itive feedback was already enormous and
in most cases the main thing the students
Marija Nuic and the Pole Dance
Therapy
By: Bruna Valverde de Oliveira
“If you’re feminine you know, some-
body might rape you, ” said Marija Nuic
“ So you might as well better cover your-
self and save yourself from trauma just
because it’s not easy. So what we do is
we totally give up on our femininity,
sensuality, sexuality, so many things. Or
again on the other hand like Christianity.
What it did to women and what it did to
everything that we are, because you’re not
allowed to be sexy and that’s something
that’s in our nature. It’s in our blood.
You know it’s just who we are. And then
you’re told no that’s not OK. You should
feel guilty you should feel ashamed ”
I met her at a cafe in Cork, we sat at
her favorite place near the window, af-
ter all, how many of us like to watch
the life of the people running on the out-
side while we press pause on our day? It
was in one of those breaks that I got to
meet Marija, with her contagious smile
and the smell of hot chocolate in the air.
I had already read about her and how
she believed that being present/there for
others was her purpose but it was not
until I was walking back home from this
interview that I could understand why.
Marija Nuic was born in 1982 in Poze-
ga, Croatia, she knew that her goal was
to instruct and help people so she grad-
uated in preschool teaching but soon af-
ter graduating she found her passion in
psychology, subject in which she decided
to do her masters about. Soon after that
she studied to become an Integrative
Psycho-Spiritual Therapist and while
speaking about that decision she de-
scribes it as “ the reason she was born”.
Marija decided to leave Croatia after
a very positive experience of her part-
ner in Canada. They also moved togeth-
er and lived for 3 months in Cambodia
teaching English classes before deciding
to move to Cork. They chose Ireland to
be their next home because they could
be living in a different country while
still being relatively close their family.
Deciding to focus on the therapeu-
tic side of psychology Marija fell in
love with various forms and methods
of therapy including Family Constella-
tions and Core Cellular Healing. In her
website she describes them as being
her biggest passions and methods that
completely ¨transformed¨ her life. Dur-
ing my interview with her she tried to
explain to me how these methods work
and how they help on the improve-
ment of people’s lives in different ways.
“Magic happens” she said while try-
ing to explain to me the procedures and
how to have someone trying to explain
what they are is like someone explaining
what is dance to a person that has nev-
er danced in their life. These procedures
cannot be explained they have to be wit-
nessed, you can’t understand unless you
do yourself take part in the procedure.
One of the reasons that drew my at-
tention to Marija was the motivation of
everything she does, in a genuine way and
it’s easy to realize that she does exactly
what she likes and that her main impulse
is to help people. On her website she says
“ I am here to assist you if you hold any
wounding that is looking for your atten-
tion. I am here to help you to go deeper
into the wounds, to slowly release the
pain that created the blockage and was
maybe even created by something very
traumatic that happened to someone in
your ancestral line, or in your childhood.
I am here to help you heal with love,
with connection, with deep believing
in something greater than ourselves. ”
While she was finishing her sec-
ond degree Marija began to fall in love
with pole dancing. She started tak-
ing pole dancing classes three times a
week until her teacher invited her to
give some lessons when an opportuni-
ty opened in the studio. And soon after
the invitation Marija decided that this
was exactly what she wanted to do.
Marija was given complete free-
dom to command the classes the way
she wanted and at that moment pole
dance therapy emerged. Adjusting the
classes so that she also felt comfortable,
without even realizing at the beginning
Marija began to merge the two pas-
sions of her life therapy and pole dance.
Shortly after the start of class, the pos-
used to say is that Marija classes were dif-
ferent from all the pole dance classes they
had taken part or even imagined before.
Until that moment Marija had no clear
idea of what was happening but people
said that the conversations in the room
were important and after a while the
students started saying how the lesson
had helped them in their own personal
life, to love themselves and their bodies
something that is not easy nowadays.
Marija then realized what she could
do with the classes that were already
different and decided to incorporate the
therapy even more. In her own website,
Marija describes why she decided to in-
“It is crucial for
every woman
to liberate her
feminine side, free
her sensuality and
sexuality from shame
and other unpleasant
feelings, to build her
self-confidence and
empower [her] as a
woman. ”
vest in this project, “Every day I meet
women who hate or at least do not like
their bodies or certain body parts, who
have low-self-esteem, who are being crit-
ical towards themselves, who feel weird
and uncomfortable if they are moving
their pelvis (and our pelvis is the center
connected to our pleasure in life!), who
are afraid to be themselves. It is crucial
for every woman to liberate her femi-
nine side, free her sensuality and sexu-
ality from shame and other unpleasant
feelings, to build her self-confidence and
empower [her] as a woman. ”. This was
also not an easy and natural process for
Marija, during the interview she told one
of the moments in her life that showed
her how important is to be comfortable
with yourself“ I was spending some time
with my brother’s girlfriend. And she was
also kind of being my friend. And she said
I’m going to have a shower. I want you to
join me, she just got naked no problem. I
would like to have that freedom. ” Marija
mentioned that at times some therapists
will say that if you accept your body well
enough, there is no need to love it and
how she personally disagrees with that
option. For a long time she also did not
accept her body but began in a simple
way, practicing every day. According to
Marija it was an arduous process and it
was not overnight but today she can say
that she loves her own body, feels com-
fortable in it and would not trade it for
any other How many of us can say the
same ? That is Marija’s goal , after hav-
ing gone through all this process of ac-
cepting herself and her body, her sensu-
ality and sexuality what she wants is to
pass on that feeling and this freedom to
other women not only to connect with
the world, but especially with yourself.
I can honestly say that the meeting
with Marija made me question sever-
al moments of my day in which I doubt
myself, on the way home I was feeling
lighter, more confident and hopeful that
it is possible to reach this same level
of security and if she managed to have
that effect on me in just a few hours I
do not doubt that it could have much
greater effects on the women partici-
pating in her new approach to therapy.
As I said goodbye, I asked Marija what
she would say to a person who at the mo-
ment its struggling with their own issues
being body related or not and she said
goodbye giving a last advice. “See what
you’re not happy with your life, and just
find a way to change that. And if you can-
not change it (because) some changes are
very hard then find support because like I
did not do this on my own, I had so much
support in my life from my teachers from
people around me from friends from my
partner Just ask for the support, and you
know that the change is possible, believe
that everything you want is possible. ”