Olga Gerasimenko, PsyD
Adjunct Faculty
ogerasimenko@wi.edu
BA Oriental Studies (Japanese Language and Literature), Moscow State University, 1998
HR Management and Organizational Psychology, Moscow State University, 2000
MA Clinical Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Counseling, Moscow State University, 2018
PsyD Clinical Psychology, The Wright Institute, 2023
Dr. Olga Gerasimenko is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in major life transitions, relationship challenges, and blocks to personal or professional fulfillment. She received her PsyD from The Wright Institute and completed her doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Access Institute for Psychological Services in San Francisco. There, she provided psychodynamic and trauma-informed therapy to diverse adult populations, with particular focus on serving marginalized older adults at Bayview Adult Day Healthcare Center.
Dr. Gerasimenko employs psychodynamic therapy and EMDR as primary modalities. She specializes in working with creative individuals struggling with complex trauma, anxiety, and mood disorders, recognizing that creative blocks often reflect deeper psychological wounds requiring both insight and restored capacity for play. She has extensive experience working with culturally diverse populations across multiple settings. She currently maintains a private practice providing individual and couples therapy in English, Ukrainian, and Russian.
Prior to clinical psychology, Dr. Gerasimenko spent over a decade designing leadership development and organizational culture initiatives for multinational corporations, work that now deeply informs her clinical insight into the complex relationships between big systems, work life, identity, and mental health.
Dr. Gerasimenko serves as adjunct supervisor at The Wright Institute Clinic Services, where she supports doctoral students in developing foundational therapeutic skills and clinical judgment. Her current interests center on exploring adult play and creativity as essential components of psychological functioning and therapeutic change, viewing the capacity for playful engagement as both a marker of healing and a pathway to authentic self-expression.
Publications:
Aleksina N., Gerasimenko O., Lavrynenko D., & Savchenko O. (2024). Ukrainian adaptation of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7): diagnostic experience in the state of martial law. Insight: The Psychological Dimensions of Society, (11), 77-103.
Aleksina N., Lavrynenko D., Savchenko O., & Gerasimenko O. (2024). Brief COPE-26 Coping Scale: Ukrainian-Language Adaptation and Modification for Online Diagnostics. Insight: The Psychological Dimensions of Society, (12), 191-227.