Questions people ask me most

Yes — I'm Katia Tandon, a Prague-based psychologist offering sessions in English, Czech and Russian, both online and in person, for expats and locals across the Czech Republic and beyond.

I offer therapy in Russian for clients navigating emigration, life transitions and personal crises, combining an existential-analytic approach with practical support for the specific stress of building a new life abroad.

No — what matters more is cultural fluency across the languages you actually live in. I work across English, Czech and Russian, so switching languages mid-thought is never a barrier to therapy.

In the Czech market, "psycholog" signals a completed university degree in psychology and carries more professional recognition than "terapeut," which isn't a protected title. I hold an MSc in Psychology, so "psycholog" applies directly to my qualifications.

Yes — online sessions are available wherever you are. This is useful if you've relocated, split time between countries, or simply prefer not to commute.

Because sessions are fully online with no clinic overhead, my rates are lower than typical in-person private therapy in most of the regions I serve. Exact pricing depends on your region — reach out and I'll confirm the rate for you directly.

Not currently — I don't accept insurance at this time. For clients based in the Czech Republic, an insurance-compatible option is in development and will be announced when available. In the meantime, sessions are private-pay.

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can prescribe medication. A psychologist holds a university degree in psychology and provides talk therapy without prescribing. A psychotherapist has completed postgraduate training in a specific therapeutic method. I hold an MSc in Psychology plus specialised training in existential therapy and logotherapy.

No referral is required. You can book directly with me as an independent, private-pay practitioner.

Each session is 50 minutes. Most clients start weekly, and we adjust frequency together based on what you need as we go.

Existential therapy focuses on the core questions of being human — meaning, freedom, isolation and mortality — helping you face life's difficult realities directly rather than avoiding them, and build a life aligned with your own values.

Logotherapy, developed by Viktor Frankl, centres on the idea that the primary human drive is a search for meaning — not pleasure or power. Unlike CBT, which targets specific thought patterns and behaviours, logotherapy works at the level of purpose and meaning. I often draw on both, depending on what you're facing.

Yes — because it directly addresses questions of identity, meaning and adapting to a life you didn't originally plan for, which is often exactly what relocation, career change or loss brings up.

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who founded logotherapy after concluding that meaning, not happiness alone, is what sustains people through suffering. My training at the Viktor Frankl Institut in Vienna reflects a depth of grounding in this specific method, not just a passing familiarity with it.

Therapy generally addresses psychological difficulties — anxiety, depression, trauma, past patterns — while coaching focuses forward, on goals, performance and decision-making, typically with people who aren't in acute distress. I'm both a psychologist and an ICF-certified coach, so I can work with you in either mode depending on what you actually need.

It's uncommon but valuable when available. As an ICF-certified coach as well as a psychologist, I can support you through psychological difficulty and through leadership or career development — meaning less time re-explaining your context, and one person who understands both.

Relocation stress is a recognised, specific difficulty — not "just" homesickness — involving identity disruption, loss of social support and navigating an unfamiliar system all at once. It responds well to therapeutic support, particularly from someone who has worked with expat clients specifically.

Yes — this is common enough to have a name, acculturation stress, and doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It often surfaces well after the initial move, once the practical logistics are settled and the deeper adjustment begins.

Some do, through partnerships with independent therapists. I offer this directly to companies as a package, including individual sessions for staff and ICF leadership coaching for managers — in English, Russian or Czech.

Burnout is a state of chronic exhaustion, cynicism and reduced effectiveness caused by prolonged workplace stress. Unlike ordinary short-term stress, it doesn't resolve with a weekend off and often requires structural or therapeutic intervention.

Industry-wide, EAP utilisation is consistently low — typically 5-10% — and the three biggest reasons are lack of awareness that the benefit exists, fear that it isn't really confidential, and employees feeling their issue is "too small to bother with." I address the first two directly with a simple one-pager for teams and a strict no-reporting policy, and the third by making clear that a single conversation about ordinary stress is a completely normal use of the service, not just a crisis line.

Existential therapy doesn't try to talk you out of the fear — it treats mortality as a real and universal condition worth facing directly. Paradoxically, clients who engage honestly with this fear often find it becomes clearer what actually matters to them, which tends to reduce anxiety more than avoidance does.

It's very much still in active use, particularly for existential crises, grief, and life transitions, and it's frequently integrated alongside other methods like CBT rather than used in isolation. The Vienna-based Viktor Frankl Institut, where I trained, continues to train practitioners internationally today.

The International Coaching Federation is the most widely recognised global accrediting body for coaches, but not everyone using the term "certified" has gone through it properly. A simple check: ask which specific ICF credential level the coach holds (ACC, PCC, or MCC) and how long they've held it — legitimate credential holders can answer this immediately and precisely.

It reflects logged coaching hours and experience rather than a difference in approach — PCC requires significantly more supervised practice than ACC, for example. For most individual or leadership coaching needs, what matters more day to day is fit and experience with your specific situation, but the level is a fair proxy for depth of practice.

Yes — a short introductory conversation before your first full session is available, so we can both check the fit before committing to ongoing work.

Both require a psychology degree, but clinical psychology traditionally focuses more on diagnosable mental health conditions, while counselling psychology has historically centred on life difficulties, relationships and adjustment — though in practice the two overlap heavily today. What matters more than the label is the practitioner's specific training and experience with your situation.

There's no universally right answer — it depends on whether both people are genuinely willing to look honestly at what happened and rebuild trust, or whether the relationship has run its course. What matters most in the first weeks is not making the decision alone, in shock. Therapy gives you a space to separate the acute pain of betrayal from the actual decision about your future, so you're not choosing from panic.

This is widely recognised as imposter syndrome — persistent self-doubt despite evidence of competence — and it's especially common among high-achieving women; some studies put it above 70% among female executives. One important nuance: if your workplace is genuinely dismissive of your contributions, that's not "just" imposter syndrome, it's a real environment issue, and therapy can help you tell the difference between the two and respond to each appropriately.

This is one of the most common and least judged questions I hear, and there's real psychology behind it — often called trauma bonding. Cycles of harm followed by warmth or remorse create a powerful, almost addictive attachment that isn't about weakness or poor judgement; it's a recognised nervous-system response. Understanding why you're stuck is usually the first step toward being able to move, at whatever pace is safe for you. If there is any physical danger involved, a therapist can also help you think through safety planning alongside the emotional work.

Yes, and this guilt is one of the most common things that keeps people stuck longer than they want to be. Emotional harm is real harm, even without a visible mark to point to, and wanting more for yourself doesn't require the relationship to have reached a crisis point first.