My path to coaching, counselling, and psychotherapy was not a straight one.
I began my career as a telecommunications engineer, following a path that felt safe and sensible, but never truly felt like mine. After losing my job during the economic crisis and going through a major personal change, I decided to leave Croatia and join Qatar Airways.
That decision changed my life.
For more than four years in Qatar, and later through many years in international aviation, I worked with people from different cultures, nationalities, religions, and backgrounds. I travelled extensively, led teams, worked under pressure, and learned how differently people can think, communicate, react, and make decisions.
Those experiences gave me a deep curiosity about human behaviour.
After returning to Croatia, I studied Project Management because I wanted to move into the business side of aviation. The knowledge was valuable, but once again I realised that being good at something does not necessarily mean it is what fulfils you.
Over time, I became increasingly interested in psychology and psychotherapy. During the COVID period, that interest became much stronger. I wanted to understand why people repeat certain patterns, why we struggle to change even when we know something is not working, and why two people can experience the same situation in completely different ways.
My first deeper step into psychotherapy was Gestalt training. Later, while continuing to work internationally, I discovered NLP. One idea especially changed the way I understood people:
Each of us experiences the world through our own beliefs, experiences, values, emotions, language, culture, and personal history. Understanding this helped me become less judgemental and more curious.
Instead of asking, “Why would someone behave like this?” I started asking: “How does this person see the world for this behaviour to make sense to them?” That shift became one of the foundations of how I work today.
I continued my education through NLP and then NLP psychotherapy. Today I work as a psychotherapist, and in counselling and coaching, while continuing my NLP psychotherapy education. I am also expanding my knowledge through hypnosis and hypnotherapy approaches.
For many years, my life looked successful from the outside. I had an international career, leadership responsibilities, constant travel, and professional achievements. But I slowly realised that I had less and less time for myself, my relationships, learning, reading, and the things that genuinely mattered to me.
That was the point when I began to ask a different question:
Daninnana Institute grew from that question.
Today, my work combines my international experience, years of working with people, coaching, counselling, NLP, psychotherapy education, and my own personal journey of change.
I do not believe that coaching or psychotherapy should tell people how to live. I believe they can help people understand themselves more clearly - to recognise patterns, to understand their emotions and needs, to build healthier boundaries, and to make decisions that are more aligned with who they really are.
For me, real change is not about becoming a completely different person.
Today I have a home, a stable relationship, time to learn and read again, and work that genuinely fulfils me.
I created Daninnana Institute because I wanted to build a place where learning, personal development, coaching, counselling, and therapeutic work can come together with one goal: to help people understand themselves better and create a life that feels more like their own.
