Biography
Who am I? My many parallel paths
I am Paulina. Lola for my friends. I was born in Warsaw in 1970, in an artistic house full of poetry, music, and tears. I am a feminist, journalist, writer, television producer, songwriter and poet, traveler, business woman, and certified yoga teacher. If I were to present my life as a graphic sign, it would be a spinning colorful spiral composed of many ascending threads.
The strongest of them is my creative work.
Many years ago, my need for artistic expression led me to a movie set, theater boards, and even a music stage. I played lead roles in movies by Andrzej Wajda and Adam Hanuszkiewicz, and minor roles in TV series and minor, or simply bad, films and theatre performances both in Poland and in France, where I migrated to on my own at the age of 16. Today my acting career is a very distant past. My creative energy expresses itself in writing books, columns, poems, and songs, which I sometimes (for fun or for the need of heart) perform with Julia Chmielnik in the framework of our cabaret project "Chicas de San Escobar". I was the director of TV and radio commercials, and the author of advertising campaigns for ITI agency, OTO film studio, and Euro RSCG Poland. I’ve written 14 books. Two of them, written together with Beata Sabała-Zielińska, were devoted to the city of Zakopane, a place I had been involved with for many years. Others (one of them co-authored with Dorota Wellman) focus on human rights and women's rights.
The second strand of my life-DNA,
very much intertwined with the first one, is my journalistic work. I started earning my stripes at Inforadio, which quickly turned into TOK FM radio. It was the radio I abandoned my acting career for and it was the radio where I learned to think for myself. I was a reporter at RMF FM, Radio ZET, Polish Radio, as well as in French public radio, France Culture. I ran programs at the Radio PIN and Radio Color. Radio was my great love, which I had abandoned for television merely by necessity. I started my career as a TV journalist on the "Encore plus Libre" programme on France 2, then came "Interwencja" in Polsat (as the presenter and a reporter), and after a while I joined the team of "Miasto Kobiet" (“City of Women”) on TVN Style. This talk show, devoted to social issues and women's rights, has earned a cult status and was on the air for 11 years. But running this program, even though I was its co-author, was not enough for me. That's why I additionally engaged in production and scriptwriting. I created the following TV programmes: "Kobieta Cafe" (“Woman Café’) and “Męski punkt widzenia” ("Men's Point of View") on Polsat TV, and "Żądło" (“Sting”) on TVN Style. I was writing speeches for many popular presenters of various TV shows and stations.
In 2017 I had the pleasure of being the presenter and co-writer of the documentary series “Polacy z wyboru” ("Poles by Choice") on Discovery Canal +. I run an internet TV program called “Lustro” ("Mirror"), where celebrities talk with great honesty how they feel in their bodies. In parallel to my work in the electronic media I have been writing for the press as well. I conducted numerous interviews for such magazines as Marie Claire, Viva, Twój Styl, Gala, Party . For 4 years I was running and editing popular "Debaty" (“Debates”) section of the Sens monthly and I was a regular columnist in Grazia. I used to ran a blog on “Na Temat” ("On topic") website and cooperate with "Goniec Polski" (“The Polish Times”), a monthly magazine for the Polish community in the United Kingdom, and currently I’ve been writing feuilletons for Onet.pl.
The third very prominent thread of my professional path is working with people
– running my #powerplace workshops. But there would be no workshops had I not focused on my personal development and thorough healing of my life first. I was in psychoanalytic therapy for 11 years and in individual and group therapy for codependents for 5 years. Many years ago I gave priority to working on myself, to overcoming my recurring depression, and to healing my life. And when the fruits of this effort came in the form of the sense of deep calm, fulfillment, and happiness, I decided that it was time to share the knowledge I gained with others. That’s how I created my workshops which gathered over 1500 participants for 8 years.
The fourth thread is travelling.
I have been traveling since I can remember and have invariably fell in love with each new place I visited. I am a nomad. I cannot settle down anywhere and I would never force myself to do that. My roots are movable, I pack them into my bag and unpack them in the next place I land. I feed on difference. The diversity of the world fascinates me. Lonely rambles around the world gave me great knowledge and joy, and brought me a gift I didn’t expect: yoga – my beautifully glistening in the tropical sun life thread number five!
A thread that I’ve grasped firmly and confidently as it is my path upward: towards understanding, gentleness, health, and love. Thanks to yoga I came up with the idea of combining my workshops with my traveling experience and started taking women on trips combined with personal development, exercising, and fantastic fun. I dream of practicing yoga until old age, performing my songs in a Greek tavern one day, having the opportunity to dance the Argentine tango I love, and leaving a lot of really funny stories behind.
