About Us

(This space exists in relation to you)

Sophya and the Phoenix is a space of discovery and connection, a journey for those who seek answers, for those who feel that there is something more.
It is a place for those who have immersed themselves in books, listened to songs, loved cinema or art in all its forms.
But it is also for those who are just beginning, driven by curiosity, by a subtle feeling that something is about to reveal itself , even if it is not yet clearly visible.

In Sophya and the Phoenix, we transform insight and knowledge together into concrete tools for growth and awareness.
Here we welcome questions and honor transformations. Here one can be reborn, again and again, as often as needed.

Reason, intuition and creativity can freely intertwine, or remain distinct, in full respect of the rhythm and nature of each.

Because with a clearer look at oneself, even choices become easier.
And in every ending, a new beginning can always be born.

Who am I

I like to think of myself as the Weaver of Wind and Ash, and my name is Alexandra Barbulea.
It's poetic, maybe too much so. But it represents me: I weave together what has been and what could be.

I grew up among deep ideas, stories and conversations.
I wanted to change the world, and as a child I was certain that one day I would become president of my country.
It made many people smile - now I smile about it, too.

That dream led me to move to Italy, driven by a desire to grow and build something meaningful.
As is the case with many, I thought that studying "abroad" would make me more influential, more capable, more ready to face life.

The experience nourished me, but also shook me.
It confronted me with the weight of independence, the shifting image of myself, and the feeling of not being enough.
Every "no" became a wound, every failure a hard-to-explain emptiness.

At some point, everything stopped.

My academic path lost meaning, my dream crumbled, and with it my confidence.
But right there, where I thought I had lost everything, I discovered that I was already in the midst of another journey.
A different one, a truer one... or maybe just a new one, because I had believed in it before, too. That, too, was "true" at that moment.

I realized, however, that my talent was not in politics,not in the politics one sees today but in its ideals, in the desire to understand the people and to help them find the resources they need for a secure,full and satisfying life .So this desire took shape in researching myself as an individual and in relation to others ,in my ability to listen, to support, to reflect together with others so that I first and others consequently can understand, and see themselves in such a way ...as to do just that :to achieve a secure, full and satisfying life.

So with each story I was given, mine also began to unravel.

I started working in a company, where I discovered how emotional, psychological and human well-being in its entirety is fundamental to having a peaceful and, why not, satisfying life and bringing good results.
Because if we are not well, everything can break at any moment and in all areas of our lives.

Driven by this insight, I chose to delve deeper into the study of the human being, starting with the emotional and communicative side, then psychological, spiritual but also physical.
I embarked on a path of person-centered Counselling study, which taught me to really listen -- first others, then myself, yes first others and then myself, I didn't get the order wrong, it happened to me that way.

I then felt I wanted to add a tool ,something that would act as a bridge between awareness and transformation.
So I became a Mental Coach, setting myself the goal of helping people not only to understand what they are experiencing, but also to make that understanding a concrete change through action.
Today I help people around me to understand that a life as we want it to be -- coming close to, coinciding with, what we want -- is our responsibility.
Yes, our responsibility, despite all the external factors.

I study all the time, because there is no end to discovery: psychology, philosophy, theories old and new, how the mind works, how the body works, how they are connected, who moves who, where one can start...
I study everything that life proposes to me through experience.
And so I weave, weave, and weave,
to find new answers, new solutions.

Today I also continue to work in the company: it is my concrete side, my ground of deep experience as much as the sessions with those who rely on my support.
I see how much even in the most "formal" spaces there is a need for listening, support, humanity ,empowerment ,self-confidence stimulation and courage - and why not, also poetry, metaphors, beauty, in all its forms.

I have a family, I am a wife and mother of a little girl who is now 5 years old, this is my terrain where emotions come up in a more pronounced way, and I am challenged in a significant way, and I am immensely grateful for that.

And in the meantime, I have created this space, a great desire that is taking shape and bringing me into a new world of interaction and relationship .
Putting it all together represents my way of weaving what I have experienced, what I am learning, and what I want to offer.

I didn't invent anything extraordinary, I put together what I discover: studying, living, falling, getting up again.
Here I want to make available reflections born from solitude and comparison, from reading and silence, from internal conflicts - and not only, because conflicts with oneself often become conflicts with others .

My intent is to explore and help explore through my voice, my method that has come from what has already been written and rehearsed combined with my personal life, my life experience.

They are a resource for those going through times of bewilderment, stalemate, confusion, frustration... or simple curiosity and desire for transformation, evolution.

I know what it's like to feel this way.
I know it's possible to find yourself and live better -- a little better with each passing day, each knot untied.

Sophya and the Phoenix was born from all of this:a place to rise again, whenever needed.
A place where words become tools, and each passage , even the most painful one ,can become ashes from which to be reborn.

The name combines two powerful symbols:
Sophya , from the Greek σοφία , wisdom . It is profound knowledge, that which is born from life, from experience, from awareness.
The Phoenix , in mythology, is the firebird that is reborn from its own ashes. It represents transformation , resilience , rebirth after every end.

These two archetypes together make me believe that only through self-knowledge can we truly be reborn. And each time we do so, we become truer, more whole, freer.

"One cannot be reborn unless one is first willing to look at what has been reduced to ashes."
- taken from a thought inspired by depth psychology