I was born in 1980, so I experienced nine years of communism and then the amazing 1990s - that magical transformation into a completely new era. I came to know both life in the collective poverty and simple modesty of socialism, and its opposite polarity: the hectic rush toward freedom, personal success, and the endless possibilities brought by the new times. In a way, this experience was a foreshadowing of later chapters of my life, as I often found myself exploring the world and human existence in various - sometimes very contrasting - polarities. When I was twelve, my grandfather began introducing me to the works of Karel Čapek and passed on to me the tradition of First Republic thinking and moral values. This sparked in me a passion for literature, philosophy, culture, and the social sciences. Already in my early adolescence, I made the decision to dedicate my life to truth, freedom, and all those wonderful ideals - ideals that may not always put bread on the table, but will surely guarantee extraordinary experiences.

Foto: Povalec (thanks to Anna Solcová Photography)

Formal education and the schools I attended were certainly an important part of my journey to understand the world, but what shaped me even more were all my personal journeys - journeys exploring humanity - which I was always open to and actively sought out. Even as a teenager, I had the opportunity to spend a school year on an exchange program in the United States, which allowed me to experience a very different way of life and, more importantly, to see that life itself can be perceived and lived in ways completely different from what I had known at home. Traveling and discovering other cultures captivated me so much that I eventually spent more than seven years living abroad. This gave me deep insight not only into different ways of being, but also into various working environments. Since 2003, my path gradually began to take a more specific direction toward psychosocial work - it was that year that I started nursing job in a psychiatric unit. What began as just a student job turned out to be a kind of precursor for the professional path I would follow from then on.

But I always wanted to know more than just my own field and my own little corner of the world - an ordinary life was never quite enough for me. That’s why I set out, among other places, to the remote corners of Mongolia, India, and other countries, to experience authentic and traditional cultures that had been only minimally affected by modern civilization. Before that, I had spent a few years wandering around Europe, with no money, living as a Dharma bum for whom life itself was more important than wealth or career. Those were beautiful times of great freedom, and of seeing the world from a very different perspective too.

After a while, I felt I had wandered enough and moved to the UK to earn money for bigger and more adventurous journeys. In addition to the income, this experience also taught me - on a very personal level - what it is like to be an absolutely insignificant person from the East, trying to make a living in a country where you are simply a cheap labor, an immigrant, and to many, a second-class citizen. At times, it was truly a kind of purgatory. But I made it through and eventually found my way to very rewarding work in supported housing. I also earned enough money to travel to countries where, in contrast, I was seen as a rich foreigner with privileged status - someone who could, if they wished, buy almost anything or anyone. Of course, that was not the reason I traveled there.

Foto: Travel to Mongolia

I travelled primarily to explore people and their cultures in all their varied and beautiful forms. I wanted to observe what it means to be human, what it is to live a human life, in a country thousands of kilometres away from my own. I loved having the time to simply sit for hours, watching the rhythms of daily life, talking with locals. To walk through cities and landscapes, staying for months at a time away from tourist zones - in marginal areas, in the forgotten corners. I passed many tourist locations without noticing; it was the lived culture and the people shaping it that truly interested me, not the attractions consumed by typical tourists.

Through this, I came to understand that each nation seems to have its own rhythm - its own unique mode of being, deeply connected to the language it speaks. It is truly fascinating to witness the many different ways of being human. Each is a little different, yet all are so alike. Humanity is so vibrantly diverse, yet contains something deeply universal - with every person I came to know more deeply, I also discovered unknown parts of myself. Today I know that every person, regardless of race or status, is my kin.

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Because I wanted to explore every facet of being, I also ventured into the distant corners of my own mind - into altered states of consciousness. I experimented with various psychoactive substances, and somewhat paradoxically, this led me to exclude most of them from my life. The awareness that I had no desire to intoxicate myself with things that dull the mind or foster false illusions also led me to give up alcohol, which I now see as one of the worst vices of our world. I haven’t drunk it in nearly a quarter of a century. Instead, I prefer to work with substances that expand consciousness - and I consider psilocybin one of nature’s greatest gifts to humankind. The ability of magic mushrooms to connect a person to the natural unity of all being is, to me, endlessly fascinating and enriching. Over time, I have become a guide for those wishing to undertake such experiences. In fact, I believe that anyone choosing to work with people on a psychological level - or indeed in any role that directly affects others' lives - should honestly face who they truly are through the experience called an ego death, which is perhaps the most essential part of the psychedelic journey.

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Alongside my larger and more exotic journeys through the world’s diversity, I have always enjoyed taking smaller excursions into other realms of human knowledge too. I have been enriched, for example, by aikido, the study of natural and holistic medicine, spirituality, mindfulness, permaculture, the arts, ... . The humanities have always been, and remain, at the centre of my interests and the same is true of nature - the forest, biology, and ecology. In addition, I love to create - working with wood or leather is a kind of perfect meditation for me. Unfortunately, there’s less time for it now, as my days are devoted first and foremost to caring for my family, which has naturally become both my fulfillment and my great fascination. It is a tremendous learning experience, but also a source of deep joy and meaning in life. And when the call for adventure arises, we take our hammocks and head out to sleep in the wild, or we go to a live music concert - to dance and to experience rebirth through the music.

Foto: Travels with family.

When, after years abroad, I finally returned home to the Czech Republic, longing to settle down and start a family, it became clear just how much my experiences had shaped and transformed me. Not drinking alcohol, not eating meat, not having a television, thinking in global terms - these were not always easy to reconcile with the everyday realities of life here. But there was no going back to old patterns. What surprised me, rather, was how fiercely people often defend certain habits and norms, even when they harm their own well-being or even make them ill. Since then, I have come to value even more those who can step outside of stereotypes, those who understand the importance of authenticity, self-determination, personal growth, and global responsibility. I have great respect for anyone courageous enough to break free from conformity and move away from a purely consumer-driven life toward more meaningful goals and values.

Sadly, my personal values also frequently clashed with how conventional psychiatric and psychological services operate. In spaces where openness and empathy should prevail, I too often witnessed rather an institutionalised and professionally disguised fear of the foreign and different. Anything "abnormal" - meaning merely uncommon - is subjected to harsh analysis and pathologisation. There is far too much unnecessary judgement, labelling, manipulating - none of which truly helps anyone. Too much misunderstanding and absurd neglect of basic human nature. Too much superiority and collective dogma.

Time and again, my own life experience stood in stark contrast to the constructs of the professional world around me. I became acutely aware that a person in emotional crisis needs something very different than to be pathologised and locked away - people need to express and fully experience their emotions, to accept and process them, not to silence them under "expert judgement" or medication. I saw, and personally experienced many times, that psychology often becomes a tool of manipulation. In such an environment, there was no place left for me. And so, I chose my own path, opening a private psychotherapy practice.

It is important to add here that I deeply respect the difficult work of those in helping professions who carry out their work with sincerity and heart. I am convinced that such people actually represent the majority of those in psychosocial care. But I also cannot ignore how tragically their intellect and potential are often wasted, trapped in maintaining an inefficient, outdated model of care. They are trained to work in ways that drain them personally, while often leaving their patients stuck in chronic and unresolved states. They fight fires that should have been prevented long ago - and in other ways entirely. In this system, the only true winners are pharmaceutical corporations and the egos of certain "experts."

Still, I do believe that all psychological approaches offer value. Each focuses on a different facet of the psyche, each illuminates a unique spectrum of human experience. We, humans and our existence, are simply too complex and multi-layered to be described by any single theory. I have drawn inspiration from a range of different approaches, and I do not wish to discredit the validity or depth of any of them. But when it comes to direct work with people, I believe all such approaches are at best quite limiting and in some cases wholly inappropriate. What truly heals and what we all need, is to meet each other on a human level, not a professional one. We need professionals who can create an open space of trust and authenticity, not those who project their own limiting beliefs and paradigms onto others.

For this reason, I am deeply grateful to have undergone training in Open Dialogue under Mark Steven Hopfenbeck, one of its leading global experts, whose guidance has had a profound impact on me. This experience also gave me a solid foundation within the community of avant-garde psychiatry and connected me with other professionals who, like me, refuse to accept the rigidity of the mainstream. In this way, my personal path of exploring human nature became once again intertwined with the professional and academic world of mental health care. I believe that Narrative and Dialogical approaches represent the most human and most honest voice in the entire field of applied psychology. They have the potential to gradually shift the entire paradigm — and I am heartened to see more and more professionals, even those trained in other approaches, finding their way to dialogical work.

Foto: With Mark Hopfenbeck in Brno.