Semjon Uglev

Does this sound familiar?

Many people come to me with experiences that are hard to put into words. If even one of these resonates, you are in the right place.

• “I live in a new country, but I feel like a ghost.” On paper, everything is there: work, housing, daily life. Yet there is no ground under your feet — as if you are watching your own life from the outside.
• Longing not for a place, but for your former self. There is nowhere to return to — or returning is unbearable — and staying feels impossible. You grieve not only for a country, but for the version of yourself that remained there.
• Anxiety that will not let go. Documents, status, money, fear of making a mistake — and the sense that your whole life rests on assumptions that a single stamp or phone call could take away.
• Relationships that did not survive the move. A couple split at the border. Children are growing up “not quite ours.” Old friends have drifted away, and new ones have not yet become close.
• A life “on hold.” Years go into survival and adaptation, while career, creativity, love, and meaning remain paused.
• Invisible grief. Loved ones you cannot visit. Farewells that never happened. Funerals you could not attend. A country and a language that now exist somewhere inside your phone.
• “Who am I now, anyway?” A question that keeps you awake at night — and that neither a passport nor a biography can answer.

All of this is a normal response to a life that has changed more dramatically than for most people around you. And it is something we can work with.

You can begin with a diagnosis — or simply with the words, “I don’t understand what is happening to me.” There is no need to find the “right” name for your difficulty in advance.

If you have received a diagnosis, it is important to discuss the specialist’s assessment, treatment, and any current risks. At the first meeting, we clarify whether this format is right for you; where necessary, help may need to involve other professionals or a more specialised programme.

There is also room in our conversations for loss, loneliness, and questions of faith, guilt, and hope — if these matter to you.

What I work with

The concerns of people living far from home are often particular. Yet behind them lie ordinary human themes — simply within an unfamiliar, and often painful, context.

Faith and meaning

For many people far from home, faith becomes one of the few remaining anchors. For others, it is precisely relocation that prompts a new look at faith, church, guilt, meaning, and one’s own path.

I approach these themes with care. In therapeutic work, I do not try to convince anyone what to believe, nor do I turn a conversation about pain into a sermon. But if faith, doubt, prayer, guilt, or the search for meaning is part of your life, we can speak about it openly — without having to explain everything from the beginning.

Theological education

• Theological and spiritual education; academic publications in theology.
• Many years of experience in church ministry and pastoral counselling.
• Familiarity with the spiritual tradition, the practice of prayer, and questions of guilt, forgiveness, loss, and the search for meaning.

How this works in therapy

• Therapy remains therapy. I respect your beliefs, your path, and your right not to speak about faith if this topic is not significant for you.
• Spiritual themes only at your request. I do not initiate conversations about God, nor do I use a session for religious guidance.
• If faith matters to you, there is room for it. We can speak about it in a language close to you — without simplification and without trying to “fix” your experiences.
• Boundaries are respected in both directions. I do not turn therapy into a sermon, nor a sermon into therapy. These are different forms of conversation, and mixing them helps neither.

Qualifications and memberships

Education

• Child psychologist — East European Institute of Psychoanalysis, 2017–2018; Master of Psychology with distinction — East European Institute of Psychoanalysis; Moscow University for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2023. Programme: psychoanalysis and counselling psychology.
• Clinical psychology, clinical psychologist — 2022–2023.
• Existential-humanistic psychology — 2023–2024.
• “Existential Psychotherapy: Theory, Practice, Culture.” Stages I and II — Institute of Philosophy and Psychology “Man and the World,” 2024–2025.
• “Ontological Psychoanalysis: from knowing to being and becoming” — Jack Foehl, Ph.D., International Academy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, 2026.
• Professional in-depth supervision, intermodal approach — 136 hours, 2021–2022.

Professional memberships

• Member of the Eurasian Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ECPP) since 2021.
• Full member of the All-Russian Professional Psychotherapeutic League (OPPL).
• Accredited supervisor of the OPPL.
• Specialist of the Russian Psychotherapeutic Association (RPA), author of certified RPA educational programmes.
• Mediator: specialist in mediation and alternative conflict resolution.

Selected publications

Full list of publications: ORCID 0009-0002-8695-6304 . Some works are indexed in VAK, RINTS, and eLIBRARY. RINTS: 1333017 · SPIN: 3482-3012.