Instructor

This course was created by Dr. Naira Velumyan, the Founder of the Academy of Social Competency, Ph.D. in Psychology, Forbes Coach, Registered Psychotherapist, International Speaker, Entrepreneur and Etiquette Expert. Dr. Velumyan trained hundreds of people and passionately believes in the power of communication and building relationships which played a key role on her own path to success. For an introvert by nature, the communication, networking, public speaking and self-promoting have not been among Dr. Velumyan’s strengths. Since early in her life, she felt comfortable only with a small group of people close and well-known to her. However, life often pushed her out of her “comfort zone” to face and deal with harsh realities. At the age of 23, while in Russia where she grew up, she lost her loving and protective husband to a brutal criminal assault and was left alone with two little kids. To survive in those difficult years, she courageously entered the turbulent business world as an opportunity, struggling to be able to provide the best care and future of her children as their father wished for them. She started with two hardware stores, then opened a wholesale clothing company, and later a car repair service, followed by a small factory for chrome-coating car details. All this required extensive communication and building relationship skills, something that Dr. Velumyan developed overcoming her introvert pre-disposition. Furthermore, while raising her kids to the best of her abilities, she entered and successfully graduated from a law school, being motivated primarily by her business needs, while her passion was understanding the human psychology in all its shades that she has extensively dealt with in those turbulent years. Later, she entered a psychology program, followed by a Ph.D degree in psychology. It was only after her children graduated from the university that she felt it is time to move on, and a few years ago she decided to immigrate to Canada. The biggest challenge for her was a limited language background. Her move to Canada was strongly motivated by another passion that she had — the painting art that became her professional hobby due to being an agent of a famous contemporary Russian artist Alexey Klokov. Coming to Canada deemed an opportunity to promote his brand in North America. Thanks to her communication skills, hard work and professional knowledge, “spiced” with big ambitions, very soon she established a network of representatives and has organized Alexey Klokov’s exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamptons. Her rapidly growing experience involved meeting many people which brought her to the idea of creating the Academy of Social Competency. Here, she is teaching a broad audience, small groups and individuals how to effectively communicate and network through body language, verbal communication, effective listening, relationship building, conflict resolution, personal image, manners and etiquette.