Zhenislava Sapundzhieva

Zhenislava Sapundzhieva

Director of the Training and Professional Development Centre (CPD)

Specialties: Trainer

Zhenislava has been part of the Karin Dom team since its foundation in 1996. She is responsible for the strategic management of Karin Dom’s Training Centre and coordinates the implementation of training programmes. For over 20 years, she has trained specialists from social and educational institutions, NGOs, parents, students, and volunteers. She has extensive experience organising and leading parent support and mutual aid groups.

She is also a professional supervisor, conducting individual and group supervisions independently and as part of a team, providing methodological support to specialists and organisations in the educational and social sectors. Her professional interests include early childhood intervention, the application and dissemination of the family-oriented approach in services for children and families of children with special needs, inclusive education, individual and group counselling of parents of children with special educational needs, team and organisational management, conflict management, and more.

Zhenislava participates in developing training modules and manuals. She is co-author of reports, presentations, and manuals in the fields of early childhood intervention, inclusive education, social activities, and work with families of children with special needs.

She has taken part in numerous additional trainings, qualifications, seminars, and practical sessions with lecturers from the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Russia, the USA, Canada, and Bulgaria. She has participated in international and national conferences.

Since 2011, she has been involved in scaling up the Early Intervention service for children aged 0–3 and their families at regional and national levels. She also works on applying and spreading the family-oriented approach in services for families of children with special needs, drawing on the experience of leading theorists and practitioners from Canada and the USA in early childhood development and early intervention.

Education

Master’s degree in Social Work, Specialisation in Applied Social Psychology
Bachelor’s degrees in Social Psychology, Social Management, and Social Work

Qualifications

120 hours of training in Positive Psychotherapy at the Society for Positive Psychotherapy in Bulgaria
Training in organising and leading support groups for children and teenagers who have experienced loss of a loved one, divorce, or family separation – Rainbows Austria Jugend am Werk
Certified Mediator training, “Supervision in Social Work,” 128 hours for certified supervisors, Shumen, Professional Association of Mediators in Bulgaria
Summer Institute “New Practices in Early Childhood Assessment and Intervention” led by Prof. Karl Dunston, researcher in Early Intervention, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Six-module training “Integrated Education of Children with Special Educational Needs” – Institute for Social Policy and Social Work, Sofia

Publications

Co-author of two publications with Assoc. Prof. B. Yustenianova – MU Varna, in the scientific journal IMAB 1997, vol. 3, pp. 177-179 and Social Medicine journal 1998, no. 4, pp. 19-20
Co-author of the Methodological Guide for Providing Early Intervention Services for Disabilities through the Establishment of an Early Intervention Centre for Disabilities, 2014, developed under the Social Inclusion project funded by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy
Co-author of the “Handbook to Assist Kindergarten Teachers,” developed under the project “Creating a Supportive Educational Environment for Children with Special Needs in Kindergartens,” 2015