Team

Hi. My name is Marija. I promote mental health in everything that I do.

My name is Marija (Tičić). After earning a Master’s degree in psychology, I now work as a licensed CBT (cognitive-behavioural) psychotherapist. I am a person who deeply cares for her fellow human beings and is very curious about them. Interpersonal encounters are what drives my growth the most and what I most enjoy. To continue to experience them and make them part of my everyday life, I chose this profession. I am overjoyed and eternally grateful that 10 years of valuable education in the field of psychology and several years in the field of psychotherapy has made it possible for me to turn my dream job into reality – My Mental Heart.

I am also a trained musician – an opera singer – who composes and writes her own songs. One of my missions in life is to promote mental health through music (and other forms of art) by writing contemporary songs with a message that raises awareness and/or normalises certain disorders or psychological concepts or even alerts to some worrying interpretations, social impacts, among others. Music, along with psychotherapy, plays an important role in my life and has given me strength many times when I needed it. Making music fills me with immense joy and makes me feel truly alive.

On the flip side, I also happily dabble in numbers, science and statistics, which made up a large part of my studies, so I continue my work on them as well. Focusing on science helps me keep up with all the latest research and knowledge from the field of psychology, enabling me to provide my clients with help of even better quality. Finally, without the statistics and scientific research behind it, psychology would be a mere collection of never tested hypotheses, rather than the science of human behaviour, thinking and emotions, and our expert help with mental health would be based on nothing more than pure guesswork. I will gladly dive into research on any topic necessary to maximise my understanding of my clients’ problems, search out any materials on proven healthy coping mechanisms, as well as seek to understand their specific context and ways of functioning arising from their disorders.

My most beloved hobbies are travelling and learning about new cultures. I deep dive into other cultures through foreign languages, so, apart from Croatian, I am fluent both in English and Spanish and genuinely enjoy reading and writing in those languages. I love new experiences and challenges, exploring philosophy and our meaning, the spiritual aspect of our existence, dancing, musicals, creating different audiovisual content and everything creative!

I look forward to the privilege of meeting you!

MY EDUCATION, ACHIEVEMENTS AND WORK EXPERIENCE

I couldn't make up my mind between science and art already in high school, when I attended both the Fifteenth Mathematical Gymnasium (or MIOC, Mathematical Informatical Educational Center, subprogram Information Science) and the opera/solo-singing  course at the Zlatko Baloković Music School in Zagreb. In 2013, I enrolled in the Psychology study programme at the Faculty of Croatian Studies and quickly became fascinateƒd with all of the themes covered by my, then still future, profession. It made me a very motivated and successful student who went on to receive numerous awards in her field of study (best student in her generation, scholarship of the City of Zagreb, awards for presenting psychology topics at international conferences, etc.), as well as other awards in the field of science and art (for example, at international song writing contests, where some of my original songs made it to the semi‑finals, or the publication of several research papers/abstracts). Moreover, I worked in a university setting (as an assistant at my home faculty teaching students various practical statistical and methodological courses) and in our educational system (as a psychologist at the Cvjetno naselje Elementary School); I have experience presenting research papers at domestic and international events (in several languages); I further specialised in cognitive-behavioural therapy and mindfulness meditation (by completing two courses at the KBT opcija private psychological practice and by gaining years of experience as a practician); I volunteered with young adults and at the Support Service for Victims and Witnesses of Criminal Offences and Misdemeanours (where I worked on a hotline for two years providing emotional and legal support to adult victims and witnesses). Finally, since merging different disciplines absolutely thrills me, I made sure to participate in workshops for young adults and take part in Erasmus+ projects and explore various interdisciplinary fields of my work.

In these couple of years providing individual counselling at my practice, I have met many exceptional individuals, mostly suffering from anxiety and depression, which happen to be the most common disorders of modern humanity.