Why I work with the body, not just the mind.
Psychologist (M.Sc.)Founder of Metanovia
I am Ruslan Spartakov, a psychologist (M.Sc.) and founder of the online practice Metanovia. That change takes more than insight and begins in the body is not something I learned from a textbook. I learned it through my own life.
Ruslan Spartakov · Psychologist (M.Sc.), Marburg
What carries my work.
Clinical psychology
Psychologist (M.Sc.) with a neuroscience focus and a clinical profile. Experience in crisis intervention, neurorehabilitation and counselling, over 800 sessions of psychological counselling online. Member of the BDP.
Own research
First author of a peer-reviewed paper on how fear and expectations change action control (Cognitive Science Society, 2024). This research is the foundation of my work with the nervous system.
Body practice
Yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, more than ten years of my own training. I know in my own nervous system what regulation feels like and what it needs.
My path
2014 to 2022
Psychology degree, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Bachelor's and master's with a focus on neuroscientific and clinical psychology.
2022 to 2023
Psychologist at Integral, Marburg
Crisis intervention, short-term counselling and coaching across a wide range of concerns.
2023 to 2024
Research associate, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Research on how fear changes the control of balance and movement in the nervous system. First author of a peer-reviewed paper together with colleagues from Marburg and TU Darmstadt (Cognitive Science Society, 2024).
2024 to 2025
Neuropsychologist in outpatient neurorehabilitation
Assessment, counselling and rehabilitation planning for mental and neurological conditions, from depression and anxiety disorders to post-COVID.
since 2025
My own online practice, alongside work as a psychologist at Hephata Diakonie
Psychological counselling online with a focus on nervous-system regulation, burnout and exhaustion, in my own practice and on international counselling platforms, in German and English. At Hephata Diakonie I support young people on their path into working life.
since 2026
Founding of Metanovia
The online practice where I counsel today: booking, sessions and ongoing support in one place, built out of my own counselling work.
One insight from my research still shapes my work today: under pressure, more control often leads to less stability.
How I think
Before I work with any method, what interests me is what is happening in your nervous system right now: which strategy it has trained itself into and why it once made sense. Only from there do we decide together what to work with. If your system is chronically activated, I work with you differently than when it has gone into withdrawal. My methodological toolkit is broad: informed by schema therapy, IFS and ACT and complemented by body-oriented approaches with a direct influence on the nervous system. It is grounded in my own neuroscientific research on the nervous system and control.
For me, change is not an act of willpower but a question of context. Your nervous system does not change because you want it to. It changes when you repeatedly offer it a state in which it feels safe enough to learn something new. My job is to build that context together with you.
Behind this lies a conviction that runs through my research, my practice and my body work: regulated does not mean calm all the time. It means being able to shift flexibly between activation and recovery. Not more control, but the right measure.
What shaped me
I grew up with instability, confronted early with questions that had no easy answers. What carried me through was not discipline alone. It was the realisation that lasting change takes more than understanding, and the decision to live that knowledge every day instead of only knowing it.
For more than ten years body practice has been a firm part of my everyday life, from calisthenics to a yoga teacher training in Rishikesh. This is not a footnote alongside my work as a psychologist, it is its foundation: I know in my own nervous system what regulation feels like and what it takes for it to succeed.
How I work with you
I listen and translate at the same time: what you experience, I map onto the neurobiological mechanisms behind it. That depathologises and takes away shame. You do not see yourself as a problem, but as a system that does what it does for good reasons. From there we take the step from understanding into experiencing together, because change starts in the body, not in the head alone.
Ruslan Spartakov, Marburg.
What you should not expect from me
I do not promise quick fixes. Anyone looking for a new life in two sessions is in the wrong place with me. Nervous-system work takes time, not just technique.
I do not pathologise. You are not broken, you are not too sensitive, you do not have a deficit that needs repairing. We work with the system you have, not against it.
I do not offer medical treatment. If you need a diagnosis, a prescription or the treatment of a clinical condition, I am not the right person to turn to. What I offer is psychological counselling and support on a neuroscientific basis.
Member of the Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP) · Founder of Metanovia
Let's talk
If you feel that the way I work fits you, book a free intro call or write to me. We will calmly figure out whether and how I can support you.
30 minutes, free and without obligation