Life & Leadership

Compassionate support. Honest conversations. Meaningful change.

Coaching for individuals, leaders, and teams.

Sometimes the way forward feels uncertain. Someone you love dies. A relationship changes. Work loses its meaning. Responsibilities grow, or a difficult conversation keeps going unresolved.

You may be struggling privately, carrying the weight of leadership, or working in a team where tension makes progress difficult.

I offer space to understand what is happening, speak honestly, and find a manageable way forward. My approach brings together transformational life coaching, lived experience, and decades of working with people in business and creative life.

Across these settings, we explore how we relate to ourselves and others, how we communicate, and how we turn greater understanding into thoughtful action.

Support for your life

You can seek support at any stage of life, whether something has recently changed or you have been carrying it for years. You are welcome to begin with a question, a feeling, or something you have yet to put into words.

My particular areas of focus are grief, loss, abandonment, and the experience of anxiety, including how these affect our relationships, confidence, choices, and sense of belonging.

Our work may explore:

  • Grief and loss: living with bereavement, separation, or the loss of a relationship, role, or hoped-for future.

  • Abandonment and belonging: understanding experiences of rejection, disconnection, or feeling unseen, and how they influence your relationships today.

  • Anxiety, stress, and overwhelm: recognizing what adds to the pressure and finding practices and choices that support you.

  • Confidence and self-trust: finding your voice, recognizing your needs, and making decisions with greater clarity.

  • Recurring patterns and relationships: exploring self-criticism, overthinking, boundaries, and familiar responses that leave you feeling stuck.

  • Direction and meaning: considering what matters now and how you want to live, work, and connect.

There is room here for sadness, uncertainty, anger, and difficult feelings. Together, we consider what kind of support best meets your needs.

Support for leaders, teams, and organizations

How people communicate and work together affects both their well-being and the business. Unspoken expectations, competing priorities, and unresolved conflict can strain relationships and make even straightforward decisions difficult.

I work with founders, leaders, teams, and organizations to develop clearer communication, stronger working relationships, and practical accountability.

Areas we may work on include:

  • Conflict resolution: understanding the disagreement, hearing different perspectives, and working toward clear agreements.

  • Accountable communication: making requests and expectations explicit, taking responsibility for our words and actions, and following through on commitments.

  • Leadership and difficult conversations: addressing tension, giving and receiving feedback, and making decisions with clarity and care.

  • Roles and shared priorities: clarifying ownership, responsibilities, and what the team is working toward.

  • Trust and working culture: creating conditions where people can raise concerns, acknowledge mistakes, and contribute honestly.

  • Business and organizational change: navigating growth, uncertainty, shifting responsibilities, and the human impact of change.

Depending on your needs, this may involve individual leadership coaching, facilitated team conversations, or ongoing support. We agree on the purpose, scope, and confidentiality of the work at the outset.

How I work

My style is compassionate, candid, and collaborative. I listen closely, ask thoughtful questions, and offer honest reflection, with warmth and a sense of humor.

We explore the circumstances, experiences, assumptions, and habits influencing what is happening. We consider both emotional realities and practical constraints, including time, resources, responsibilities, and relationships.

Reflection leads into action: a boundary to express, a conversation to prepare for, an agreement to make, or a manageable step to take.

With individuals, the focus is on your needs and choices. With teams, we also examine the working patterns, expectations, and structures affecting the group.

Compassion and accountability belong together in my approach. Understanding why something happens gives us a starting point for deciding what to do next.

The experience I bring

My work spans entrepreneurship, leadership, music, and creative production, alongside more than 25 years of coaching people internationally.

I understand the responsibility of building something, making difficult decisions, managing competing needs, and being the person others rely on. I also understand how closely our working lives connect with our confidence, relationships, sense of belonging, and wellbeing.

That combination allows me to bring personal depth and practical business perspective to our work.

A personal note

As an adoptee, my questions about identity, belonging, and connection began early. Experiences of loss and a difficult upbringing led me to seek support and begin a deeper process of self-understanding in my twenties.

Over the decades, education, reflective practice, meditation, yoga, and the ordinary challenges of being human have helped me develop greater awareness, self-compassion, and responsibility for my choices.

I have made mistakes, changed direction, and begun again. Those experiences shape the humility and care I bring to this work.

I know how much it can matter to feel heard, to speak honestly, and to be met with both kindness and thoughtful challenge. That is the quality of relationship I aim to offer.

Training and experience

  • Certified in Transformational Life Coaching through the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, now known as Sofia University.

  • Established a Transformational Life Coaching practice and developed a Holistic Recovery Program at the Hale Clinic in London.

  • Cruse Bereavement UK Grief Certification programme

  • More than 25 years of coaching experience with clients internationally.

  • Monthly professional supervision to support reflective practice, accountability, and the quality of my work.

Let’s have a conversation

If this approach resonates with you, please get in touch, whether you are seeking support for yourself, your leadership, or your team.

We can discuss what you are experiencing, what you hope to address, how I work, session arrangements, and fees, and explore whether we are a good fit.

CLICK HERE: Email Ko

When you need immediate support

Coaching supports reflection, personal development, and practical change. It does not replace mental health treatment or crisis care.

If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, seek immediate support rather than waiting for an email response. In the United States, call or text 988. Outside the United States, contact your local crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.

testimonials

I have gone to Ko for transformational coaching and mentorship since 2005. She is the warmest, funniest, most sincere, and most dedicated "to the truth" person I know. She has been with me in times of great triumph and immense grief.

I look back at Ko’s early coaching and mentoring as instrumental to my success. She gives tough advice and reflection as only someone who has lived in the upper echelons of business could, and she does it with warmth and a sense of humor. I like to say that she was the grist for my mill of transformation from a new businessperson to, for all intents and purposes, financially free at age 46. 

On the flip side, I spent the greater part of 2020 in a deep depression.  It was brutally heavy; I could hardly get out of bed.  Ko was often the only person I could call.  Hearing her soothing voice and deeply compassionate words (with the perfect amount of dark humor) helped me accept myself at my absolute worst.  The way she held me in her kindness while in such darkness will stay with me forever. Ko is a beacon for me.  In the darkness and in the light.

Thank you.

-Anthony (he/him)
San Diego, CA

After a string of difficult & life-changing events, I reached a place where I knew I needed guidance & enlightenment on many levels to move past them.

I had never worked with anyone before. I was skeptical, afraid & wasn’t at all sure what to expect, but I knew I owed it to myself to at least try. Almost immediately, Ko helped me open a path to self-discovery. With her gentle encouragement & ability to find just the right ways to push me, I began to feel a blossoming within myself I had little hope of finding. Her spirit, authenticity & ability to make one feel seen, heard & safe are rare. Every session has brought me clarity, hope, and a lightness of spirit.

Even through the hard stuff, Ko gets into those emotional “trenches” with you, and that feeling of support and camaraderie is hard to find. Ko is in it with you. She’s more than just a trusted advisor/coach… she’s an example of what we all should hope to achieve, and I feel extremely fortunate and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn from and with her.

-Elizabeth F. (she/her)
Los Angeles, CA

I have nothing but great things to say about the time I spent meeting with Ko to help me get past several issues I was having in my life. I was stuck in a rut with symptoms of depression and low self-esteem. I was single and unmotivated to return to the dating pool after a divorce. 

Rather than meeting online, I drove the distance to meet with Ko in person. I think that was the key to how effective her sessions were. Ko has a welcoming, understanding, and nurturing personality that matches her passion and approach to life coaching. 

I was generally introverted before, in the sense of keeping all my issues locked inside and not talking about them, and Ko helped me externalize, unblock, and release them so I could move past them and move forward. I started dating again and have been going strong with my current girlfriend for over a year. 

As someone who turned a corner with the help of an amazing person, you couldn’t find a better guide than Ko. 

-C.E. (he/him)
Ojai, CA

I have known Ko for 35 years now, and she has always been an amazing human in my life through the years, not in spurts at a time.

But our deepest connection began 6.5 years ago as I was going through a few very traumatic things in my life.

Her gentleness and words, with particular guidance, helped me navigate the world around me, which I felt I was drowning in.

She can unequivocally listen with her non-judgmental style and reflect back to me - even if it feels like tough love - to look at each situation and have me reflect on the larger picture and what part I am playing in my life. Ko supported me in slowing down and thinking about all the different outcomes and choices I could make for my personal well-being and the well-being of those close to me. I can see where I am and that I'm the only person who can choose which path I take, and when I make those choices, it’s from me, from my heart. I have learned that I am less anxious when I let go of the outcome because I am not thinking about or holding onto something yet to be seen.

I’m living today in a place of love and compassion for myself, which extends outward to my family, whether they know it or not. Caring for myself and my needs in a healthy manner has shown me how much better my relationship with myself and my family has improved.

Beyond our strong friendship, I look forward to my check-ins with Ko as she continues to support and guide me with her deep wealth of experience, knowledge, Buddhism & her clear alignment to a deeper knowing that helps me recalibrate toward my North Star.

I wholeheartedly recommend working with Ko if you are ready to do the Self-work.

-Dana (she/her)
Los Angeles, CA

A SNAPSHOT of KO

Thank you for reading and spending time on this page. I look forward to when our paths meet, and we have a heartfelt exchange.

With love, Ko