Maria Sergeeva
London, UK
A Bit About Me
Neurolinguist by first education, international journalist by first formative profession, and PR & marketing lead in tech for most of my corporate life — all while quietly retraining as a psychotherapist for years. Still with me? What an ADHD pathway, some would say — and they’d be right.
I’ve lived and worked in four countries, studied in three countries and languages, and navigated countless cultures. Every move has taught me that “best practice” is always audience-specific. I love weaving the sharpest insights from each setting into solutions that truly fit the people in front of me.
Now I build tech and communities for good, working from a strengths-based, affirming stance — whether I’m leading a team or holding a therapy room. Along the way, I’ve founded two non-profits dedicated to inclusion and mental health and advised 20+ startups I wish had existed.
Milestones of Work experience
Journalism Chapter
2014-2017
PR&Marketing Chapter
2016-2021
Startups Advising
2018-now
Clinical Journey
2018 - now
Founder
2020 - now
As a copywriter, then special correspondent and then Editor-in-Chief at Rossiya Segodnya I ran multilingual news desks (Russian, English, French), launched a pop science column and new social channels that tripled unique users in 12 months, and led live coverage of the Paris and Nice terror attacks. My journalistic experience also includes Les Echos, Forbes contributions, I won the 2016 Digital Voice award for investigative reporting on cross-border data flows. Sharpened my fact-checking rigour, deadline focus and ability to translate complexity for diverse audiences.
From PR Director at BANKEX through and Senior PR/Brand Manager at Semrush to CMO at Gault&Millau, I steered global comms for five VC-backed tech companies. Highlights: doubling G&M’s funding, securing 3 M+ new-audience reach for Semrush during its pre-IPO push, and staging Cardpay’s “Diversity FinTech Talent Week” conference in London.
As a fractional CMO / product advisor/Brand image advisor I supported 20+ early-stage startups and scale ups in health, dating, community building, lifestyle, marketing. Typical briefs: USP, product market fit, mission, vision and values statement, competitors analysis, revenue streams, user-research sprints, native-integration road-maps. The work helped clients secure pre-seed/seed rounds and Horizon Europe grants while letting me pair clinical rigour with go-to-market strategy. Working with startups also helps to extend my network and boost my skills as a founder.
I hold a Psychology conversion diploma, diplomas in CBT, ACT, integrative psychotherapy, sexual psychotherapy, Clinical Psychology, and an MSc in Addictions. My practice focuses on ADHD, autism, complex comorbid presentations and life with chronic conditions, delivered through an LGBTQIA+ and neurodiversity-affirming lens.
My original research—examining substance-use motives in adults with and without ADHD—now underpins my clinical work. It equips me to run functional analyses of behaviour and to help clients develop healthier, goal-aligned alternatives that reconnect them with what matters most.
I channel inclusion, compassion and evidence into scalable, human-centred projects. SaferPlace(2021 – 23) began as a non-profit directory of ethical psychiatrists and psychologists for complex needs; after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine it expanded to offer free or discounted therapy, matching 1,730 people with vetted specialists through a 20-volunteer triage team and a safety-checked repository. Created in 2023 as a non-profit initiative to support inclusion for individuals with sensitivities and anxieties at events, Techlusion has grown into a project developing multi-purpose LED wristbands — enabling non-verbal communication, facilitating social interaction, reducing single wristbands waste at festivals, and more. Today, as Founder & CEO of Health Data Avatar, I am building a user-first, privacy-preserving, multilingual “health-data twin” that helps individuals collect, structure, understand and share their medical records across systems, borders and languages—making them the rightful owners and curators of their health data.
