Willpower stopped working
Carrying everything personally now costs fatigue, poor sleep and outbursts instead of results.
Psychologist · physician · researcher
Human systems recover through connection.
I develop methods, communities and digital tools that help people restore self-regulation, honest dialogue and purposeful action.
Dmitry Shamenkov, MD — psychologist, physician, PhD candidate in Public Health at NOVA University Lisbon, and founder of Opendialogue.space.
25+ yearsacross psychology, medicine, systems psychophysiology and health technology
54printed works, including two monographs
18patents as author or co-author
4×TEDx speaker
APAinternational member of the American Psychological Association since 2016
1,370+Google Scholar citations, h-index 7
For founders, CEOs and leadership teams
When leaders come to me.
Owners and senior executives with real responsibility and rising pressure — when the approaches that built their success have stopped working.
Decisions made under strain
Anxiety narrows attention exactly when the cost of a decision is highest.
Hard conversations postponed
With a partner, a shareholder, a board, or about price and terms — and the delay keeps getting more expensive.
Old patterns, new reality
Markets, teams and AI are changing faster than the habits of thinking that once worked.
How I work
From a clear state to a precise decision and action.
Work starts with a 90-minute private session: a short diagnostic before it, a clear action map after it.
- Restore the stateA short practice in the session itself — breathing, silence, a pause before action — and five minutes a day between sessions.
- Separate facts from fearsReal episodes, step by step: what happened, how I read it, what I felt, what I did, what followed.
- Choose one main stepA goal, one action, an if–then plan and a brief evening review. No overload.
- Prepare for hard conversationsNegotiations, conflict, a partner or shareholder conversation — approached composed, and conducted differently.
- Support between sessionsShort check-ins, voice notes and preparing thinking for effective work with AI.
Evidence
What changes for leaders and teams.
Organisational outcomes are reported in the words of the leaders themselves. Personal stories are anonymised.
“Dmitry Shamenkov created what I consider to be one of the most profound and powerful transformational teachings.”Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani, co-founder of Mindvalley · Becoming Flawesome, Hay House, 2023, p. 163 ↗
6 → 14 bn roubles in annual work volume
The CEO links work on trust, goal alignment and constructive discussion with releasing the team’s internal resources: “When we left the parent group, our work volume was 6 billion roubles; today we earn around 14 billion.”
A practice became a management routine
Regional retail heads voluntarily use the practice before their weekly management meetings. In the founder’s words: “People understood and felt for themselves the importance, value and effectiveness of this tool.”
The whole harvest, with 4 of 10 combines working
In a critical harvest the team avoided panic and blame and brought in the entire crop. The co-owner: “With a team skilled in open dialogue, 60% of the required resources can deliver 100% of the result and more.”
Came under heavy strain amid a long conflict. Weeks later, held a face-to-face meeting with the other side calmly: “No jitters… I was balanced. We can build on this.”
Had long avoided a direct conversation about price and terms. Within a month reached an agreed split between partners and signed a term sheet.
Before a difficult conversation with his boss, took a few minutes to sit and breathe — and handled it differently: “The conversation went well.”
Forbes (2019) called Dmitry a “doctor of friendship” for company leaders and their teams.
Mental agility & AI
AI is changing business faster than leaders’ thinking is changing.
The main constraint on AI transformation is not technology but people — above all, leaders. Mental agility, holding the goal while changing the route, is becoming a core competitive advantage. And it can be trained.
88% vs ~6%
of companies use AI, while only about 6% attribute 5% or more of EBIT to it. — McKinsey, The State of AI ↗
70%
of AI success depends on people and processes; 10% on algorithms. — BCG, 10-20-70 rule ↗
Leaders
are the biggest barrier to scaling AI — not employees. — McKinsey, Superagency in the workplace, 2025 ↗
A living-systems perspective
People are not isolated problems to be fixed.
A person, a family, a team and a community are living systems: shaped by purpose, relationships, action and feedback.
- Self-regulation before forceWhen a system can perceive its state more accurately, it has more freedom to choose its next action.
- Honesty without violenceHonest dialogue is not pressure or disclosure for its own sake. It is contact with reality while preserving dignity and agency.
- Purpose expressed through actionA meaningful goal becomes real through communication, action, feedback and adjustment — not through intention alone.
The method
Functional Systems Facilitation
FSF is Dmitry's science-informed framework for working with goal-directed human systems.
- PurposeWhat matters now?
- ActionWhat can be done?
- ResultWhat actually happened?
- ReflectionWhat does the response show?
- AdjustmentWhat changes next?
Ways to work together
One body of work, three forms of collaboration.
The common focus is how human systems regain clarity, connection and coordinated action.
01
Research & digital mental health
Academic collaboration, intervention design, peer support and responsible AI for human connection.
Research context →02Leadership & organizations
Confidential work with founders, owners and leadership teams when relationships and decisions carry a high cost.
Advisory formats →03Speaking & public dialogue
Talks and conversations about integrity, self-regulation, living systems, connection and AI.
Speaking topics →From framework to environment
Opendialogue.space
An AI-supported peer-to-peer digital mental health platform that combines dialogic practice, peer support, educational material, personal goals and structured reflection. Technology supports human connection; it does not replace it.
Watch
Integrity — in English
A TEDx talk on honesty as a condition for connection, coherence and action.
Start a conversation
What human system are you trying to strengthen?
For research, digital health, institutional partnerships, leadership advisory, speaking and media.