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Dasha Gaian

About Dasha

Portrait of Dasha Gaian

My gift is igniting lasting transformation with the power of precise attunement.

I work with people who carry a great deal for others, and whose patterns keep repeating even though they understand them well. By precise attunement, I mean listening to what is happening beneath your words, in your tone, your breath, and the tension you haven't noticed yet. I reflect it back, so it can shift and not only make sense.

Much of my work with individual, ancestral and collective trauma comes from lived experience, not only training. I know from the inside what it is to live with patterns you learned early, and how different it is to loosen them in the body than to understand them in the mind.

I was born and raised in Soviet-era Ukraine and have lived in several cultures since. That taught me how much we have in common, and how much beauty there is in our differences.

It also shaped how I work. I pay attention to more than your own story: to what your family and culture taught you to carry, and to what the people in your care, your family, or your team are carrying through you. That is why I don't stop at the problem in front of you. I work with everything around it.

I live in Georgetown in Washington, DC, and work online with clients around the world.

Training

My training with Thomas Hübl

Since 2016, much of my training has been with Thomas Hübl, a teacher, author and international facilitator who works with individual, ancestral and collective trauma, and his Academy of Inner Science. His work spans from Transparent Communication, a contemplative practice of noticing what's happening in a conversation, in thought, feeling and body, and making a grounded, open space to listen and respond, to the Collective Trauma Integration Process (CTIP), which brings this kind of presence to large groups working with shared, historical trauma.

  • Collective Trauma Facilitator Training, 2024–present
  • Timeless Wisdom Training, 2022–2023
  • Practice Group Leader Training
  • Trauma-Informed Leadership

Confident Coach, Certified Coaching Academy (ICF certification track, in progress)

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as a partnership in a thought-provoking, creative process that helps people reach their personal and professional potential. The approach treats the client as the expert on their own life. It relies on active listening, powerful questions and direct feedback rather than advice, and follows the ICF Code of Ethics, including confidentiality.

DARe Level 1

Dynamic Attachment Repatterning Experience, created by Dr. Diane Poole Heller, is a somatic, trauma-informed approach to healing early attachment wounds. It draws on attachment theory, somatic experiencing and neurobiology, and works with secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganized patterns.

Groups I lead and co-facilitate

Subtle Attunement Practice Group: a place to practice presence and perception, and to notice what can be sensed beneath conversations and group dynamics.

Details on the Groups page

Ukrainian Practice Group: a Ukrainian-speaking circle for learning to settle yourself and to settle together, through meditation, reflection in triads and group sharing.

Details on the Groups page

Living Legacy of Dictatorship Integration Lab: for people touched by dictatorships anywhere in the world. We explore how that trauma lives on across generations and societies, and connect personal stories with collective history through the body and shared reflection.

Details on the Groups page

You can find current details for every group on the Groups page.

Beyond coaching

I've been on Thomas Hübl's team since 2016. One of the projects I worked on was the annual Collective Trauma Summit, and the 2021 summit drew more than 100,000 participants.

I'm also Chief of Staff at the Global Restoration Institute, a nonprofit bringing trauma-informed approaches to diplomacy and policymaking.

Earlier in my career I worked as an interpreter and translator, as a photographer, and as media director at an environmental nonprofit. Each trained the same attention I bring to coaching.

In my work as an interpreter and translator, I learned to tune into the meaning beyond the words. As a photographer, I learned to read nonverbal cues. As media director, I learned what it is to carry responsibility inside a mission-driven organization.

A little more about me

I work with individual clients and lead groups in English, Ukrainian and Russian, and I speak some Spanish and Portuguese at an elementary level.

Outside of work, I'm a mother of two. I love healthy food, biking, rock climbing, photography and writing. My happiest weekend is a hike on a boulder-strewn trail with big views, or a long walk through a city.

Ready to begin?

Every journey starts with a free 15-minute introduction. It's a short conversation about what you're carrying and whether working together one-to-one feels right.

Book a free introduction