About Masha Rusanov
I'm so glad you are here!
People often tell me they didn't realize how much they were holding until they put it down.
Hi! I'm Masha. I work with people who can feel that something is off but can't quite see what it is yet. Or maybe they see it, but are not sure what to do next. And with teams where the friction keeps showing up, no matter what they try.
That thing you can feel but can't see is almost always exactly where you need to look.
Why I'm Here
I know what it feels like to sense that something is off and not know what to do about it. I've been there, more than once, and in more than one area of my life.
My first marriage ended. I did a complete pivot of my career. Twice. I went through the experience of figuring out what it means to be a part of a blended family. I faced some challenging conflicts within my extended family that needed to be worked through. This "working through" led me to deeply study human behavior patterns and how communication breakdowns happen through my master's program in conflict resolution.
While all of that was happening personally, I spent over two decades inside corporate environments at companies like Google and Intuit, watching the same patterns play out at scale. I saw talented, capable people shut down in a meeting, and well-functioning teams get stuck during high-stakes conversations. I saw how much energy organizations spend managing conflict instead of understanding it.
Running a conflict workshop for a leadership team at Google made it obvious: a multi-billion-dollar company and two people deciding custody are going through the exact same core human drama. Everyone is trying desperately to be heard. The fear is identical. The implications are *slightly* different.
Going through all those changes was not an easy path, but it was worth it. My marriage evolved into one of the closest friendships I have. We both found partners who are a much better fit. Our kids gained siblings. My career became the work I was always moving toward without knowing it. It didn't feel like it during the turbulent times, but my life reorganized itself into something I couldn't have designed on purpose.
My Guiding Philosophy
Most conflict interventions focus on the surface: what was said, who did what, what the policy requires. My work goes one level deeper, into the assumptions, patterns, and communication defaults that created the situation in the first place.
The framework I developed for this is the Exhale–Explore–Engage® method. A pause to get out of reactivity. A genuine look at what is true, not just what feels true in the moment. Then a deliberate choice about how to move forward from clarity rather than from fear or habit.
It sounds simple. In practice, for individuals and organizations alike, it's the part that almost never happens without support.
What I know after years of this work: most people and most teams aren't confused about their situation. They're confused about themselves. Once that clarity comes, the path forward usually becomes obvious.
The Expertise Behind My Guidance
I've spent years studying formally what I was already living personally. The credentials below represent that investment, but what they don't capture is the decades inside corporate environments watching how fear operates at scale, or the years spent working through my own patterns from the inside. Both inform this work equally.
On paper:
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M.A. in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding (CSUDH)
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Associate Certified Coach, ICF
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DCA Certified Divorce Coach
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New Ways for Families Certified Coach (High Conflict Institute)
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Trained Mediator and Day-of-Court Volunteer Mediator
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Certified Life Coach (Harvard University)
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Martha Beck Wayfinder Life Coach
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Author, Repatterned: Your Guide to Transforming Conflict with the Exhale-Explore-Engage Method