About Martina Famos, Counselor and Author

I was born in the Engadine, a valley in the Swiss Alps and the homeland of the Romansh people, and raised in a hotel surrounded by staff members from many different European countries and customers from all over the world.

The hotel life gave me insight into understanding different cultures, the clashes, and the richness that can result in people having contrasting sociological reasoning. It has set my interest in human nature and the science of the mind. Still, it was only in my early forties that I began to work as a counselor. By then, I had accumulated much valuable life experience, which I consider helpful for my social entrepreneurship since 2009.

Professional experience and approach

I studied and took my diploma in Individual psychology, also called Adlerian psychology, at a private Swiss Institution (AFI). I always work with the principles and theories of Alfred Adler, and include Adlerian methods such as the counseling concept of Rudolf Dreikurs, the art of encouragement by Theo Schoenaker, the REBT therapy methods by A. Ellis, the purpose of emotions by G. McKay and D. Dinkmeyer, the GPI Coaching by U. Bärtschi, Jane Nelsen's positive discipline techniques, and the STEP theory (Systemisches Training für Eltern und Pädagogen).

Adlerian psychology is a cognitive and holistic depth theory that considers linkages between behavior and achieved end-results and what conclusion and meaning the client takes from it in terms of their social environment, themselves, and a universal context. Go to the Alfred Adler page describing the foundational principle of Adlerian psychology.

Before studying psychology, I owned an action sports event company and later became a production manager of an international snowboard magazine printed in four languages. Driven by my interest in understanding human behavior, I took my diploma. First, I subleased a practice room in Zurich for four months to test the waters, which turned into eleven years of counseling individuals, couples, parents, and executives.

This was in 2009, right at the beginning of the globalization boom. My neighbor told me she couldn't find an English-speaking psychologist to help her with her marriage, encouraging me to offer counseling in English. My native language is Romansh, the fourth national language of Switzerland, and even if my English was far from perfect, I jumped at the challenge. Thanks to my neighbor, an exciting journey as a counselor for internationals began.

In 2019 I decided to say goodbye to Zurich and moved to Scuol, where I offer Private Retreats and Online Counseling for Individuals and Parents.

When Covid made us stand still, I took advantage of the quietness to write my first book, Cultural Grief, which I self-published in 2022 and will be re-launched in 2023 by Olympia Publishers. If you wish to be informed about the release of my book, you can use the subscription form on the Cultural Grief page.

I enjoy writing short philosophical poems, which you can watch below, and if you would like to see more of my ideas, I welcome you to follow me on my social media channels.

Food for thought

Texts by Martina Famos, Video production by Serhii Presniakov @press_videographer

Equality

The sense of belonging manifests itself in the individual's social interest. Those who don't care about the welfare of others lack belongingness and don't see themselves as part of the human family.
In their hurt, they hurt. In their anger, they destroy.

In their defeat, they withdraw.
To be even means feeling equal, not inferior, and not superior.

Grief

If people knew how to grieve when needed, we would live in societies with fewer mental disorders, insomnia, addictions, depression, emotional numbness, anger issues, obsessions, and emotional instabilities.
Grief is a natural mechanism to heal and mature emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Self-Care

Taking time out for oneself, eating healthy, working out, and using health products is not what I consider Self-Care but simply caring about what we eat, how we use our time, and so on.
I understand Self-Care on a much larger scale because of the word Self in it. The Self is one's Being, Essence, Soul, indivisible from the Universe.

Faith and Doubt

After reading a book by Tomáš Halík, I understood that extremists fear doubting their faith, beliefs, and leaders. They attach to ideas even if those lead to pain and suffering.
And it is not different from self-imposed beliefs. Doubting our attachments can be scary and liberating if there is the courage to question and release them.

We Belong
The Self is our human existence, equal to every human, pure love, and free from choices and conditions. The person is the unique identity with which we choose to go through the earthly experience. The two separate but interconnected perfections are holistically connected to others and everything around us. We choose every step we make on this life's stage, how we play our roles, and what meaning we give to what we do.