About
Life Coach for Driven Women
Hi, I’m Dasha. I work with overachievers who are exhausted by lives that look great on paper.
Former corporate lawyer, then therapist, now a coach in overachiever recovery.
I’ve spent the last decade working with women who do too much for too long and don’t know how to stop. I know that pattern intimately - I had lived it myself.
Before This Work
I was the woman this work is for.
Before I became a coach, I was a corporate lawyer. From the outside it looked great. Big firm, big salary, the career people congratulate you for.
From the inside I felt exhausted, resentful, and trapped.
I remember one Friday night, finally home, finally watching a movie. I saw the red light flashing on my BlackBerry from the corner of my eye, and my stress went right back through the roof.
That was the moment I understood I would never disconnect from this. There was no end in sight. Even when a deal closed, the next one would come with the same pressure.
I left. Everyone said I was crazy to walk away from that salary. I knew staying was crazier.
The Middle Chapter
Then I became a therapist. And watched women process painful challenges again and again.
I thought I’d finally found my calling. And for a while, it felt right.
Then I started noticing something I couldn’t unsee. My clients were coming in week after week, rehashing the same situations, the same feelings, the same patterns.
They were gaining insight. But nothing was getting better.
Months would pass. Sometimes years. I watched smart, capable women describe the same problems with slightly different language and call it progress.
It’s not that therapy is bad work. It’s that for the women I was sitting across from, talking about the feelings wasn’t the thing that was going to change them.
They needed something else.
The Shift
Then I did my own coaching work, and everything changed.
I worked on my victimhood. It was earth-shattering. In a few sessions I made shifts that years of insight hadn’t touched.
My relationship to myself, to my work, to the people in my life. All of it moved.
That’s when I understood. You don’t have to spend years revisiting the past to live a different future.
You have to see what you’re doing now, take responsibility for it, and choose differently.
So I added coaching to my practice. Now I work with overachievers who are tired of recycling the same problems and ready to finally change them.
I am now the guide I desperately needed then.
The Part I Don’t Usually Lead With
I wasn’t just hearing about it from clients. I was living it.
For years I couldn’t accept a cup of tea from a friend without feeling like I had to pay it back.
I hosted parties to celebrate others and paid for everything. I went out of my way for people and refused every offer of help in return.
I told myself I was generous. I told myself I was just that kind of person.
What was really happening: if I gave enough, did enough, was useful enough, then maybe the people in my life would love me, and then maybe I’d finally feel okay about myself.
The same patterns I now see in my clients were running my life. I’ve been the woman who couldn’t stop, couldn’t ask for help, couldn’t tell where she ended and other people began.
I had to do my own work first. I truly want you to know I am not coaching from a coaching manual. I intimately know that transformation journey myself.
for the skimmers, no judgment
The Boring Version
Dasha Tcherniakovskaia is the founder of Coaching by Dasha and host of the Overachiever Recovery podcast. A former corporate lawyer turned therapist turned coach, she works with overachievers who’ve checked every box and still feel flat, resentful, and exhausted.
She integrates psychology and spirituality to get to the root of what’s actually keeping someone stuck, usually within the first 15 minutes of a conversation. She doesn’t sugarcoat what she finds, and she doesn’t create dependency.
The whole point of the work is for her clients to outgrow her.
What Working With Me Looks Like
A few things I won’t do.
I won’t help you rehash the past for months.
We’ll get to the root of what’s keeping you stuck and work on what you can change. That work starts in the first session.
I won’t sugarcoat it.
If I see victimhood, I’ll name it. If I see self-righteousness or people-pleasing or a story you’ve been telling yourself for a decade, I’ll name that too.
I do it without shame. I’m direct because tiptoeing wastes your time.
I won’t create dependency.
Coaching that requires you to keep paying forever isn’t coaching; it’s a subscription. I want you to take what we do together and run with it.
My favorite moment in this work is when a client takes my words and makes them her own. She stops giving me credit. The thinking has become hers. That’s when I know it’s done what it was supposed to do.
the off-the-clock version
A Few Things About Me
“Do not go to bed angry” is bullshit advice. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is sleep on it.
I’m an avid bird watcher (usually the youngest of the group).
I love spirituality (I know how to keep it to myself depending on the audience).
Hiking, time with my animals, and nourishing my soul with friends. That’s how I refill my cup.
Want More Advice From Dasha?
Book a Call with Dasha
Let’s talk about where you’re stuck and explore if working together is the right next step.
Book a Discovery Call →Overachiever Recovery Podcast
Breaking free from the exhaustion of having it all. Real talk on people-pleasing, boundaries, and living life on your terms.
