RICHARD H., LEADERSHIP COACH, USA

“It seemed like the opening scene of a movie: a Midwestern American man randomly meets Natalia, a mysterious woman, who grew up in the Soviet Union and reveals little about herself, except that she lived most of her adult life in New York, Japan, and Canada, and that she needs help with a career transition. As a leadership coach, I knew I could help her.  What I didn't suspect was that she'd help me.

As a lifelong storyteller, I thought I knew all my stories and myself extremely well, so much so that I set a goal to write one true story about something from each of the 64 years of my life. When Natalia offered to guide me through the Life Review process, I leapt at the chance, thinking it was a way to get a lot of stories told quickly. 

Over the next 12 weeks, we moved decade by decade through the stories of my life, from earliest memories through the present. My memories surfaced with a richness I hadn’t expected, as Natalia respectfully asked simple yet powerful questions to draw out my identity. Stories I hadn't thought of in decades reappeared because of Natalia's presence and her discipline as a guide—our time never drifted into her own story. Every minute we were together, she kept our focus on me and my stories.

By the time we concluded our work together, Natalia helped me see the recurring themes that quietly shaped who I am, and things about myself that had been hiding from me in plain sight. I recorded our sessions, so by the end, I’d captured a set of stories I later decided to share with my wife, adult children, and siblings—not just as anecdotes, but as windows into who I’ve been as a husband, a father, a sibling, and a person. 

It was a rare and powerful experience to hear my own life reframed with the clarity and care that Natalia made possible. She helped me connect my life stories in a way that allowed me to see and understand myself and my past in new ways. Those insights are already shaping how I'm continuing the rest of my life story.”