About Hellene

My gift and passion is helping people and organizations reach ambitious goals by understanding their unique part in the bigger picture.

We are facing the most consequential moment in human history to date.

It is scary.

But we have the opportunity to really make a difference.

Not just for today, not just for ourselves.

For generations to come. For the diversity of all beings on this precious blue planet.

We have the opportunity for a meaningful life.

It is the chance of a lifetime.

I get behind meaningful goals and help make them real.

My work, my approach, my commitment is an evolutionary love story.

Each one of us matters. Each one of us has an essential part to play.

Why work with me?

I know how to punch above my weight and I can help you do it too.

I bring 20 years of professional leadership and management experience, including including Executive Director and Dean of a Masters program for a US nonprofit, independent graduate school; Director of a national research consultancy in Australia; Policy Leader for the Victorian State Government; and Research Coordinator for a Melbourne nonprofit.

I have achieved goals people said were impossible. Like changing the way a whole state approached the first response to people experiencing homelessness. Like achieving national accreditation for a tiny, fiercely independent alternative graduate school (twice!). Like launching a national research and training consultancy for evidence based practice from zero to three staff in 18 months. Like transforming marketing-resistant therapists into passionate, empowered communicators excited to launch their own practice.

I solve complex problems because I know how to find and use leverage.

And I have tools that can change your mindset like nothing else can.

I use my training as a process-oriented facilitator, therapist and coach along with my personal practice of processwork, depth psychology, dynamic mindfulness, embodiment practices and improvisation to give you creative, transformational support that follows your process.

My academic background in public policy research, cultural studies, social theory, and eco-feminist, postcolonial, poststructuralist thinking, drives the power of my strategic and conceptual analysis.

I am for individuals and organizations who want to make a difference.

I help you find and make your own unique impact because the world needs you.

I help you find what YOU need to do.

What ONLY YOU can do.

And I help you ride the ups and downs to GET IT DONE.

Hellene Gronda, Ph.D is a second generation Greek Australian, born in Athens, grown up in Melbourne, and currently living in Portland, Oregon where she serves as Executive Director of the Process Work Institute, helping people go deeper into the things that matter. 

She studied climate science early on and is a lifelong committed commuter cyclist, grateful to spend time in nature as often as possible, with the forests and the sea.

Hellene is a certified Processwork Diplomate, and an experienced educator, leader, facilitator and coach, who served as the Dean of the Process Work Institute’s Master of Arts academic program, 2015 -2020 and Executive Director 2017-2025.   She has over twenty years experience in senior leadership roles for nonprofits and government, and enjoys helping people and groups to learn and develop, most of all.

Research

Dance with the Body You Have: Body Awareness Practices and/as Deconstruction.

Doctoral Thesis by Hellene Gronda. Awarded by Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 2006.

Find out more about Hellene’s doctoral thesis

Read the blog post inspired by it: 

“Dance with the Body You Have”: Encountering the mystery that you are.

Growing, Dying and Relating: Exploring the Concept and Experience of ‘the Edge’.

Master of Arts Thesis by Hellene Gronda. Awarded by the Process Work Institute, Portland, Oregon, 2013.

Find out more about Hellene’s Master’s research

Read the blog post inspired by it: 

Why do some posts go viral? (How working with edges can you help you get your message across)