If you're feeling loopy, let's get you onto a different track.

One that's truly yours.

I write performance protocols for female athletes — and work with women on body and vitality. Some come to me from the start line, some from everyday life, with the same thing in different words: running in circles and never really switching off. The body carries that loop long before the head admits it. I help you hear it — and step out.

Two doors, one way out

Choose the language that sounds like you.

A weathered wooden jetty reaching into a calm mountain lake
For women who compete

Altitude Protocol

OFF protects ON.

Stop competing before the competition starts. A protocol for performing under pressure the way you do in training: think clearly, decide once, execute fully. OFF until needed. ON when it counts. RESET when it's over.

Explore Altitude →
A wooden boardwalk curving through golden marsh grass toward a forest
For women — athletes or not

Sanctuary One

Your body is your first sanctuary.

Step out of the vicious cycle and find the direction that's truly yours. A single 90-minute session, or The Sanctuary — a monthly membership to come back to when you need it.

Visit Sanctuary One →
Same body, different words

What I say on the start line and in everyday life is the same thing.

Only the language changes — and the way we find each other.

What it isOn the start lineIn everyday life
The loopRe-making the same decision, competing before the startThe vicious cycle, the rut
Closing the loopOFF: the decision is made, nothing is required yetPutting it down without having to fix it
Staying in your bodyExecute now, feel it laterNot running from yourself, even when it's scary
The different trackDoing what you can do, when it countsA direction that's truly yours
About me

Sport taught me what happens when you ignore your body. Flying taught me to stay in it.

Valeria Tsoy smiling, seated in a rust turtleneck against a warm taupe wall

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi I became the first snowboarder ever to represent Kazakhstan (Valeriya Tsoy on Wikipedia). In May 2026 I earned my Commercial Pilot Licence — Helicopter, issued by Transport Canada. In between, I moved my whole life to a new country and built it again from the ground up. Along the way I wrote two picture books for my daughter, Evy and Coco and Evy and Chuk.

A year before the Olympics, I finished fourth at a World Cup in Sochi. At the Olympics, I didn't make it past qualifying. I was racing for everyone but myself.

Years later I sat in a helicopter for my flight test. This time I insisted on doing it on my own terms — a luxury I didn't have at the Olympics. Before I started the helicopter, I said:

“I know who I am.”

To me, that means I'm open to whatever the outcome is. I surrender to the moment and breathe with full lungs. Then I flew like I never had before. I aced it.

Flying wasn't a new career for me. It was coming back to myself. It's impossible to fail in a path you choose yourself. You can care about the result with everything you have. It still doesn't get to decide who you are.

I know the loop from the inside: training, competing and living by other people's standards until the body says stop. The helicopter taught me presence. There have been moments flying when I was scared. My instruction to myself was never “Don't be scared.” It was: “Right now, I'm flying. I'll be scared later.” You keep flying the manoeuvre — you don't run away from your own body. That's what I help people find: a way to stay in themselves, even when it's scary, and to switch off when it's time.

I'm not a doctor or a therapist. I'm someone who has had to find a different track more than once — and who is good at helping others find theirs.

Books

When it counts — and when it ends.

One book for the moment you have to perform. One for the day the sport is over and you have to find a different track.

Before and during

Altitude Protocol

Do it when it counts.

For competitive athletes whose performance under pressure doesn't yet match what they can do in training. Think clearly, decide once, execute fully.

Read it free →
After

After the Podium

How to win after sport.

For athletes whose careers are ending: losing the identity sport gave you, redefining yourself, and finding a new purpose. In paperback, and as an audiobook narrated by me.

Archive · 2010–2014

I've been writing about this since 2010.

My first blog followed me from training camps and races all the way to Sochi. I've brought the surviving posts back — as I wrote them then.

Read the archive →
Questions

What people ask before they write.

More on the Altitude and Sanctuary pages.

Who do you work with?

Only women. Women who compete come to Altitude Protocol, for performance under pressure. Women in everyday life — athletes or not — come to Sanctuary One, to step out of the vicious cycle and find the direction that's truly theirs.

Is this therapy or sports psychology?

No. It's performance work and body-based practice, not medical or psychological treatment. If you're struggling with your mental or physical health, please see a licensed professional — I'm glad to work alongside them.

Where do you work?

In person in Vancouver, British Columbia, and by video wherever you are.

How do I start?

Most people start with one 90-minute session, booked online: an Altitude session if you have a competition coming up, a Sanctuary One session if there's a loop you keep circling back to. Or write to me first at hello@valeriatsoy.com.

What does it cost?

A Sanctuary One session is $190 CAD, an Altitude session $250 CAD. The Sanctuary membership is $250 CAD a month. The Altitude Program — eight weeks of personal work plus three months of follow-up — is $3,000 CAD.

Feeling loopy? Write to me.

Tell me which track you're on, and we'll see whether I'm the right person to help you off it.

hello@valeriatsoy.com

This is body-based practice and conversation, not medical or psychological treatment.

Landscape photos: public domain and CC0, via Wikimedia Commons — U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Paul Gilmore, Jeff Cooper, Aleš Krivec, Alex Iby, Hogweard.

Valeria Tsoy · valeriatsoy.com · Vancouver, Canada · Instagram · Policies