Meet the team

Every psychologist on our team has lived the expat experience themselves

When we hire, qualifications matter — but they’re not the whole picture. We look for psychologists who combine genuine clinical expertise with something harder to teach: the lived experience of building a life far from home. Every member of our team has been an expat themselves. They know what it feels like to navigate a new culture, to miss the people you left behind, to lose your sense of who you are when the context around you keeps changing — and to find your footing again.

That personal understanding is what makes the difference. You won’t need to explain the basics of expat life here. We already get it. What we focus on instead is you — your specific situation, your history, your goals — and finding the most effective path forward together.

TAISIA SLOBODJANIUK — Founder & Director Psychology · MBA International Healthcare Management

Taisia founded Expat Psychologist in 2009 — the first practice in the Netherlands dedicated entirely to internationally mobile people. Her path to that moment was anything but straightforward: raised in an orphanage, she went on to live and work across Syria, Belgium, Nigeria and Switzerland, visiting over 65 countries along the way. That journey — and everything it taught her about resilience, identity and starting over — is what shaped the practice she built.

Today she leads a team across six locations in the Netherlands and Switzerland, and continues to be the driving force behind the practice’s mission: that every expat, wherever they are in the world, knows that professional, compassionate help is within reach.

LIIA KIVELA — Psychologist PhD Clinical Psychology (Leiden University) · CBT · EMDR · English, Finnish

Liia grew up in Finland but has spent over a decade living abroad — in Australia, the UK and the Netherlands — which means she brings more than textbook knowledge to her work with expats. She holds a PhD from Leiden University specializing in suicide risk detection and prevention, and works with individuals, couples, children and teens.

Her approach is integrative and genuinely tailored: she draws on CBT, EMDR and somatic and attachment-focused methods depending on what each client actually needs. If you’re carrying something that feels stuck — past experiences, patterns that keep repeating, a persistent sense of not quite being yourself — Liia creates the kind of calm, grounded space where that work becomes possible.

CASSANDRA KARLSSON — Management · Client Relations · English, Swedish

Cassandra is the person who makes sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes — so that the clinical team can focus entirely on their clients, and so that you always feel in good hands from your very first contact with us. She handles scheduling across all three Amsterdam-area locations, manages new client enquiries, and is often the first voice you’ll hear when you reach out. Warm, organized and genuinely invested in the practice’s mission, Cassandra sets the tone for the kind of experience we want every client to have — from the very first message to the final session.

Our Amsterdam team is part of a wider international network of expat psychologists.