Kintsukuroi: How Anthropology Shapes My Practice

I’ve long been entranced by the ways we interconnect: sociology, history, evolution, psychology, human-environment interactions, economics, politics—the web of thought and being is vast and intertwined. When I first began studying anthropology as a layperson in my early twenties, what delighted me was hw personal it felt. I answered the invitation to hear the story of our species

There is a deeper level of introspective awareness in life coaching and spiritual direction. Drawing from the principles of anthropology, I recognize that every client’s journey is influenced by a blend of unseen forces: cultural, ancestral, environmental, and historical. I listen deeply and look beyond surface-level challenges, seeing the whole person. By comprehending the full context of a life to the extent that I have understanding of it, I guide clients to embrace personal emergence and navigate their path with reverence and joy.

Kintsukuroi.

Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Rather than hiding the damage, it highlights it, turning the cracks into a beautiful part of the story. The piece becomes more valuable and more beautiful for having been broken and put back together. This is the essence of coaching—honoring the cracks, the challenges, the imperfections, and transforming them into sources of strength and beauty.

In my life coaching work, as in anthropology, we discover not just knowledge, but gold—the kind you gently place into the cracks of your own story, the stories of others, and the collective human epic. Not to erase the past, but to honor it, understand it, and help people cherish their own process of growth and healing.

This is the heart of what I offer: an invitation to embrace your journey, wherever you are, and find the gold in your story.