About Shien
She has spent two decades in the rooms where performance, identity, and wellbeing collide.
Researcher. Author. Interviewer. Event curator. IB educator. NGO co-founder. Psychotherapist in training. Shien Victoria Zutshi does not fit a single category — which is exactly what makes her work matter.
The story
Built from the inside out.
Shien is of Kashmiri and Punjabi heritage, raised across cultures and fluent in five languages: English, French, Hindi, Punjabi, and Swedish. She has lived and worked across multiple continents. That cross-cultural fluency is not background colour. It is the architecture of how she thinks.
She built systems before she built a business. Co-founding Domino Swedish NGO, a language and integration platform for Arabic-speaking refugees in Scandinavia. Serving on the Advisory Council of a World Bank Group collaboration — evaluating systemic educational innovations across 150+ countries. Conducting fieldwork with NGO RHA across India, including designing and delivering technology integration programmes across Indian schools — embedding digital tools into classroom practice and institutional systems. Co-organising Yale-hosted Model UN. Supporting women-led ventures at the intersection of ambition, identity, and capital.
She also spent years as an interviewer — sitting across from CEOs, founders, and global thinkers at Collision and Elevate, in conversation with Dr. Shefali Tsabary, Bertrand Badré, and others operating at the edge of what is possible. And she curated rooms: intimate, intentional events for high-achieving professionals where something real could be said about ambition, identity, the immigrant journey, and the quiet cost of excellence.
She distilled all of it into her book, Anxious & Ambitious — a 243-page, clinically reviewed psychoeducational journal that named what most high-achievers had never been able to say out loud. And she is now completing graduate training in counselling psychotherapy at Yorkville University — Magna Cum Laude — working with CBT, ACT, DBT-informed approaches, and polyvagal theory.
Equilibrium by Design exists because she kept meeting the same person in different rooms: high-achieving, privately exhausted, and unsure why success never quite felt like enough. The work is not soft. It is rigorous, evidence-informed, and built for people who expect more than platitudes.
What she brings
Where the work comes from
Global Systems & Advisory
World Bank Group · HundrED · Global Partnership for Education
Advisory Council member evaluating systemic educational innovation across 150+ countries. One of a small cohort of practitioners selected to assess global impact initiatives at the intersection of teacher wellbeing, equity, and systems change.
NGO Co-Founder & Social Impact
Domino Swedish NGO · NGO RHA India · Women’s Ventures
Co-founded a language and integration platform supporting Arabic-speaking refugees in Scandinavia. Designed and delivered technology integration programmes across schools in India, embedding digital tools into classroom practice and institutional learning systems. Supported women-led ventures at the intersection of ambition, identity, and early-stage growth.
International Education
IB & MYP · Europe, North America & Beyond · Department Chair
Nearly two decades building and leading within International Baccalaureate systems across multiple countries. Designed curriculum for underserved communities. Led departments at some of the most academically rigorous schools in the world.
Published Author
Anxious & Ambitious — Clinically Reviewed
A 243-page psychoeducational journal for high-achievers navigating anxiety, burnout, and the gap between outward success and internal experience. Clinically reviewed. Published under the Equilibrium by Design imprint. Available on Amazon worldwide.
Research & Public Discourse
Collision · Elevate · Dr. Shefali Tsabary · Bertrand Badré
Years as a researcher and on-stage interviewer of CEOs, founders, and global thinkers on what high performance actually costs. In conversation with leaders across technology, global development, and the creative industries.
Clinical Training
MACP Candidate — Magna Cum Laude · Yorkville University
Currently completing graduate training in counselling psychotherapy. CBT, ACT, DBT-informed approaches, polyvagal theory, and psychopathology. Clinical focus: anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, and identity in high-functioning adults.
The approach
“The people who appear most capable are often the ones carrying the most.”
The work at Equilibrium by Design is not about fixing what’s broken. It is about understanding what is driving the patterns — the perfectionism, the overthinking, the performance that never quite feels like enough — and building something more sustainable in its place. Evidence-informed. Honest. Built for people who expect rigour.