Alexandra Kalinina
I am a US-trained therapist and offer Individual and Couple Counseling sessions for expats and intercultural couples. I help clients stop the constant battlefield in their relationship with themselves and their partners, using systemic, evidence-based and neuroscience-informed approach.
Hello, my dear people! I'm glad you found your way here!
I am Alexandra: a U.S.-trained Counselor (M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy) working with expats and international cross-cultural couples around the world.
I enjoy working with expats and international multi-cultural couples because I truly understand life between cultures - as I've lived it myself. I know what it costs to keep your routine intact while everything around you changes. I know what it takes to fight with someone you love in a language that's not your native one.
Right now, your relationship feels like an endless battlefield? Together, we can turn it into a beautiful garden! When you initially imagined your relationship, you pictured a garden — a place where you'd plant something together, sit on a comfortable bench in the evening, watch things grow and bloom...
Right now, that garden may not look like the one you imagined. There are weeds of misunderstanding and resentment. Thorns of old hurt. Maybe a few snakes — fights that keep showing up, secrets that thrive in the dark, silences that have taken root.
There's no bench to sit on anymore. The garden feels stressful instead of safe.
It can come back. But it won't come back on its own!
There's no magic wand. The weeds don't cut themselves. The flowers don't flower and replant themselves...
☀️ Do you and your partner keep having the same fight and you feel disconnected?
☀️ Have you moved abroad and the version of yourself you brought with you doesn't seem to fit anymore?
☀️ Are you tired of carrying a heavy mental load — anxiety, grief, depression, an old story you've outgrown?...
Here is what I do as YOUR COUNSELLOR:
My job is to help you do the tending of your garden: not to judge how the garden got overgrown, but to hand you the tools and work alongside you.
I walk into the garden with you. I help you see which weeds need pulling first. I show you what to plant in their place. I help you understand why some patterns keep growing back — and how to root them out for good. I work alongside you, not instead of you.
And once the garden is tended — once you've done the work — you'll have something almost no one has anymore: a safe place to come home to. When the world outside is falling apart, your career is wobbling, — you'll have a relationship that's actually a refuge. I will help you create the relationship where instead of constant battlefield you will come home to a safe Garden of Love!
That's worth working for, right? And I'm with you on this journey! Your relationship CAN be a garden where you rest — not a battlefield which you survive!
Why me?
Relocation stress, burnout, the loneliness of starting over: these aren't textbook chapters to me. I've lived this, not just studied it.
I started doing this work long before I trained for it. I lost my parents when I was 5. The years that followed taught me — early and intimately — how much shape our childhoods give to the rest of our lives, and how quietly those patterns travel into the relationships we build as adults. That experience didn't define me, but it gave me a starting point most therapists and counsellors don't have: I know what growth costs from the inside.
Before I received my MS in Marriage and Family Therapy in the US, I earned a Master's in Human Rights and worked with orphans through SOS Children's Villages. I learned what it takes to help a child who has lost their first family build a sense of safety again — and how those early patterns echo into adult relationships decades later.
Then life moved me through different countries: Ecuador, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands, and now Germany. With every move, I learned what so many of my expat clients are now living: the exhausting work of trying to keep your routine intact while a million things change at once. Re-establishing your identity. Rebuilding your social circle. Adjusting mentally to a life that doesn't yet feel like yours.
I do this work because I believe the world needs more happy couples, more whole families, and fewer traumatized children.
That's not a marketing line for me — it's why I get up in the morning!
My approach is warm, direct, and brain-informed. I draw on more than 50 therapy approaches alongside interpersonal neuroscience: we will be able to use those exact techniques that will work for you! We won't just talk about your problems — we'll work together to build your new life — the one you're gonna enjoy!
I won't pathologize you or your partner. I won't tell you what your relationship "should" look like. The goal isn't a textbook relationship — it's the one that genuinely works for you.
You deserve better relationship with yourself, people around and the world; — and I am here to help you! I offer a free 20-minute intro call so you can see if we're a good fit. If you've been considering reaching out for a while, the best time to schedule an intro call is NOW.
I am Alexandra: a U.S.-trained Counselor (M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy) working with expats and international cross-cultural couples around the world.
I enjoy working with expats and international multi-cultural couples because I truly understand life between cultures - as I've lived it myself. I know what it costs to keep your routine intact while everything around you changes. I know what it takes to fight with someone you love in a language that's not your native one.
Right now, your relationship feels like an endless battlefield? Together, we can turn it into a beautiful garden! When you initially imagined your relationship, you pictured a garden — a place where you'd plant something together, sit on a comfortable bench in the evening, watch things grow and bloom...
Right now, that garden may not look like the one you imagined. There are weeds of misunderstanding and resentment. Thorns of old hurt. Maybe a few snakes — fights that keep showing up, secrets that thrive in the dark, silences that have taken root.
There's no bench to sit on anymore. The garden feels stressful instead of safe.
It can come back. But it won't come back on its own!
There's no magic wand. The weeds don't cut themselves. The flowers don't flower and replant themselves...
☀️ Do you and your partner keep having the same fight and you feel disconnected?
☀️ Have you moved abroad and the version of yourself you brought with you doesn't seem to fit anymore?
☀️ Are you tired of carrying a heavy mental load — anxiety, grief, depression, an old story you've outgrown?...
Here is what I do as YOUR COUNSELLOR:
My job is to help you do the tending of your garden: not to judge how the garden got overgrown, but to hand you the tools and work alongside you.
I walk into the garden with you. I help you see which weeds need pulling first. I show you what to plant in their place. I help you understand why some patterns keep growing back — and how to root them out for good. I work alongside you, not instead of you.
And once the garden is tended — once you've done the work — you'll have something almost no one has anymore: a safe place to come home to. When the world outside is falling apart, your career is wobbling, — you'll have a relationship that's actually a refuge. I will help you create the relationship where instead of constant battlefield you will come home to a safe Garden of Love!
That's worth working for, right? And I'm with you on this journey! Your relationship CAN be a garden where you rest — not a battlefield which you survive!
Why me?
Relocation stress, burnout, the loneliness of starting over: these aren't textbook chapters to me. I've lived this, not just studied it.
I started doing this work long before I trained for it. I lost my parents when I was 5. The years that followed taught me — early and intimately — how much shape our childhoods give to the rest of our lives, and how quietly those patterns travel into the relationships we build as adults. That experience didn't define me, but it gave me a starting point most therapists and counsellors don't have: I know what growth costs from the inside.
Before I received my MS in Marriage and Family Therapy in the US, I earned a Master's in Human Rights and worked with orphans through SOS Children's Villages. I learned what it takes to help a child who has lost their first family build a sense of safety again — and how those early patterns echo into adult relationships decades later.
Then life moved me through different countries: Ecuador, the United States, Italy, the Netherlands, and now Germany. With every move, I learned what so many of my expat clients are now living: the exhausting work of trying to keep your routine intact while a million things change at once. Re-establishing your identity. Rebuilding your social circle. Adjusting mentally to a life that doesn't yet feel like yours.
I do this work because I believe the world needs more happy couples, more whole families, and fewer traumatized children.
That's not a marketing line for me — it's why I get up in the morning!
My approach is warm, direct, and brain-informed. I draw on more than 50 therapy approaches alongside interpersonal neuroscience: we will be able to use those exact techniques that will work for you! We won't just talk about your problems — we'll work together to build your new life — the one you're gonna enjoy!
I won't pathologize you or your partner. I won't tell you what your relationship "should" look like. The goal isn't a textbook relationship — it's the one that genuinely works for you.
You deserve better relationship with yourself, people around and the world; — and I am here to help you! I offer a free 20-minute intro call so you can see if we're a good fit. If you've been considering reaching out for a while, the best time to schedule an intro call is NOW.
Price range: $
Payment method: Bank transfer
Payment method: Revolut
Payment method: Stripe
Format: Online
Language: English
Language: Russian
City: Cologne
whatsapp: wa.me/+4915732480147
Contact: wa.me/+4915732480147
linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kalinina-counseling
Relevant experience: Psychologist / psychotherapist
Relevant experience: Expat / relocation experience
Location: Germany
Interaction format: Individual