What happens when the path you’ve followed your whole life suddenly stops making sense?

What does it really take — emotionally, personally, existentially — to become a therapist?

In this intimate and reflective conversation, I sit with my peer and fellow trainee Persefoni Kaltaki, with whom I began my journey at the New School for Psychotherapy and Counselling. Together, we speak openly about the emotional and existential cost of becoming a therapist.

Persefoni shares what it’s like to navigate training with dyslexia and ADHD, to move countries, to learn in a new language, and to start over while trying to hold space for others. She reflects on the limits of neurobiology and psychopharmacology in understanding the human condition and how discovering existential thought offered a way back to meaning.

“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” — Nikos Kazantzakis

This isn’t a conversation about methods or theories. It’s about what happens when therapy stops being a profession and becomes a way of being — about the laughter, vulnerability, and quiet courage it takes to keep becoming.

00:00 – 01:20

Intro — Meeting Again

01:20 – 04:00

How It All Began: Psychology, Curiosity & Early Certainties

04:00 – 06:40

Setbacks, Dyslexia, ADHD & the Weight of Academia

06:40 – 09:20

Moving Abroad & The Isolation of Training

09:20 – 12:00

Hitting the Void: Depression & Directionlessness

12:00 – 14:30

Turning Toward Existentialism

14:30 – 17:20

What Existential Therapy Feels Like

17:20 – 20:10

Starting Over: New Country, New Language, New Practice

20:10 – 23:00

The Hardest Thing She’s Ever Done

23:00 – 25:30

Ethics, Responsibility & Knowing When You’re Ready

25:30 – 28:00

Meaning, Capitalism & Going Against the World Around You

28:00 – 30:20

Staying With Uncertainty

30:20 – 32:30

Time as the Real Existential Anchor

Why time, more than death, shapes her awareness, choices, and orientation to life.

32:30 – 34:40

The Mutuality of Therapy — And Some Laughter Too

How connection nourishes the therapist, the thin line between personal and professional needs, and shared humour in the process.

34:40 – 35:00 Outro

About Persefoni:

Persefoni Kaltaki is a psychologist and UKCP trainee psychotherapist with an MSc in Clinical Psychology and advanced training in existential psychotherapy at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC) in London. She currently works both in private practice in Copenhagen and remotely with UK-based clients through Headstrong Counselling.

Her therapeutic work is trauma-informed and rooted in existential and phenomenological approaches, with a focus on relational depth, self-exploration, and psychological awareness. She has supported clients navigating cultural displacement, gender identity, neurodivergence, and systemic marginalisation, committed to inclusive, reflective practice that responds to each client’s unique context and lived experience.

She is also trained in working with survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse and has facilitated group work and psychoeducational spaces focused on resilience, emotional wellbeing, and identity exploration. In addition to her independent practice, Persefoni collaborates with Daggry an organisation supporting LGBTQIA+ communities in Copenhagen.

🔗 Find out more about Persefoni :

🌐 persefonikaltaki.com

📧 persefonikaltaki@gmail.com

📍 Based in Copenhagen | Online therapy across the EU and UK

About the Host:

Max Karlin - psychologist, counsellor, and trainee existential therapist at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, London. On this channel I share existential therapy insights, interviews, and reflections to explore how psychotherapy can help us live more authentically and meaningfully.

https://linktr.ee/maxkarlin