About Us
Colloquy Communities seeks to nurture communities and cultivate relationships through respectful conversations.
Our Core Values
- Community Belonging: Helping people find a place of belonging in communities
- Respect: Cultivating non-discriminatory respect and unity in diversity
- Trust: Being trustworthy and responsible communicators
- Lifelong Learning: Striving to be a network for others to grow personally and professionally in holistic ways
- Safe Space Exploration: Providing a place to share and learn together, without judgment
- Service-mindness: Building community to serve communities in our local contexts
Thato Belang
Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Thato is a passionate keynote and TEDx Speaker and has created a platform called “Authentic Dialogues with Thato,” where deep, compelling, engaging, and inspiring conversations take place. These conversations shift perspectives and propel people to serve, to positively influence, and to make an impact in the world.
She is an Authenticity Coach and Facilitator. Her academic research on Business Executive Coaching and Female Leaders’ Authenticity has made her more curious to continuously contribute to the thought leadership about authenticity and authentic leadership. She is a co-Author of a best-selling book on Amazon: My Voice: A Collective Memoir by Women of Substance.
Thato has a Master’s Degree in Business and Executive Coaching from Wits Business School in Johannesburg, and she is a seasoned Management Consultant who has a wealth of experience in the Financial Services sector. Thato is serving as Vice President of Colloquy Communities.
Sean Cook
Sean Cook is Vice President at Teleperformance managing partners across several verticals for over 10 years that have included HealthCare, Integrated Shipping, Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Banking, and Financial. Prior to joining Teleperformance, Sean spent 13 years at Sprint where he held various leadership roles in Customer Service, Retail Support, and Employee Accounts managing Operations, WFM, and other support groups during his tenure there.
Sean has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from King University located in Bristol, Tennessee. Sean and his wife, Lisa, still live in Bristol and have four kids Jalen, Jacob, Auden, and Loren. Sean enjoys playing basketball, volleyball, golf, date nights with Lisa, and Frisbee golf with the kids. Sean is serving as President of Colloquy Communities.
Danail Nedkov
Danail earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2016 at the University of Greenwich in Sports Science and Professional Football Coaching. He obtained a Post-Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Nottingham in 2020. His professional experience includes working in over 50 schools across the UK and Bulgaria. Whether coaching, teaching, or mentoring in community, private, or international schools, Danail is highly experienced in working for the success of children’s diverse learning needs.
Firmly believing that the first priority for children is to socialize and have fun, Danail loves using sports as an avenue to meet this and other priorities for the holistic development of children. Danail is currently working as an elementary school teacher. In addition to high academic standards, he believes that teaching the values of empathy, respect, honesty, collaboration, and the ability to understand other people’s perspectives are qualities that give a great foundation for lifelong learning.
Being a huge fan of Football and Tennis, Danail’s favourite hobby is playing and watching sports. Danail is serving as Treasurer of Colloquy Communities.
Courtney Sharrett
Growing up as the oldest of eight children in East Tennessee (U.S.A.), responsibility was instilled in Courtney at a young age. Her early professional experience in Tennessee includes administrative assistant work in a dental office for ten years while also doing freelance paralegal work for five years.
After the cross-cultural transition to Sofia, Bulgaria, Courtney did administrative work for an international sports organization for five years before returning to university as an adult to finish her degree. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from The American College of Greece (Deree) completing her thesis on how sleep mitigates the effects of anxiety. Courtney enjoys yoga, movie “therapy,” trying new recipes, snacking on Oreos, and putting up with the relentless energy of her husband and daughter. Courtney is serving as Administrative Assistant of Colloquy Communities.
Lawrence Sharrett
Based in Greece and Bulgaria, Lawrence serves international clients as a counseling psychologist, a leadership coach, and an educational consultant. Throughout his career, he has gained valuable experience through the roles of international educator, professional athlete, pastoral leader, mental health counselor, and leadership coach in various countries around the world.
Holding graduate degrees with high honors in Counseling Psychology & Psychotherapy, Educational Leadership, and Theology, he works with individuals, small groups, communities, and institutions to help facilitate experiences for well-being and leadership growth.
Lawrence believes that systems and communities can thrive when emotionally-intelligent leaders recognize not only that “well-being strengthens communities” but also how to implement innovative experiences that boost an ethos of synergistic well-being both for employees and for those the systems/communities are serving. If communities and systems cultivate such skills and experiences for people, then effective leadership will emerge and innovative systemic change will naturally follow.
Along with running, having coffee with a friend, and spending time with his family, he enjoys research and writing in the fields of education, psychology, and theology.
Ivana Udovalieva
Ivana Udovalieva is originally from North Macedonia but has lived in Denmark for the past 12 years. She has also lived in Georgia (U.S.A.) for six years where she finished High School and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Georgia Southwestern State University. For the past 10 years, Ivana has been working with and coaching youth teams, visiting local schools, and organizing tournaments and camps, especially with the sport of basketball. In addition to playing professional basketball, Ivana has also worked as a head coach and an assistant coach for Danish club and national teams.
Ivana especially enjoys working with people in teams. She loves being surrounded by people with positive energy and a strong work ethic. In fact, she contributes such influences as helping her develop the character that wants to pass such qualities on to others. She enjoys spending time with her friends, traveling, seeing new places, learning about new cultures, playing and watching all kinds of sports, being in nature, practicing yoga, and just being active.
Heidi Whitfield
Heidi Whitfield is originally from California, but she has lived in Bulgaria for the past 15 years. She is a graduate of Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California. Her professional career has taken her into the classroom as an educator for 15 years, working the past 8 years with first graders. She loves, loves, loves nurturing the little ones. Heidi is the mother of two teenagers, Grace and Trey. She is a lifelong learner who loves to travel, cook, sing, camp, read, and enjoy yoga. She loves Indian food, sushi, red wine, and chocolate- preferably dark. Her international experience has included living experiences in Japan, Costa Rica, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Heidi is serving as Secretary of Colloquy Communities.
Focus Community Leaders
Zuzanna Panek
Zuzanna Panek is a Counseling Psychologist working in corporate settings by providing support for the employees. She is a recent MS graduate of Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy from The American College of Greece. She also holds a BS in Psychology from The University of Roehampton in London. She is passionate about mental health, having experience in working with individuals from diverse backgrounds and various emotional difficulties. She is particularly interested in issues related to interpersonal relationships, being an enthusiast of existential and family approaches to therapy. In her work she tries to apply holistic perspectives, acknowledging each individual’s unique needs and experiences. Zuzanna will be facilitating Colloquy Focus Communities related to Mindfulness Theory, Practices, and other Self-Care Strategies.
Despoina Kelapostolou
Despoina is a mental health professional and a licensed psychologist in Greece. She holds a MS in Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy and a BA in Psychology from Deree-The American College of Greece. She has been trained in accordance with the Integrative Counseling model of therapy. At the moment, she is conducting online counseling sessions with adult clients, and she is working at a Special Needs Therapy Center where she conducts sessions with children, adolescents and their parents. She is also a psychologist at the Christodouleio, Child Protection Institution where she undertakes the sessions of children and adolescents and provides support in the adoption and fostering processes of children.
Zina Abu-Haydar
Zina Abu-Haydar is an educator by passion and profession. After several years of working with marginalized populations, Zina observed that in the educational space, many children need differentiated support, yet educators are often lacking the resources necessary to provide such support; herself included. Her experience inspired her to pursue a master’s degree in Applied Educational Psychology.
With deeper knowledge and a stronger tool kit, Zina’s goal is to play a role in supporting children, their parents and their teachers better understand and accept the specific learning needs of each child through intervention planning, training, and implementation. Her passion for working with children in need of learning support has grown and as of the academic year 2022-2023 Zina will be moving to Guatemala to work as a Learning Support Specialist for elementary-aged children at the American School of Guatamala.
Michael Kornas
At 29, Michael Kornas is one of the most promising pianists of his generation. Numerous musical greats accompanied and taught him on his musical path, most recently ECM Artist, Dominik Wania, under whose pedagogical direction he completed his master’s degree at the Krakow Music Academy in 2021.
In 2020 he won the internationally renowned “Transatlantyk Instant Composition” competition in Katowice and in March 2021 his debut album “After Darkness Comes Life” was released.
He always finds profound emotions in his compositional process and brings them to life, which he now also shows in his latest project “No Beauty Without Strangeness”, which can be assigned to the category “Modern Jazz”.
In improvised music such as jazz, every musician must be connected to their feelings, their “inner sound” in order to be able to bring their emotions to the audience. Therefore, “Mindfulness” has become an important part of his practice and teaching methods, especially in recent years.
Not only when making music, but also when listening, we can connect with our soul and our spirit and thus achieve an inner balance. Music is emotion and music is in each of us!
Filippos Marselos
Born and raised in Ioannina, Greece, Filippos Marselos has been living and studying in Athens since 2010. His studies reflect his deep interest in the field of psychology, having earned a BA in Psychology (CI: 3.6/4) and an MSc in Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy (CI:3.9/4) from Deree, the American College of Greece. Working with an evidence-based, integrative approach, he has been conducting sessions online for the past few years, as a freelancer. Striving to provide a space where people can address pressing issues in their lives and work with them to improve them, Filippos is committed in constantly updating his knowledge and keeping up with the current research and practices in Psychology.
To this end, he seeks seminars and training materials regularly. Apart from his private practice, he has been providing voluntary services in a variety of mental health settings for the past years, including two psychiatric hospitals, a municipal mental health setting, the counselling center of Decree and mental health hotline in Greece. Although psychology is his main passion and drive, Filippos also enjoys watching and discussing football, reading books regularly (mainly non-fiction, mostly on humanitarian sciences), having long walks in Athens and playing couch multiplayer games with his girlfriend and friends.
Jen Lacroux
Jen Lacroux works in the areas of faith and other community development initiatives. She has worked in community development and integration services for refugees. She has a Master’s Degree in Theology from the University of McGill in Montreal, Canada.
Along with her work, Jen is really interested in learning about what it takes to build strong neighborhoods and environmental issues. For fun she likes to paint, go out for dinner and read comedy novels. She has recently moved from Toronto and now lives with her husband and three children in France. Together with Lawrence, Jen is serving as a co-director of Cyclical Europe.
Melika AzizHaghighi
Melika AzizHaghighi is an Iranian psychologist – psychotherapist located in Athens, Greece. She has been awarded a BA in Psychology and MSc in Counseling Psychology& Psychotherapy from The American College of Greece – Deree in Athens. Currently, she is collaborating with various NGOs in Athens, specializing in networks for migrants and refugees living in Greece. She also has worked with various research projects on gender-based violence, and trauma within vulnerable populations (refugee women). Her main approach in treatment is psychodynamic and existential and her specialties are diversity and culture, stigma, gender-based violence, trauma, psychiatric disorders, depression, and anxiety.
Dima Wadjih
Dima is a certified yoga and breathwork teacher that comes with 10 years of experience in the well-being space. She started her personal yoga practice at the age of 19 and dove deeper into the discipline when she completed her first teacher training in India.
The foundation of Dima’s teaching is based on Hatha Yoga & Ayurveda. She has a MA in Cognition where she focused her studies in neuroscience and philosophy. She continued her training in breathwork and Anusara Yoga, with the curiosity of learning more and experiencing the Universal Principles of Alignment and non-duality. She is currently doing a breathwork mentorship to delve into the wisdom and healing benefits of conscious breathing.
Dima’s heritage is from Syria, she has taught in London, in studios in Copenhagen & Spain and is now based in Dubai, UAE. She has a deep passion for holistic well-being practices, understanding the human experience and sharing what she learns, and the tools she uses, with her communities so that they can integrate them into their daily lives.
Anastasia Katsouli
Anastasia Katsouli is a Greek American psychologist and Integrative psychotherapist. She graduated from Deree College and the Open University with a scholarship, earning a BA in Psychology with honors. She continued her graduate studies in Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy with a scholarship and graduated with distinction.
She completed her training through internships at the 1st Public Clinic of Athens, Greece, and at the Counseling Center of Deree College. She has published studies at International and Greek conferences and has given lectures and seminars to international boards and communities. She is a member of the American Psychological Association and of the Greek Association of Psychologists and currently maintains her private practice in Athens, Greece. She specializes in adults and treats clients with various diagnoses ranging from anxiety and mood disorders to clients facing self-esteem/ confidence issues, behavioral issues or facing grief, and many others.
More information at: akatsouli.com
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