As Intercultural Understanding reaches a decade, we talk to its founder and director Almendra Staffa-Healey about how the company came to fruition, how it has developed and what her plans are for the future.
Congratulations on reaching 10!
Thank you! It’s been such an amazing adventure and I’m so excited to see where the company is heading.
Where did the inspiration come from to found Intercultural Understanding back in 2015?
Ten years ago I realized I wanted to start a project to help build intercultural understanding and increase intercultural competency in Europe but also in other parts of the world. I was completing training as an IDI Qualified Administrator with the encouragement of Julie Kelly, my then boss at EUSA Academic Internships, and also working with Mick Vande Berg as my intercultural coach, and I felt a strong desire to offer what I was learning to others. I originally started out offering my services to different educational groups that were part of the circle I was in because of my membership in APUNE (the Association of North American Programs in Spain). I had the great fortune to start working with Isabel Carrasco from what was then the Marist and Stetson combined programs. She was my very first client. And I’ve continued to work with her all these years by organizing arrival orientations for her students to help them in the process of adjusting and adapting to life in another culture. But to do it in such a way that you understand more about yourself in the process - specifically regarding the comparison and the exchange with the local culture.
So you obviously enjoyed this initial experience - did you start working with other schools?
Exactly! I soon realized that it had great potential. I started doing IDI Guided Developmental coaching for the Georgetown University programs in Spain and then facilitating sessions with public schools in Madrid. Eventually I also began to branch out internationally as well - with the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Then in 2025 one of the newest collaborations has been with Schiller International University - I work with their staff. So now I'm working with people who are related to all the different areas of education - not just with students.
It's interesting that you also work with companies and governments - not just in education…
It was just a natural transition, to be honest. I was hired to do consulting projects for companies who helped relocate executives, and that turned into trainings on many topics from raising awareness about Third Culture Kids and decreasing turnover due to relocations, to intervention trainings to help increase Diversity and Inclusion efforts, as well as international team building for companies working across countries and cultures. I’ve worked in lots of different sectors with many types of companies and in 2025 I was excited to start working again with SIX - the company that owns the Madrid Stock Exchange as well as the Zurich and Stockholm Stock Exchanges. When I started out in education, I didn’t have any fixed plan about moving into the business world - it just happened organically. So I just expanded into other sectors.
As to my government work, I’ve consulted for the Fulbright Commission here in Spain plus the Communidad de Madrid in various initiatives. Also, with the help of USAID, I’ve worked at the US Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo. There IU facilitated an Embassy-wide IDI-based project with the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Council. Other companies I’ve consulted for include LCW, Training Express, LearnLight and others.
Do you think your style of work has changed over the years? What have you learned?
Well I’ve always stated my vision and life’s work is to help others to achieve self-understanding and, in the wider community, to achieve balance and harmony. And over the years, coupled with my own overall self-understanding, I’ve realized that all the different work I do and different methods I use are very complimentary.
My origins may have been in intercultural competency but that very concept is rooted in an idea of working on inner peace and better decision making in order to understand our interactions with people of a different culture. My working knowledge of the Intercultural Development Inventory, my ICF coach training, plus my Personal Leadership work and also becoming a First Peace Circle leader made me realize that these all lead to a similar focus on bringing people together.
Also, along the way, I picked up different techniques to use in my coaching with clients and groups, such as the Immunity to Change Mapping that was created by Professor Robert Kegan and Lecturer Lisa Lahey. This is all about cultivating a deeper sense of self-understanding and belonging by getting rid of limiting beliefs that originate from unconscious fears. I also have felt moved to research belonging, and facilitated a SIETAR Australiasia and SIETAR España workshop about this very issue of belonging called "Belonging and Multiculture: 4 Steps for Integration." Achieving belonging has always been at the heart of what I do and it’s definitely become a more integral part of what I now offer. In 2023 I became certified as an ICF coach as well as a First Peace Circle Leader so that I could really build-up our offerings to clients. And it was through all this that I became aware of a pull towards working more on the inner self, about releasing limiting beliefs and tapping more into our authentic selves.
So what do you see for IU’s future? Are there any changes on the horizon?
There are! I’m so excited to announce the launch of a sub-division of IU called freeyou.world! This is tied in with my desire to focus more on inner work while still aligning with my Intercultural Understanding roots. My mom, Mandy Staffa, has been a powerful force in shaping who I am and I recalled her showing me the incredible technique of Cutting the Ties that Bind. This method is an integral part of FreeYou.World. My mom actually trained with Phyllis Krystal who pioneered the technique in the 20th century. I consider my mom a wisdom keeper because of this important connection to the creator of the technique and I’m delighted to say that she’s going to help me lead an in-person retreat in Extremadura, Spain in August 2025.
Cutting the Ties that Bind is all about letting go of limiting beliefs or unhelpful connections to people or things that might be holding us back from manifesting our authentic selves. It feels like the right time to launch this new path - exactly ten years after the launch of Intercultural Understanding. And I hope people will be curious to find out more about this method. To want to connect with their inner wisdom. To free themselves from what no longer serves them.
Wow. This all sounds so exciting! Congratulations on taking steps to create a better world. Is there anything else you’d like to reflect on, on this tenth anniversary?
Thank you! And yes, I would just like to take a minute to express my heart-felt gratitude to all those who have joined me on this journey. I want to thank Brian David George and Deepika Bhoolabhai for being a part of my CORE team. want to thank the Globally Conscious Peacemakers for giving me space to share. So grateful to everyone who has been part of this - from Isabel Carrasco and Marist College who first saw my potential all those years ago through to all my other clients and companies, especially Georgetown University's Ani Flys in Madrid for making me use my IDI training right away with her students (plus Stanford University, OpenProvider, the International Institute, Eve Abroad, Fulbright, Comunidad de Madrid, Training Express - Learnlight, LCW, The Graduate Institute of Geneva, and Uni4Refugees and everyone else over the years). And Suze McCullagh for helping to get my message out, for her work on my websites and social media. Suze has helped me communicate this all over all this time!
