction to Virtual Reality Therapies CPD workshop – purchase here
- 2023.03.13. – TASC Network blog – Opportunities and Challenges of Cyberpsychology for Social Change article
- 2023.06.23. – Iron Mill College – Working with Displaced Peoples
- 2022.11.24-25. – Iron Mill College – Working with Displaced Peoples
- Previous publications and art exhibitions can be found here
““With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly”
Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Don't let the fear build a castle inside of you, because if you do, you will never get out of it”
Maria Alyokhina
“In the thick of winter’s ice and snow soon enough you will know how to prize shelter and how to let go to kindle the warmth inside and find strength and peace by the fireside”
Emmy van Deurzen
Professional Memberships:
