I’ve coached C-suite executives and senior leaders across global organizations. I’ve mentored teenagers who were sure no one was listening, and I’ve offered guidance to audiences on British television. My practice now includes musicians, actors, artists and public figures, people whose work is lived in public, and for whom discretion isn’t a preference but a necessity.
The people changed, and so did the stakes. The question underneath almost never did:
How do I carry all of this without losing myself?
My practice exists to answer that question, one person at a time.
For more than twenty years, people have brought me the conversations they couldn’t have anywhere else. Coaching gave that work a name and a discipline. It didn’t change why they came.
My career took me through education, the nonprofit world and, for the last fifteen years, technology and security, both physical and cyber. I sat across from security and technology leaders, and alongside people whose careers were shaped in law enforcement, the military and intelligence. I designed and facilitated crisis exercises, where leaders rehearse the worst day of their careers before it ever arrives. Watching how people think, freeze and recover under that kind of pressure taught me more about human nature than any textbook could.
My work has carried me between Dubai, London, Pakistan and the United States, and my clients now span continents. I’ve spoken on behalf of charities around the world, and I keep learning, through executive education at Harvard Medical School, Wharton and Cornell, and as a member of the International Coaching Federation, where I continue my professional development.
Dubai — London — Pakistan — United States
“I notice what sits in the corner of the frame. In coaching, that’s usually where the real story is.”
A table where many worlds met.
I was born in Dubai to a mother of Yemeni and Indian heritage and a Pakistani father, and I grew up in California. Our dinner table rarely spoke one language at a time. Urdu and English are mine. Arabic I read and write. Persian arrived through poetry, long before I could translate it.
My family descends from a long line of Sufi scholars and mystics. Nobody sat me down to teach it. I absorbed it by watching how the adults listened, and how they treated whoever walked through the door as someone worth understanding.
I still work that way.
The strategist, the artist and the healer.
Most people who hire me expect one of these. They usually get all three.
The Strategist
Fifteen years of program management, training and crisis communications. She likes structure, plain language and a clear next step.
The Artist
She actually came first. Eight years studying fine arts rewired how I see. I notice what sits in the corner of the frame, and in coaching, that’s usually where the real story is.
The Healer
The oldest part of me. A degree in positive psychology, my Master Certified Professional Coach certification through CLCI, studies in NLP, and a childhood spent among philosophers and leaders all live here. I’m also a certified Reiki practitioner. She knows lasting change starts somewhere beneath the problem you walked in with.
Together, they became the foundation of the HALCHEMIST Method.
Children of Heaven
I lead Children of Heaven, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps orphans and underprivileged children in Southeast Asia stay in school. I come from a family of scholars. I know what an education can open, and I want those doors open for children who might otherwise never reach them.
Learn about Children of Heaven →Home is Texas, with my husband and our teenage son, who plays competitive soccer and has made me a permanent fixture on the sidelines. Watching young athletes handle pressure every weekend has taught me as much about composure as any boardroom has.
I’ve been trusted with a great many stories.
Each one has made me a better listener.