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About Vlada
I’m Vlada Kulik (Shestakova) — former corporate lawyer and entrepreneur turned trauma-informed breathwork teacher, nervous system educator, and eternal student of the human heart. For 15 years, I negotiated deals in high-stakes environments, until my body pulled the emergency brake: daily anxiety attacks, burnout, and a quiet whisper from within I couldn’t ignore—there has to be another way.
I listened.
Today, I hold certifications in breathwork and somatic embodiment (including Stage 1 Somatic Experiencing), stress management training from Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and I’m completing a master’s in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health at King’s College London. Over the years, I’ve guided more than 700 people through breath-based nervous system work that softens stress, restores agency, and helps the body feel safe again.
My approach is deeply rooted in science—not in spiritual bypassing or “woo.” I believe in evidence-informed tools that meet people where they are: grounded, compassionate, and biologically sound.
How grief reshaped everything
In the last year, I experienced two perinatal losses that broke me open. No amount of mindset work or intellectual reframing could reach the tidal grief lodged in my chest. What finally helped was the same tool I now offer others: conscious connected breathwork.
Each session helped loosen the knot of unspoken love, sadness, rage, and longing—and reminded me that healing doesn’t happen in the mind alone. It lives in the tissues, in the nervous system, in the breath.
I know how it feels to carry a loss so deep it lives in your bones. And I know how lonely it can be — especially for women — because even when grief is shared, it’s our bodies that bleed, ache, and remember.
That experience changed the direction of my work. I now dedicate my practice to supporting women, couples, and the clinicians who walk beside them through the complex terrain of pregnancy and infant loss.
The body remembers, so we let it speak
The Body Keeps the Score is not just a book title—it’s a biological truth. Our bodies archive everything: the contractions of tears and grief we suppress, the breath we hold when trauma hits, and the tension we carry for years often without noticing.
Conscious connected breathwork offers the body a safe microphone. Through circular, connected breathing, we create space for trapped emotion to rise gently to the surface to be felt, witnessed, and released. It’s not a substitute for talk therapy, but it’s a powerful complement. It helps translate insight into integration, and mind into felt safety.
If you’re a grief counselor, therapist, or someone quietly carrying the weight of loss, I’d be honored to support your process. Together, we help the body tell its story. And finally, exhale. Services are rendered in-person in San Francisco. Online services are available to recurring clients only.
Breathe with Vlada
Services
I offer trauma-informed breathwork to help clients release stress, grief, and emotions held in the body. Current offerings include small-group journeys and 1:1 sessions for returning clients.
Contact me
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