Tatyana Fertelmeyster, MA., Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Tatyana Fertelmeyster is founder and principal of Connecting Differences, LLC, a consulting company offering leadership development and diverse team building services to organizations. In partnership with Bridge to Belong, she provides a broad variety of services under the umbrella of Collective Healing Support Facilitation, Training, and Consulting.

As a bi-lingual Licensed Counselor, Tatyana shares her professional time between intercultural/diversity consulting, coaching, and counseling. As a psychotherapist and a coach, she works with individuals, couples, and groups, focusing on trauma, grief and loss, and adjustment to change. She incorporates mindfulness practice, body/emotion inter-connections, and various forms of artistic expression in helping her clients to identify and work through their issues and challenges. Tatyana is certified in the Trauma Memory Solution Technique and Humanistic Neuro-Linguistic Psychology approach to coach those impacted by trauma. She is currently working on coaching certifications in the Positive Intelligence coaching and in Alignment Coaching.

Tatyana came to the United States as a refugee. She then worked in refugee resettlement, providing counseling and supportive services to English-speaking and Russian-speaking clients, and training professionals nationwide. For eight years, she led multi-agency state-wide projects focused on providing family life education for refugees from 30+ countries resettling in Illinois, including cultural competence in mental health and social services.

While engaging with her clients, Tatyana focuses on finding clarity, making meaning of life experiences, working through struggles, and discovering new ways to strengthen resilience. She is a senior facilitator with the Personal Leadership model. Tatyana earned two Master of Arts degrees: in Journalism from Moscow State University (Russia) and in Guidance and Counseling from Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, USA).

Marie Sheffield, MA, Licensed Professional Counselor, Art Therapist

Marie Sheffield, L.C.P.C., is a skilled Collective Trauma Specialist, licensed clinical counselor and Intercultural Team Builder with a skilled impact on social transformation and collective healing. As a co-author of the book "Collective Trauma and Human Suffering: Energizing systemic change through collective healing action," Marie has contributed significantly to the field. She is experienced in creating inclusive models and outreaches to support intercultural communities affected by war, persecution, and terrorism.

Marie's achievements include co-founding and facilitating the Intercultural Advisory Council (IAC) and leading an award-winning intercultural program for children and young adults at the Center for Grieving Children (CGC). Her dedication to advocacy led to CGC receiving the 2019 Program Award for Human and Civil Rights from the Maine Education Association. Over two decades at CGC, she has supported over 1,000 children in collective healing through the arts, co-producing two music albums, documentary films and numerous art collaboratives.

In addition to her work at CGC, Marie served as a mental health consultant for America's Camp, an annual overnight camp for children who lost parents on 9/11. Through this role, she co-produced an art exhibit displayed at the Pentagon, later acquired by the Museum at Ground Zero in NYC.

Marie's current work involves community initiatives in schools, education, and community service organizations focusing on collective trauma awareness and the implementation of healing support. She is also engaged in facilitating collective healing training for intercultural communities, with her most recent efforts directed towards Tigray, Ethiopian U.S. diaspora in 2024. Her commitment to fostering healing and understanding within diverse communities highlights her impactful contributions to the field of collective trauma. She is a senior facilitator with the Personal Leadership model.