Ana is a therapist, coach, and mentor, and the founder of the Ana Rankovic Academy, whose mission is to help people break free from limitations and achieve their full potential. Through her work with clients, she focuses on healing emotional wounds, releasing inherited family patterns, and transforming limiting beliefs.
Her personal journey includes career changes, confronting family expectations, and navigating inner conflicts, all of which led to her deep commitment to therapy and helping others. Ana believes that it is possible to change generational patterns and empower both ourselves and others to live a fulfilled life—by bringing light into the darker parts of our past.
Lobbyists: Good afternoon, Ana. Thank you for taking the time for this conversation. To start with, tell us – who is Ana?
Ana Ranković: Good afternoon, and thank you. Ana is a therapist, coach, educator, and founder of an Academy whose mission is to help people free themselves from what no longer serves them – inherited patterns, beliefs, family loyalties – and to reach that version of themselves they deeply know they can become. My work is a blend of therapeutic depth, a neuro-somatic approach, coaching tools, and an authentic life story that began where many women have been – in roles that belonged to others, with a suppressed sense of self.
Lobbyists: What do you think creates those patterns?
Ana Ranković: I’m referring to all those invisible forces that shape us before we even know we exist as individuals – genetics, early experiences, emotional messages we “inhaled” from our parents, prohibitions, unspoken family system rules. Many of those forces aren’t “bad,” but they do limit us if we don’t become aware of them.
Lobbyists: How would you define the purpose of your work?
My work is here to shine a light on those influences, to examine them closely, and to liberate what is truly authentic – our inner compass.
Lobbyists: So, you believe that anyone can find their own path, regardless of their heritage?
Ana Ranković: Not only can they – I believe it’s their task. To recognize where the story of their ancestors ends and where their own voice begins. To stop being a replicator of the family and become the creator of their own path. Authenticity isn’t a whim – it’s a soul’s inner need.
Lobbyists: Ana, can you share with us how your journey actually began? How did you enter the world of coaching and therapy?
Ana Ranković: Everything I do today, I first had to do in my own life. I didn’t enter this work “from above” – from theory. I entered it out of personal necessity. The need to understand why I carry a weight that isn’t mine. Why I struggle to be “enough” in roles I didn’t choose. I changed careers three times – each time trying to be what was expected of me. And each time, I felt more empty.
Lobbyists: Three times? Why did you do that?
Ana Ranković: The first two careers were, as I can now clearly say, an attempt to gain parental approval. I was unconsciously living out their unfulfilled dreams. I was the “good girl,” successful, accepted – but that wasn’t truly me. It was a projection others had placed on me.
Lobbyists: When did the turning point happen?
Ana Ranković: When I felt an inner disconnect – as if I were physically separated from my real life. That’s when I began a journey of deep personal work. Education, therapy, intense self-exploration – none of it was a “self-development luxury,” it was an inner necessity. That’s when I began what I call “reclaiming” myself.
Lobbyists: What do you mean by “reclaiming”?
Ana Ranković: Reclaiming myself from the family script. In my family tree, success wasn’t allowed. Love was tied to sacrifice. Until then, I had played the role of the daughter who doesn’t stand out. But then I started tearing through those invisible threads that kept me loyal. And that’s when I met myself for the first time.
Lobbyists: I suppose it wasn’t easy…
Ana Ranković: Of course not. The family system – like any system – resists change. Change threatens stability, even if that stability is painful. There were moments of resistance, crisis, retreat. But beyond that – freedom. Immense freedom.
Lobbyists: And that’s when you realized you wanted to help others?
Ana Ranković: Yes, because I realized I wasn’t alone in this story. Hundreds, thousands of women who come into my work carry the same inner splits. And that’s when I stopped waiting to be “healed enough” to begin. I started offering support while continuing to grow myself.
Lobbyists: Ana, you mentioned that before becoming a therapist and coach, you had two completely different careers. What were they?
Ana Ranković: Yes, my journey truly began far from the therapy room. My first profession was in design – I completed two university degrees, one in Florence and the other in Belgrade, and I worked in five different fields of design. I was diligent, dedicated, and genuinely in love with what I was creating. But at some point, I realized that I had, unknowingly, been living out my mother’s unfulfilled dream, as she never had the opportunity to express herself through art. I was the one carrying her potential, her unrealized impulse – and until I became aware of that, I couldn’t distinguish what was truly mine from what was inherited.
Lobbyists: What made you return to Serbia, despite the career opportunities in Italy?
Ana Ranković: I returned at my mother’s urging, who believed I would be “safer” in Serbia. That return left a deep mark on me – it felt like I had cut off contact with my dream. Only later did I realize it hadn’t been solely my decision. It was the decision of a child trying to fulfill her parents’ expectations. I was an adult, but inside I was still seeking their approval.
Lobbyists: And the second profession?
Ana Ranković: The second profession was in the corporate sector. After a very painful divorce and a failed entrepreneurial attempt, I returned to Serbia once again – and got a job at a large insurance company. Success came quickly. I was recognized as one of the fastest-growing team members in all of Europe. But underneath it all, there was an emptiness in me. Success without identity. I was serving the system, but not myself.
Lobbyists: Just to clarify, during your time as an entrepreneur – were you already working as a therapist, or was it something else?
Ana Ranković: No, I wasn’t a therapist yet. I had my own design studio and worked in various creative fields. I was an artist, not an entrepreneur – and that was my challenge. I didn’t know how to structure a business because I was driven by passion, not strategy. Everything collapsed during the global financial crisis. That was my first major fall – and my first major insight.
Lobbyists: How did you experience that fall?
Ana Ranković: At that time, I didn’t even realize it was a fall. I was simply confused. I had talent, I worked day and night, but without clear inner direction. When everything collapsed, I had to look – not outward, but inward. And that’s when my first serious encounter with myself began.
Lobbyists: And then you moved into the corporate sector?
Ana Ranković: Yes. I entered a completely different world – structure, goals, teams, hierarchy. Success came quickly, but I didn’t feel any sense of meaning. I was a single mother, exhausted, empty, yet on the outside – a woman who seemed to have everything under control. That’s often the case with the women who come to me – outwardly they function, but inwardly they are not truly alive.
Lobbyists: When did you start to recognize those patterns and begin freeing yourself from them?
Ana Ranković: Around 2007, I felt I could no longer live by the old patterns. I started attending trainings, going to therapy, and doing deep inner work. I began uncovering family shadows and destructive loyalties. I started to understand why I couldn’t stay where I felt happy – and why I always returned to where pain awaited me.
Lobbyists: When did that become your main profession?
Ana Ranković: In the beginning, I was learning out of a need to save myself. I didn’t have the ambition to become a therapist – I had the need to survive. But as I walked that path, I felt I was returning to myself. And when I finally began working with clients, I knew: this is my path.
Lobbyists: What does your work look like today?
Ana Ranković: Today, I work with women who, just like I once was, were taught to be good, strong, self-sacrificing – yet deep down they are tired, overwhelmed, and lost. These are women who have taken on family scripts, roles they never chose, trying to meet others’ expectations, unconsciously believing they have no right to live an authentic life. My work is based on showing them that not only do they have the right – they also have the strength to build it. That even if no one before them in the family ever knew happiness, success, emotional freedom, or abundance – they can be the first to choose it. My job is to support them as they walk that path alone, often for the first time in their family line.
Ana Ranković: At Ana Ranković Academy, I am currently developing one of the most comprehensive personal development projects in the Balkans – an educational membership platform that brings together women from across the region through expert-led masterclasses, themed monthly guides, workbooks, guided processes, and deep mentorship. We address topics related to identity, emotions, trauma, family patterns, relationships with parents, money, self-confidence, habits, partnerships, and the inner voice. Every part of the program is carefully designed not just to provide knowledge – but also tools, support, and continuity. This is not just another online course. It is a safe space where women stop merely surviving – and start changing from within.
Lobbyists: Have you ever asked yourself – not just whether you can do something, but whether it’s even right to do it? Whether what you’re doing is truly just?
Ana Ranković: Of course. That question accompanies every woman who decides to break the chain. Because when you start to change, you don’t just feel fear – you also feel guilt. Our inner child, the part of us that sought love and belonging, protests. Because change carries risk – the risk of no longer being accepted, of being rejected by the system we come from. And the need to belong is the deepest human need. That’s why so many women unconsciously sabotage their own transformation. Not because they don’t know how to change, but because they’re afraid they’ll be alone if they truly become themselves.
Lobbyists: How does that inner system show up?
Ana Ranković: That inner system expresses itself through what we call inner voices – they’re not just thoughts, but deep, ingrained narratives. The voice of a great-grandmother who lived in scarcity. The voice of a mother who was afraid to be happy. The voice of a father who didn’t know how to show emotion. And all those voices become part of us. They say: “Don’t rock the boat,” “Be grateful and stay quiet,” “Don’t ask for too much.” My work isn’t to silence those voices. My work is to approach them – with understanding, but also with boundaries. To say: “Thank you for protecting me, but now I choose differently.”
Lobbyists: How do you approach that inner gap in your work?
Ana Ranković: By not skipping over it. Many methods today offer quick fixes, bypass pain, and rationalize the process. I don’t believe in cognitive shortcuts. I believe in the encounter – with yourself, with your body, with your emotions, with all the parts that make you whole. That gap between who we are and who we want to become – that is the field where transformation happens. But you must have the courage to step into that field, to face everything you’ve been avoiding for years. And that is where healing begins.
Ana Ranković: I approach them with respect. These parts – the saboteurs, the wounded child, the loyalties to family stories – they are not our enemies. They are guardians. And they are not conquered through struggle, but through connection. My work is deeply phenomenological and somatic – we work with the body, with memory, with voices, with symbols. We don’t erase anything. We liberate, integrate, and return power to the self.
Lobbyists: What does it mean to “liberate” those parts?
Ana Ranković: It means breaking unconscious vows and prohibitions. It’s like finally clearing out a room inside you that has been closed for years, getting rid of everything that no longer belongs. But not forcefully – with awareness. What isn’t yours has to “crumble away” so that what truly is can move in. And that is a process – precise, sacred, and deeply personal.
Lobbyists: What happens when that space is cleared?
Ana Ranković: That’s when freedom comes – not just as a feeling, but as a possibility. You start to feel what really matters to you, to recognize your needs, to make decisions that are truly your own. And most importantly – you stop recreating the past over and over again. You begin to create a new reality, with new patterns, relationships, habits. But that takes maturity. Because you must allow yourself to say: “That’s no longer who I am.”
Lobbyists: Once we become aware of them – what comes next?
Ana Ranković: Then we can let them go. The loyalties, the roles, the masks – all that was invisible becomes clear. And then you stop being a copy of your family tree. You become a new tree. And that’s where authentic life begins.
Lobbyists: What is the ultimate goal?
Ana Ranković: To finally breathe within ourselves. To allow our authentic potentials – love, success, expression, body, voice – to take up space. And not to be confused in that space, but to know: “This is me. And this is my right to live.” To allow ourselves to be the “black swan.”
Lobbyists: Do you think it was actually your genetics that gave you the strength to confront all these cultural patterns?
Ana Ranković: I absolutely believe that part of our strength comes from genetics—not only from what limits us, but also from what supports us. In our family tree, we don’t inherit only trauma and restrictions, but also talents, visions, resilience, the strength of ancestors who survived the impossible. Maybe some women before me had to stay silent, to endure, to sacrifice themselves—but even their silence left me the space to speak. In each of us, there is a healthy root. My work is based on recognizing both: what is poisoned and what is alive. Not to deny anything, but to choose what we want to nurture.
Lobbyists: You also mention something you call the “black swan in economics.” What exactly do you mean by that?
Ana Ranković: A “black swan” is a term from economics that refers to an unpredictable event that changes everything—like a pandemic. But I also use that term as a symbol for inner transformation. Being a “black swan” in your family means being the first to change the rules. The first to divorce not because of drama, but for freedom. The first to work not just to survive, but to create. The first to earn the kind of money no one before them could even imagine. That’s a huge step. And it’s not always celebrated. Because when you change the rules, your system sees it as a threat. But that’s exactly where your history begins.
Lobbyists: And what most often blocks us from doing that?
Ana Ranković: Fear—not just our personal fear, but collective, inherited fear. Family history often carries deeply rooted messages like: “Those who had money met a bad end,” “If you stand out, you’ll be rejected,” “A woman must sacrifice herself.” And so we, even when we have the capacity, the ideas, the opportunities—unconsciously sabotage ourselves to avoid ‘suffering’ the same fate as our ancestors. I myself, for example, unconsciously repeated the fate of my parents: I created a lot, and then lost it all. That was loyalty. Until I became aware of it—and broke the pattern.
Lobbyists: How can that be overcome?
Ana Ranković: Through deep inner work. Not just mentally, but through the body, through emotions, through the systems that shape us. When you realize that the fear isn’t yours—that it came before you, that it belongs to someone in your lineage—then you can gently return it to where it belongs. You can say: “Thank you, but now I choose differently.” And then you no longer have to carry a shield in a time and place where it’s time to create.
Lobbyists: As a rule, people often make radical life changes only after facing major tragedies. Do we really have to hit rock bottom for deep transformation to happen?
Ana Ranković: Not everyone has to hit rock bottom—but most of us do. The problem is that most people live in what I call “the swamp” – it’s not terrible, but it’s not good either. So they don’t initiate change. Only when we reach a point where the old ways are suffocating us, where we feel there’s no way out—that’s when the strength to move forward awakens in us. I call that moment the “inner push.” It’s the moment when you don’t know what lies ahead, but you know you can’t go back. And that’s the beginning of true transformation.
Lobbyists: Why do we drift so far from ourselves over the course of life?
Ana Ranković: Because we’re taught to from an early age. We’re taught to be obedient, good, quiet. We’re taught that emotions aren’t safe, that our bodies don’t belong to us, that our needs should be postponed. And little by little, we move away from our center. We enter relationships where we repeat family wounds, we live lives that aren’t truly ours. And then one day, we no longer know who we are. My work begins right there—when a woman says, “I don’t know where I am anymore. But I know I can’t go on like this.”
Lobbyists: What does that moment of no return look like?
Ana Ranković: It’s a moment of clarity. There’s no more self-deception. No more rationalization. Just a clear truth: “This is no longer me. And I don’t want to be this person.” In my life, it was the moment I told myself, “Where I come from, I was already dead. There’s nothing left for me there.” And that’s when, for the first time, I chose life—not safety, not the familiar—but life.
Lobbyists: Can we compare this path of transformation to something universally recognizable?
Ana Ranković: Absolutely—it’s what Jung describes as the archetypal journey of individuation, and what Joseph Campbell later systematized as “The Hero’s Journey” in his famous work The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It’s an epic narrative, a spiritual and psychological journey that exists in all mythologies around the world. The hero leaves the known for the unknown, faces dragons—both external and internal—and discovers a treasure that could only be found by taking the journey. Change is always an initiation. You have to go through chaos to find meaning. And we don’t do it to become “better,” but to finally become—ourselves.
Lobbyists: Unfortunately, we’re nearing the end of our conversation, but there’s still one important question left. How would you translate your personal experience into a broader societal change?
Ana Ranković: Thank you for that question, because I deeply believe that personal transformation is never just personal. When a person truly returns to themselves, they transform everything around them—their relationships, family, team, community. What applies to an individual also applies to society. Our internal images of ourselves, of others, of money, of love—they are also reflections of the collective unconscious. Everything we haven’t resolved within the family system, we carry in our bodies, in our psyche, and we also pass it on—through our behaviors, choices, and the structures we build.
Lobbyists: Can you explain that with a specific example?
Ana Ranković: Of course. Let’s take war trauma. Even if someone hasn’t directly experienced war, if their parents or grandparents lived through loss, escape, fear—that trauma is passed down. Children and grandchildren carry the consequences—through anxiety, autoimmune diseases, patterns of self-sabotage. Why? Because trauma that isn’t acknowledged—stays in the system. Only when someone in the family dares to look at it, to name it, to say: “This happened”—only then can the system begin to heal. The same is true for the collective. Until we shed light on what was—historically, culturally, emotionally—we will continue to repeat the same patterns, just in new forms.
Lobbyists: So, collective change starts with the individual?
Ana Ranković: Absolutely. Every time one person confronts themselves, they break the chain. And that ripples outward. One woman who decides to stop self-sacrificing—changes the way her children experience love. One person who breaks the family vow of poverty—creates space for abundance for generations after. When individuals begin walking that path en masse, we experience a collective shift. That’s why I believe inner work is the deepest form of social responsibility.
Lobbyists: Can we say that your work also has a social dimension?
Ana Ranković: Not only does it have a social dimension—it is its very core. My work doesn’t just change the lives of the women who come to me. It transforms the relationships within their families, the way they raise their children, how they run their businesses, how they choose partners, how they relate to their bodies, money, and emotions. And that, in turn, changes the community. Through each individual who becomes more conscious, society becomes healthier. It’s a chain of light.
Because every woman who breaks free from silence, submission, and inner sabotage—changes the narrative that has been passed down in her family for generations. And that’s why my work is not just therapeutic. It is also cultural, systemic, and, at its core—political.
Because the deepest change begins in the place no one sees—in what we believe we deserve. And in finally daring to believe: a different way is possible.