About me

Team and Project Manager. Woman. Daughter. Wife. Human. Singer. Lawyer. Friend. Conflict Mediator. Sister. Dialogue Facilitator and Host. Poet. Teacher. Author. Dancer. Coach. I am all of these, and yet none of them define me. Beyond roles, I am a lover of change and the possibilities for transformation and reinvention that life offers us every single day.

It is impossible to choose being just one thing or the other. Only by expanding life can it all fit in, since the soul is already larger than life.

I started my search for meaning at 12, studying Tarot and astrology, with a great interest in philosophy and human development. I had the dream of saving the world by working for the UN - a dream that I had the chance to see come true after a Masters in International Law in London. I worked for the UN and also the World Trade Organization in Switzerland, at law offices in Brazil and Portugal, and as a consultant in the USA. I acted both as a professional and academic in the fields of Public International Law, International Trade and International Dispute Settlement.

From that time, I learned that without dialogue there is no change, and that it is up to each and every one of us to create a better world from the roots up, and not only at intergovernmental negotiation summits.

Photo by Christian Battaglia on Unsplash

Corporate sustainability and climate change

In 2007 I became involved with corporate sustainability, climate change, ecological footprints and public policy. I launched Ecosynergy upon returning to Brazil from Switzerland to support sustainable development and carbon projects. Until 2011, I developed myself intensively in dialogue facilitation by working with 50 of the largest Brazil businesses developing sustainable management strategies and ways to deal with climate-change related challenges. I even met Prince Charles through these adventures!

Negotiations, facilitation, consensus building

As early as Law School, I was unable to understand why it was that, in order for me to win, someone else had to lose. In many situations, I could see the potential for negotiated solutions in which we would all win. I even wrote my PhD thesis on the topic of win-win-win scenarios, with a background in international trade, environmental protection and developing countries.

Finally, in 2008, during a program in The Netherlands offered by the Sustainability Challenge Foundation, I found that this way of thinking had a name: interest-based negotiation, or integrative negotiation, better known as the Harvard negotiation method. It was love at first sight: I began to study and teach the method that same year and have not stopped ever since.

Deep Ecology

In 2013, I had a crisis with my corporate sustainability work: I started realizing that what I was doing enabled the problem to live longer (band-aid solutions) rather than actually changing the system at its roots. I had a crisis of faith and re-focused my work primarily on dialogue and facilitation for change rather than on sustainability strategies.

Thanks to the Universe, I ended up at Schumacher College, in the UK, where I discovered Deep Ecology and the notion that we can choose to be in service of Life, moved by the belief that we and Nature are One. I learned facilitation for processes for the emerging future and applied myself to themes connected to awakening our consciousness, self leadership, compassionate collaboration and appreciation.

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

Change begins with the human being

After working with organizations and complex systems in change processes, it became very clear to me that we need to take care of the human being acting inside organizations, who is full of dreams, desires and fears.

In 2015, I launched myself into integral and systemic coaching to support people involved in change processes I was already facilitating. I realised that the way back home is the way of reconnection. Reconnection with oneself, with the world, the other, with Purpose, with the Mystery (or the Divine, which manifests in many forms) and with Nature.

I dove into Ontological Coaching, under the guidance of the wonderful Káritas Ribas, and Systemic Coaching and Constellations with the fabulous Jenny Mackewn, and arrived at Integral Coaching under the rigorous supervision of Integral Coaching Canada and its several masters – summing up over 1000 hours of training and practice. From there to the Thinking Environment it was the natural step, with the hope of creating even more independent thinking and autonomy in human interactions, especially for the one who is doing the thinking, that is, the coachee.

Today: integrating it all

Life is made of stories (many stories), learnings, reflections and dreams. Integrating all that has come to pass so far, today I use my time and energy to explore new ways of being and helping organizations, groups and people be in the world in a more authentic, collaborative and beautiful way. I use many very powerful tools in tailor made interventions and processes (Consensus Building, U Theory, Deep Democracy, Integral, Systemic and Ontological Coaching and Facilitation, Interest-based Mediation, Thinking Environment among many others) to leverage the creative potential of people and organizations and to promote more functional, dynamic and healthy ways to negotiate agreements, build partnerships, solve conflicts, develop leadership and support the growth and maturing of teams - be they inside an organization or formed by members of various organizations (such as in alliances, partnerships and coalitions for change). I offer my thoughts, ideas, skills, energy, and services in favour of Life, based on the emergent model of bio-leadership.