Today on the podcast, I’m talking with my friend David Ridley-Parris, a coach who helps people navigate life’s biggest transitions and design careers that truly align with their identity.

After years on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, David left the corporate grind for a slower-paced life in Portugal and a new calling in grief coaching. In this episode, he shares how personal loss shaped his path, why grief coaching is about envisioning the future, and how AI, group coaching, and community are transforming his practice.

🔑 Key Points

• Why David left Wall Street and Silicon Valley to start anew in Portugal.

• David’s coaching philosophy: strategic questioning for self-discovery.

• Grief coaching as a forward-looking practice — beyond therapy’s clinical lens.

• The concepts of liminal space, primary loss, and secondary loss.

• Insights from working with global clients and the LGBTQ+ community.

• Group coaching: peer accountability, confidentiality, and shared growth.

• How AI tools enhance coaching through summaries and action tracking.

• Professional growth opportunities and the forthcoming Grief Coaching Network.

  
  

• Connect with David on LinkedIn

• Navigate Your Path Forward: David’s website

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In this episode of Chiwi Journal, two AI hosts take you on a deeply personal journey across continents, from Shandong to Auckland, London to Lisbon, as they share Camellia’s story of moving 20,000 miles and confronting an invisible tiger she’d been running from her entire life: her own ambition.

Together, they explore the weight of cultural expectations, the silent pressure of “neijuan”, and the bittersweet lessons Portugal taught about slowing down, letting go, and simply being human.

This is a story about identity, burnout, and the quiet permission to exist without constant achievement, and maybe, it’s about finding your own way to stop running too.
NOTE: This episode was created using Notebook LM to transform Camellia’s original article into a podcast-style narration. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing for more reflections on life, culture, and creativity.

You once asked me: Are you still searching for home?

In this episode, I try to answer you.

It’s not a guidebook to Lisbon.

It’s a voice memo from a night tram.

A letter from a café table.

A footnote scrawled under a fado song.

If you’ve ever felt like an outsider, or longed for a place that doesn’t quite exist — maybe, like me, you’ll find something in this city that gently holds your questions, without rushing to answer them.