Maria Kontarini
Person-Centered Practitioner
Peacemaker
Co-founder Peace Project 21
I bring 26 years of experience in diplomacy, organisational development, ethical leadership and humanistic psychology.
My work grew out of lived experience in environments where systems either fractured trust or restored human dignity — revealing their capacity to foster both constructive and destructive ways of relating and organising.
Diplomacy & Post-War Leadership
My commitment to peace and social justice took shape at the SOAS University of London, where I completed a Master’s in International Studies and Diplomacy, specialising in conflict resolution and Bosnia. I later served as a diplomat in the Balkans, at the Embassy in Sarajevo.
Working in a post-war context profoundly shaped my understanding of leadership, responsibility, and institutional life. It revealed how deeply organisational structures, workplace cultures and political systems shape human behaviour, resilience and trust.
Organisational Systems & Cultural Patterns
After my years in diplomacy, I carried these insights into organisational work across international organisations, private firms and non-profits. I held responsibility for internal HR, contractors HR and clients’ relations and strategic acquisitions. This breadth of experience exposed how unconscious cultural norms and inherited structures can undermine wellbeing and distort purpose, even within well-intentioned organisations.
Trauma in Systems
Over time, I recognised that trauma does not reside only in individuals; it becomes embedded in systems, shaping decisions and relationships, thus creating self-reinforcing cycles. Sustainable change requires addressing both lived human experience and the structures that organise collective life.
Finding a Coherent Practice, The Person-Centered Approach
To interrupt self-reinforcing cycles, I sought a framework capable of integrating the political, human and organisational dimensions. I turned to humanistic psychology and the Person-Centred Approach. It provided language, theory, and practical tools to cultivate alternative ways of being and organising — rooted in empathy, accountability, trust, agency, the courage to be oneself and the ability to engage respectfully with difference and difficulty.
Applied Practice & Transformation
As a director within an HR company, I applied these principles by redesigning policies and cultivating a more egalitarian workplace culture. Through mentorship and learning, communication strengthened and trust deepened. Within six months, the working environment had measurably shifted.
Since then, this approach has guided my work across organisational, counselling, group facilitation, peacemaking and learning settings. Over the years it became a way of being which I bring to all my human interactions.
Experience has also taught me that transformation depends on shared willingness and readiness to engage honestly with change. The person-centered principles require fertile ground to bring fruits, for this reason, I choose to work with values-driven individuals and organisations who care for peace and social justice.