The following is an interview with Lidia Martić, one of the therapists of the Spiritual Therapy Group based in Zagreb and the leader of the ST Group.
The Awakening Times (TAT): On your website Mahavatar Babaji is listed as one of the founders of the spiritual therapy method. Can you clarify that connection with Babaji and why is he mentioned in this context?
LIDIA MARTIĆ (LM): I consciously met with Babaji when I met Maja Matenicharska, the founder of the spiritual therapy method with Babaji. As the book Autobiography of a Yogi reminds us, Babaji is not only a historical figure but also an eternal presence – a soul that is always here to guide us towards the highest state of enlightenment. His guidance is not limited by space and time – it is constantly available through telepathic communication, which is becoming wider and “more normal” nowadays, despite fears and prejudices. This year, 2025, brings a special emphasis on connecting with spiritual guides, both from the physical world and from spiritual dimensions, and on creating community among those who work on themselves and help others. Mahavatar Babaji is a symbol of the highest level of consciousness and a completely self-realized soul – perfect awareness of oneself, soul and creation and materialization and dematerialization. The perfect Master of all the greatest teachers, in our opinion.
His teaching inspired Maja, who in her experience, and confirmed by my own inner information, reached enlightenment in 2007., after which she sought guidance on how to best help others. Babaji answered the call and guided her to start creating the spiritual therapy method, which today leads us towards our own self-realization. He guided her to open full telepathic communication with all souls, so the method was not created only from Maja’s experience, but also through listening to all our souls, including my own. That is why I consider this method my personal calling. And that is why Babaji is a spiritual guide to all spiritual therapists, and together with Maja trains us in the school of spiritual therapy to become independent spiritual therapists. Their vision is to remove boundaries and open the way for every individual to achieve their deepest desire – the expression of their own soul and life in accordance with the divine plan. For me personally, Babaji remains a symbol of unconditional love and acceptance, and my constant spiritual guide, and working through his method constantly reminds me that we are all connected and guided towards the light, despite the apparent darknesses we go through. Spiritual therapy is not just a therapeutic technique – it is a holistic path of connecting man, psyche, spirit and soul. We operate in Croatia, and internationally, through the established Institute of Spiritual Therapy (IST) based in Zagreb, which is also the mentioned Babaji’s and Maja’s school of spiritual therapy.
TAT: How would you describe the spiritual therapy method you apply? What are its key characteristics and how does it differ from other therapeutic approaches?
LM: The goal of spiritual therapy is to bring every individual to authenticity, to connecting and expressing their soul, themselves, or as we would say – Self. That authenticity is key because it enables self-realization – the highest level of soul expression in everyday life. Babaji as a guide on the other side, Maja as a teacher here, and our own soul from within, guide us on that path of integration of all aspects of oneself and living authenticity.
What makes spiritual therapy unique is its integration of spirituality and psychotherapy and spiritual and material. It approaches each individual as a soul that already knows everything and at the same time as a child of the soul – a consciousness that seeks healing, understanding and acceptance of duality. Spiritual therapy not only leads towards the expansion of consciousness and enlightenment, but also helps in better creating life and manifesting one’s own potentials through acceptance and integration of all parts of oneself, including the “shadow”.
The Institute of Spiritual Therapy is not only a place of working on oneself but also a school for future spiritual therapists. Those who feel a calling to help others go through school, practice and supervision. Some have already passed the first part of the school and are now working with clients, under supervision.
In the end, what makes this method special is the feeling of freedom and trust – both in the guidance of one’s own soul from within, and in the help of guidance from both sides: physical and spiritual. Spiritual therapy is simultaneously deeply human and divine, rawly human, and yet connected with the highest levels of light and love.
TAT: Can you tell us something about your personal spiritual path and what led you to the role of a spiritual therapist in STG?
LM: I can indeed say that I have a rich life of the path of integrating paradoxes and opposites. A black and white world. But wholehearted, as I like to say. That wholeheartedness finds its best expression in the spiritual poetry I write and publish. Writing has become a way for me to express authenticity, encourage introspection and connect more deeply with the world around me, but also with the souls of others.
My spiritual story begins in childhood, through the Catholic faith. I used to have guides, but for a long time I didn’t know what to do with those experiences. A pilgrimage to Camino de Santiago brought me one of the most special experiences – the guidance of Archangel Gabriel who is still with me today, along with Babaji. After that, there was an exploration of various spiritual teachings, from autogenic training to energy therapies and massage according to Eastern principles, through which I was already realizing the desire to help others. A key moment was the meeting with Maja and the connection with Babaji and this method. I recognized in them everything I was looking for and felt that I had arrived home.
At the same time, another part of me – the one grounded in the material world – was developing in parallel. I finished economics, worked as a manager in a bank, traveled and built relationships, through that increasingly breaking through the tracking of every feeling and creating. This meant constantly balancing between the spiritual and the material, which I still experience today as a challenge, but also a privilege. That connection of two worlds became the foundation of my work – to help people find their own authenticity while they live and create in everyday life.
Today, as a spiritual therapist, co-founder of the Institute of Spiritual Therapy and leader of a group of spiritual therapists, I lead people towards their soul and freedom, in connection with the mission and intention of love. But, my work is also my own path. Every client, every workshop, every moment of introspection serves as a reminder that working on oneself is not a line that leads towards perfection, but a circular movement towards accepting everything that we are – light and shadows.
TAT: What are the most common themes or challenges that your clients face, and how do you help them overcome them?
LM: Regarding our clients, their initial reasons for coming are diverse and deeply personal. It is often about health challenges, the search for greater meaning in life or discovering one’s own mission. They often contact us due to dissatisfaction in relationships, the desire to become better parents or learn how to better create their own life in any of its aspects. From the need for acceptance and faith in them. Each client brings their unique story, their needs and their moment.
Regardless of the specific reasons, behind all arrivals stands one deep call of the soul – to become a conscious creator of one’s own life, to discover one’s own mission and authenticity and to live them at the highest level. We are here to make that process clearer and easier, using methods that lead each client towards inner guidance and trust in their own path.
And as we said, the Institute is also a school for those who feel a calling to help others And be therapists themselves.
TAT: What does a typical individual spiritual therapy session look like? What techniques or methods do you use during work with clients?
LM: Each individual spiritual therapy session is unique and adapted to the needs of the client’s soul. The key to our work is in adaptation – providing what the client’s soul is asking for at the moment, but also discovering aspects that they may not have been aware of. The spiritual therapist enters into a deep connection with the client, listening to their soul and inner voice to identify blockages, traumas and internal conflicts, but also to open the way to authenticity and self-acceptance.
The most important thing is active listening. The client themselves discovers the themes and levels to which they are ready to go. Based on that, through feeling and connection with their soul, information comes about which techniques to use. There is no universal approach, but some of the methods we often apply include: energy work, opening channels for contact with the inner voice and spiritual guide to the client themselves, meditative techniques, becoming aware of trauma and shadow through understanding, allowing all emotions and acceptance, and healing suppressed parts of the psyche. We also use ST constellations – individual work that illuminates the main burdens in relationships and brings them into harmony; as well as expression through creative processes.
One of the key steps of spiritual therapy is defining the client’s mission – becoming aware of the purpose of the soul and creating a life in accordance with that purpose. This requires not only introspection but also the application of what has been learned in everyday life, with full trust in the process.
Personally, I am a big advocate of working with the shadow, known to the world through the Jungian approach. Accepting the darkness and light within us is the key to integration. Every feeling, every trauma or anger – even towards God – is a path to a deeper understanding of oneself and reaching the essence and light. Spiritual therapy teaches us that there is no real mistake, because everything that our soul brings us has a purpose and contributes to growth.
Individual sessions are deeply intimate, and their length and intensity depend on the needs of the client. With some we work on a specific topic, while with others we go through a longer path through all aspects of life, including relationships, personal traumas and spiritual processes. The work can be live or online, and sometimes includes SMS messages so that we have a direct presence in the client’s life situations, so that we can jointly recreate and transform key moments.
Our role is not to offer ready-made solutions, but to help each client listen to their own soul, recognize its calls and respond to them authentically and with trust. Work with souls is deeply personal, but at the same time universal, because every soul strives for the same goal – love, light and conscious creation.
Individual work has a special value for me. It is a space where the client can bare themselves, be completely accepted and safe. Sometimes we only need one person who can see us and support us, and then we can do everything.
TAT: What are the advantages of participating in workshops and spiritual retreats that you organize, compared to individual sessions?
LM: IST organizes workshops, retreats, lectures and group sessions when a group of souls is ready for new information or opening a new layer of consciousness. In these forms of work, special branches of spiritual therapy that we do come to the fore: ST constellations, ST Art therapy and ST creative writing. Each workshop or retreat includes work on awakening, healing and extracting the mission from the soul, which is the foundation of our approach.
The beauty and specialness of workshops, and especially retreats, lies in the common energy of the group that creates miracles. They are places where community and group energy are used for collective and individual growth. Retreats bring dedication and isolation from everyday life, which allows for deeper going through processes and releasing what holds us back. They are an opportunity for each soul to extract what is most important for itself, but also to pull others through its energy and strength in certain parts. Retreats are a special experience to experience also because they are led by Babaji and Maja together.
Workshops are specific because they focus on certain themes that naturally arise after personal or group processes. Examples of topics we have covered include: Wrongness – does it exist in the Universe?, Raising children and what are children, Guilt – not knowing who we are and Receiving equals giving. Also, last summer Maja led ST Mindfulness workshops, where participants through meditations on sound, movement and connection with the soul experienced deep transformation, but also inner peace. We plan to start a similar permanent program online soon, both in Zagreb and Split as soon as we find a suitable space.
ST constellations, as a group technique, are a particularly effective way of working. Through them, key themes and relationships are quickly brought to awareness, and the burdens of untruths are unraveled directly through the energy of the souls of the participants and the souls on the other side.
It is difficult to say what I prefer, because each form of work has its own role and strength, and all together make up an integral approach to spiritual therapy.
TAT: Can you share some experience or story that has especially remained in your memory during your work with clients?
LM: Recently a client told me something that deeply touched me. He said that he is proud of our work and where he has arrived, adding that, although he sees in what his parents could be better, he would not change them. He believes that, if other children of their parents say otherwise, it means that they are not connected with themselves. For me, that was the ultimate confirmation that we succeeded – he became a conscious creator who accepts his responsibility, but also surrendered to the trust in his soul and heart, which allows him to be independent. Such moments are what I love the most.
Of course, there are also more difficult moments. Over the years there have been clients who, after long work, would decide to stop because they were not ready for further becoming aware. That is always difficult, but then another client comes, with results that remind us why we do what we do.
I also remember one special moment when a client, releasing suppressed emotions, felt the need to express them by breaking something. In the end, we collected all the empty glass jars we had so that she could express anger for the first time. Watching that moment of liberation and acceptance was priceless.
Every story, every process carries its own uniqueness and beauty. Some are challenging, some touching, but each is special in its own way, because each leads to deeper authenticity and connection with oneself.
TAT: How do you harmonize the spiritual and material world in your personal life, and how do you help clients achieve that balance?
LM: Harmonizing the material and spiritual for me is a daily process. The key is to live both sides in parallel, without suppressing one while I am in the other. This means consciously accepting the challenges of the material world, while listening to the inner voice, heart and soul. It is important to stay connected with the guidance that comes through intuition, feelings and even telepathic communication – through all the vibrations and circumstances that surround us. And also consciously practically and immediately apply spiritual insights and information into everyday life.
Seeing the divine in everyone and everything is part of that process. Holding the trust that everything is soul. At the same time, setting priorities helps maintain balance – knowing when to rely on spiritual guidance, and when to act in the material world, but always keeping the spiritual as a priority and practicing letting go more and more through the process of becoming aware and accepting all emotions related to it.
TAT: What role do spiritual guides have in your work, and how do you help clients establish or deepen the connection with their spiritual guides?
LM: Here we are talking about this on the day of the great alignment of seven planets. This is another sign for the mentioned time of strengthening the connection with souls from the other side – through telepathic communication, but also through the community of spiritualists, psychotherapists and all who work on themselves and help others. This is truly joyful.
We learn that spiritual guides are available 24 hours a day for intimate partnership, guidance and awakening – through all energies and circumstances. This enables awareness and centering of the intention of acting and helping from the best for all, as well as an ever greater connection with one’s soul, freedom and authenticity. Guides through telepathic communication provide freedom with the security of their support and guidance towards higher goals.
The very connection of the client with their own guide happens with the energetic help of the therapist, openness, setting a clear intention and questions from the client themselves. Together we become aware of the fears and blockages that stand in that way and together we break them.
TAT: How do you see the future of spiritual therapy and its role in modern society?
LM: I will quote parts of the goals of the statute of our association as an answer to this question: achieving the spiritual growth of individuals and groups for the purpose of spreading consciousness, opening love, enlightenment and understanding; connecting with one’s own soul and authenticity and awakening responsible manifestation as conscious creators.
Precisely the living of the mentioned integration of shadow and light and approach through oneself we want to convey to the world – that we are perfect as we are and perfectly guided by our souls, without mistake, and at the same time we have all the help, from within and from without, from both sides, for a deeper realization of the soul through oneself and one’s mission of helping others.
Precisely that richness and holistic approach I consider the future. I see more and more cooperation and community. That is why I invite all who work with others or strive for self-realization and self-exploration, regardless of the techniques, schools or beliefs to which they belong, to contact us, to cooperate, to create integration and unity and to learn from each other. I adore connecting with those who share these intentions. That is why the invitation of the festival “Slavimo život” (Let’s Celebrate Life) and cooperation with the Mohanji center was a wonderful experience and joy.
Instantly we are connected by that click on the shared experience of transformation, the search for truth and the obligatory passing through the pain and letting go that this process carries. There is nothing better than that click, connection, cooperation and creation of new steps and ways for our souls to live their missions. This very year pulls us towards community, connecting and creating a more loving world for all.
So I expect more and more results of our work, individually and collectively, more and more authenticity and more and more telepathic communication, which is a natural step of our further development.
TAT: What are your tips for those who are just beginning their spiritual journey or are thinking about getting involved in spiritual therapy?
LM: All creation is spirituality. And all therapy is – for becoming aware and healing our not knowing who we truly are. So, regardless of whether someone is attracted to spiritual therapy, some other method or their own introspection, my advice is in the form of a hashtag that I constantly use: #FollowYourFeeling, #FollowYourSoul. And give your best not to follow fear or trample your soul.
You are certainly perfectly guided. When you ask, help is always there – in whatever form you choose. With trust in the soul – you are safe.
