The Work
A different
kind of
question.
Most coaching asks you to set new goals. This work asks what you actually want your life to look like — and what has been standing between you and that.
Where this begins
That question is where Life Design begins.
Not with fixing.
Not with reinvention.
With honest, rigorous attention to who you are, what you have built, and what you want to build next.
This is not therapy. Therapy is valuable — it does important work. But therapy is largely about the past: understanding what shaped you, processing what hurt you, making sense of the patterns that formed.
Life Design begins where that work ends.
Traditional coaching often focuses on performance — hitting targets, optimizing output, closing the gap between where you are and where your role needs you to be.
Life Design focuses on something different: the gap between the life you are living and the life you would actually choose.
is not.
- A formula — there is no 5-step plan that works for every person
- Motivational — I don’t hype you up
- About fixing what’s broken — you are not broken
- Vague — every conversation has direction
- Therapy — we work forward, not backward
is.
- Structured and rigorous — built on Stanford’s Life Design methodology
- Forward-facing — we work with where you are and where you want to go
- Grounded in real life — your actual circumstances and possibilities
- Led by someone who has done the work herself — not teaching theory, living the practice
- Clear — every engagement ends with a plan
“I don’t motivate people. I help them see clearly and decide well.”
The methodology
The Stanford
Life Design
tools.
Life Design was developed at Stanford University’s design school by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Design thinking applied not to products, but to human lives. Built on one core principle:
In my practice, these tools are combined with the Kintsugi philosophy and, when the work calls for it, the healing clarity of the forest. Structure and depth together — because good design is both rigorous and beautiful.
Clarifying what you believe work is for — and what a well-lived life means to you. The foundation everything else is built on.
Identifying where your energy actually comes from versus where it drains. Data from your own life, not a personality test.
Mapping three genuinely different possible futures — not variations of the same one. This is where the real thinking begins.
Testing ideas through real conversations before making irreversible decisions. Low-cost experiments on high-stakes questions.
Building a concrete plan grounded in who you actually are — not who you think you should be.
The philosophy
Filling the cracks
with gold.
In Japan, there is a centuries-old practice called Kintsugi. When a piece of pottery breaks, it is not discarded. It is repaired — with lacquer mixed with gold. The cracks are not hidden. They are illuminated.
By the time most of my clients find me, they have gathered a remarkable collection of pieces. The career built and perhaps outgrown. The dreams set aside for practical reasons. The version of themselves that existed before the responsibility began.
These are not failures. They are not damage to be fixed. They are the pieces of a life fully and seriously lived.
Life Design, through the Kintsugi lens, is the work of gathering those pieces and filling the seams with gold. Not reinventing yourself. Not starting over. Moving forward as a more complete, more intentional version of who you have always been.
— Hemingway
Not a failure. A piece of a life fully and seriously lived.
Still there. Still yours. Waiting to be gathered.
The version of you that existed before the responsibility began.
More valuable, not less, than something that has never been tested.
Shinrin-yoku
The forest knows things
the office has forgotten.
There is a Japanese practice called Shinrin-yoku — forest bathing. It is not hiking. It is not exercise. It is the simple, slow act of being present in a forest and allowing the natural environment to do what it does: lower cortisol, quiet the nervous system, restore attentional capacity.
Something happens when you take a person who has been moving fast for a long time and bring them into old-growth quiet. The body settles. The mind slows. And in that gap — between the noise and what comes next — the most honest thinking tends to surface.
This is why some of my most significant client work happens outside. In British Columbia, I coach on the trail — combining Shinrin-yoku with Life Design conversations in the extraordinary forests of BC.
The forest is not a gimmick. It is a co-therapist. And for some clients, it is where the real work begins.
What working together looks like
Three to six months.
One clear next chapter.
We spend 30 minutes together to understand where you are, what you are working toward, and whether this is the right fit. There is no pressure. If it is not the right match, we will both know.
We meet regularly — by video or in person if you are in BC — working through Life Design tools, honest reflection, and forward-facing planning. Every session has direction. Every engagement ends with a clear next chapter mapped.
For clients in or visiting BC, we integrate Wild Heart Walks into your engagement. For clients drawn to pilgrimage, I offer guided walking programs on the great routes of Europe and beyond.
The first step
Start with
a conversation.
30 minutes. No pitch. No pressure. We find out together if this is the right work for where you are right now.