Max Friedstein — English, coaching, and the work underneath

I don't promise perfection. I promise authentic expression.

I'm Max Friedstein, a Cambridge-certified English teacher and transformational consultant in Wrocław. I work with the thinking underneath how you speak, and how you live.

Or book a free conversation

Max Friedstein

Based in Wrocław, Poland. Working in person locally and online with clients across Europe and further afield.

Max Friedstein speaking to camera Watch: how I work, in a minute
  • 5.0 on Preplyfrom 20 reviews
  • Cambridge CELTAand TEFL Level 5
  • Teaching at BerlitzWrocław, and privately
  • Nine years' trainingin The Science of Acting

What I really do

When I was eleven, my mother introduced me to the work of Byron Katie, and it taught me something I have been working with ever since: it isn't what happens to us that creates suffering, it's our thinking about it.

I help you connect the dots between how you communicate, what you say (or don't say), and the bigger picture of your life.

What's holding you back in English is connected to what's holding you back in your relationship, or in that job you just seem to hate, or in that repeating issue with your child. These seemingly separate issues are not separate. They are mirrors into yourself.

So I teach the tools I've been working with for a decade now, to help you become aware of how life is communicating with you, and how to integrate that awareness into everyday life. You become a better communicator, an independent thinker, and a more whole human being.

Life is reflecting you back to you. I help you work with that reflection to know yourself, which I believe is what we're all really here to learn. To learn ourselves.

If we want to change existing conditions, we must first transform ourselves, which means that we must become aware of our own actions, thoughts and feelings in everyday life.

Krishnamurti
An infinity-shaped roof seen from above
A mountain range at first light

Ways to work with me

English coaching

B1 and above · online or in person in Wrocław

50 minutes · €50 or 220 zł
80 minutes · €75 or 330 zł

Ancient script carved in stone

You get by in English. You're understood. But it doesn't yet feel like yours, and under pressure — the meeting, the client call, the moment you actually need it — something closes.

That's rarely a grammar problem. It's the thoughts you've had about your English so many times they've stopped being audible. We work on both: the language, and the thinking that's shaping what you're able to say with it.

Sessions are conversation-led and built around the situations you actually face in English: meetings, calls, presentations, small talk.

Cambridge CELTA and TEFL Level 5 qualified. Currently teaching at Berlitz Wrocław. Twenty five-star reviews on Preply.

Highly professional, and he points out my weaknesses precisely, which has helped me improve a great deal.

Greyson · Preply

One-to-one mentoring

Longer-term programme · online

Priced as part of a programme through The Two Birds Foundation. Message me for details.

A mountain ridge lit at dawn

The deepest of the work. For people at a turning point who want to stop circling the same terrain — to see the beliefs and patterns that keep producing the same situations, and to develop the discipline of thinking for themselves.

It isn't fixing. Nothing here assumes you're broken. It's the slow, unglamorous, genuinely rewarding practice of coming to know yourself well enough to be your own guide.

Clients have worked with me for anything from three months to several years. It starts with a free conversation about whether it's the right fit.

He shone light on patterns, beliefs, and ways of thinking that I had been blind to my entire life. I've experienced so much inner freedom through this work.

M. · Hawaii

Energy healing

Reiki in person or long-distance · breathwork online

60 minutes · €100 or 440 zł

Sunlight sparkling on dark water

For when something is stuck and talking about it hasn't moved it. Sessions work with the body rather than around it, which is often where the material actually lives.

Usui Reiki Master, Shamanic Reiki, and Core-Clearing Breathwork. I'll tell you plainly what a session involves before you book one — no mystique required, and none imposed.

He balances the act of deep spiritual channelling with his capacity to remain grounded, present, and available for what his client is moving through.

C. · Pennsylvania

Intuitive readings

Tarot and oracle · online

60 minutes · €100 or 440 zł

Looking up into an ornate domed ceiling

I don't use the cards to predict. I use them as a mirror — a way of getting a look at the thing you already know and haven't let yourself say yet.

People come for clarity at a crossroads, or because their own inner signal has gone quiet and they want help hearing it again. You leave with your own reading of your situation, not mine.

Getting a reading from Max is getting an outside look into your soul, and advice that is soft and gentle and guides you to a more aligned path.

H. · Arizona

How it starts

  1. Book a free conversation.Tell me what you're working on. No preparation needed.
  2. We decide what fits.English coaching, mentoring, or a single session. If I'm not the right person, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.
  3. Book your sessions.Online, or in person in Wrocław. Readings, reiki and breathwork can also be booked directly above.

My story

The truth is, my passion is helping people understand that what they think and believe shapes their life. I have been interested in this since I was 11 years old, when I was introduced to Byron Katie through my mother.

The Work of Byron Katie taught me that it's not what happens in our life that creates suffering. It's our beliefs about it, the thinking we have in response to it, that creates suffering. From a young age I became fascinated by this and saw the potential of this way of observing and questioning our thoughts to help people. I would work with friends and family, always asking questions to help them unpack their psychological worlds.

I lost the plot a bit when life took me down a path of performance. I became a professional dancer with the belief that fame would somehow give me the attention I was addicted to. Dance went from being a way I moved energy as a child to an identity that was out of alignment with myself.

Two knee injuries that Western medicine couldn't cure took me down the rabbit hole, and somehow I ended up learning how to meditate, practising reiki, travelling the world, and stumbling into Dr. Helen Mosimann-Kogan, founder of The Two Birds Foundation. Helen changed my life and reminded me of the work I truly knew I was here to do: to help people see the unconscious thinking that is shaping their lives, causing them suffering, and derailing them from reaching their potential.

Helen's approach to self-inquiry was born out of her father's work, The Science of Acting, which stems from the Stanislavski method of acting. Helen integrated her father's approach into the field of personal development, where she has been training consultants for the last decade to deliver the courses she developed. I am one of those consultants.

As life would have it, I was guided to start teaching English as a way to become independent and move to Europe in 2024. What I thought would be just a side job has turned into the place where I put my training as a transformational consultant to practical use. This is where I help my English students see the invisible thinking that blocks them from communicating and expressing who they are.

I do not promise perfection. I promise authentic expression.

And in order to communicate authentically, you have to know who you are. Question your thoughts, increase your awareness, and you will come to know more and more of who you are.

So whether you are a non-native English learner struggling to express yourself, or someone who knows there are things you can't see holding you back from your next level, I'm your guy.

Max dancing on a beach
Max at a temple in Bali
Mount Kailash, Tibet
Ponderosa pines in Arizona

Background

Language teaching

  • CELTA, Cambridge University 2025
  • English Instructor, Berlitz Wrocław 2025–
  • TEFL Level 5, The TEFL Academy 2024

Transformation & coaching

  • Pathway Navigator, The Two Birds Foundation 2024–
  • Licensed Consultant, The Two Birds Foundation 2020–
  • The Two Year Program, The Two Birds Foundation 2020–21
  • The AZOTH Key, The Two Birds Foundation 2018–19

Healing & academic

  • Usui Reiki Master, G.N. Meditation Center, Nepal 2018
  • Reiki II, Arati Healing Center, Thailand 2018
  • Shamanic Reiki, The Sanctuary, NY 2017
  • 200hr Yoga Teacher, Brahma Yoga, India 2018
  • B.S. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, NAU 2024
  • B.F.A. Dance, minor Gender Studies, NYU Tisch 2017

What clients say

Across English lessons, mentorship programmes, and energy work. Different rooms, same reports.

English lessons

Max is a wonderful person and teacher. He puts in an incredible amount of effort and designs the lessons creatively, individually, and with a lot of passion. You learn and improve your English with a lot of joy and, above all, almost effortlessly.

Cheyenne · Switzerland

Max is a great English teacher, but I'd rather learn from him how to live more beautifully. He's a kind soul with an open mind, friendly and deeply empathetic. Time spent with him leaves you a better version of yourself.

Kinga · Poland

Mentoring and coaching

The past nine months have been the most transformational times of my life and also the hardest. Any time I felt unclear in myself, my sessions with Max helped me understand why, what was beneath the surface, and what I have been unable to see in the past.

A. · Massachusetts

Working with Max has shown me that I am not broken, that I do not need to be fixed or cured, and that I already belong. I belong just by being, by belonging to my true self.

R. · Netherlands

Energy work and readings

Max's understanding of energetics and his shamanic abilities are a refuge to me at times when I forget who I am. The thing I appreciate most is his way of empowering me through this process, always bringing things back to me and my life in the here and now.

I. · Australia
Sunrise breaking over a forested valley

Start with a conversation.

Tell me where you're at and what you're after. If I'm the right person you'll know quickly, and if I'm not I'll say so and point you somewhere better.

Prefer email? Write to [email protected].

Already working with me? Book your next session.