“My empathy for myself and others has grown immensely”

"Kay's incisive questions and toolbox of perspectives helped me make big breakthroughs that are fundamentally shifting my self-awareness, internal dialogue, and how I naturally respond to difficulty. She helped me surface subconscious forces that have been shaping my life in big ways, so I can better understand them and consciously decide how to respond to them.

I consistently came away from each session with a significant, meaningful, practical insight and a path to immediate application. She created a safe space and seemed to challenge me in just the right ways.

My empathy for myself and others has grown immensely. I thought I was an empathetic person before, but I didn't realize how much my self-criticism was driving my feelings and actions... As an entrepreneur, executive, husband, and father, my growth through our sessions will be impacting me and my work for the rest of my life."

— Creative Entrepreneur & Executive

You are the expert of your experience.

As a coach, my job is to help you untangle that experience from social conditioning. Together we’re on a journey to understand the points of friction between what you want and what you’ve been conditioned to want. By reflecting your inner world back to you with precision and insight, we can create the space for radical transformation.

Where traditional coaching…

• Focuses on goals and action steps;

• Asks questions seeking immediate answers;

• Supports existing frameworks of being and working;

• Works with conscious awareness.

Transformation coaching…

• Disrupts limiting narratives that create recurring problems;

• Uses reflective inquiry to generate new self-awareness;

• Creates productive discomfort that catalyzes genuine change;

• Surfaces unconscious patterns that drive behavior;

• Integrates all aspects of your professional and personal life.

One of the themes that I grasped as [Kay and I ] worked together is that life is about process. Too often, I want to make a decision about something, such as "who I want to be" and then be done with it. But this isn't reality. I am constantly evolving and changing. I will hold on to core values and characteristics that we identified, but am more comfortable with the idea of venturing out into the unknown and exploring. Coming into coaching, I wanted to "figure out" what I was to do next year. I've since learned (or re-learned?) that it's ok to live with ambiguity and to enjoy the journey. What I end up doing is not as important as living by my values.

Professor

I wanted to thank you for all of your support and guidance! I can't tell you enough how much you helped me to better prioritize my life! I can say with confidence that I am a completely different person today than I was the day we met and it is because of the work and guidance you gave. I feel like I have so much of a better handle on things and have really honed my ability to say no to the things in my life that aren't important

Accounting Director

Hi, I’m Kay: Professional Certified Coach for midlife leaders and professionals ready to leap into “what’s next.”

My journey to coaching is a story of navigating life's profound challenges and discovering how to create meaningful change in the process. My history informs my coaching practice, which is dedicated to supporting creative and sensitive leaders in midlife.

I was the classic overachiever – pre-med track with big dreams and even bigger ambition – when my mental health took a serious turn and it became clear this was not the path for me. On top of this it soon became clear I had inherited the family degenerative hearing loss.

I pivoted, adapted, and just as I was preparing to start a Ph.D. at McGill, my physical health collapsed. At 25, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

My recovery took four years, and it cracked me open in all the ways that matter.

During this time I met the man who became my husband, a man who demonstrated the deep healing power of love. Eventually I found work that I thought was impressive enough to match my ambition, but I struggled with leadership using poorly designed metrics that didn’t make sense in relation to what I had the power to do.

Three years into marriage, I became pregnant with our first child. At 35 weeks, the doctors discovered the baby I was carrying had died. To say we were devastated is an understatement. Everything that was once important to me, no longer mattered.

As I healed I realized I no longer wanted to do something simply because it was impressive. I wanted to do work that served life. When I discovered coaching, I knew I had found a path that would allow me to do just that. Thanks to modern hearing aid technology, I can hear you loud and clear. I’ll ask if I don’t. 

I’ve been a coach now for nearly 10 years

I have a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) accreditation from the International Coaching Federation and a coaching certification from Master Coach Patricia Burgin at SeattleCoach. I keep up to date on the latest data-driven research in the coaching field, I’m highly intuitive, and I study ancient wisdom traditions. I pull from all of these streams to best support you.

I’ve coached people in almost every industry you can think of: tech, engineering, consulting, creative, science, healthcare, nonprofit, manufacturing, and more. I’m dedicated to supporting flourishing leaders who want to make a difference in their second half of life. 

“Coaching with Kay was empowering. I got the opportunity to create together with my coach, a vision of what I wanted to accomplish and where I wanted to go. The process of coaching exposed the subtleties of the influence of my 'subconscious' on my present life, and through that process, small but practical and useful changes were added to begin the journey towards my destination. The best part was getting a glimpse of how I could tap into myself and my surroundings to empower my transformative journey. 

Research Scientist”

The person you're becoming is ready for a different kind of conversation.

If you dutifully collected every title, accolade, and glowing performance review, yet constantly feel like you’re just checking boxes, we can explore how you can divest from our cultural success narrative and live according to your own definition.

If you find yourself rewriting a two-line email five times because it doesn’t “sound right,” or shelving your creative ideas until they’re “perfect,” we can quiet the inner critic and create space for expression that feels real, not rehearsed.

If your life looks amazing from the outside but inside you’re thinking, “I’ve become someone I don’t fully recognize,” we can reconnect with the voice underneath the persona, and let that voice lead.

If you’ve filled journals, spreadsheets, and whiteboards but still feel creatively constipated or strategically foggy, we can surface what’s been hiding behind the noise, and unlock the next move with clarity and calm.

If you feel like a different person at work, at home, and in your closest relationships – and none of them feel fully “you” – we can untangle the performance from the truth, and help you live one whole, integrated life.

This is the potential midlife holds for us all.