“We’re living through so much disconnection — from ourselves and from nature. Perhaps nature can help us find our way home.” - Joy Khoo, Coach and author

Joy joins us from Oakland, California, as autumn arrives and the seasonal shift reminds us nothing is permanent. She shares stories of belonging, identity and resilience from her childhood adopted at two weeks old by a teacher into a local village community in Malaysia, then migration to Kansas in America on a scholarship carrying a single bag. She reflects on what it has meant to her bridging two cultures and giving herself permission to experiment and discover the different parts of herself in her life which have subsequently emerged.

From a life-changing experience working in the aftermath of the Bali bombing, a difficult decade that followed, and multitude of retreats, teachers and questions that eventually led Joy towards coaching and nature-based practice. She describes herself as a late bloomer in her relationship with nature before deciding to embark on a year-long ecotherapy programme through the Earth Body Institute.

Joy brings together coaching, creativity, science and the natural world in an approach that is both exploratory and spacious. She speaks about the importance of balancing levity with depth, and of allowing different parts of ourselves to come together rather than becoming compartmentalised. In her coaching practice nature becomes more than a backdrop, rather a partner, teacher and source of wisdom. She invites her clients into the natural environment and witnesses how movement, attention and relationship with the more-than-human world opens perspective that often remains hidden within the confines of an office; where a bird can invite freedom and trigger a change.

Joy reads a personal meditative reflection inspired by the ocean, kelp and a rock encountered during her time in Big Sur, California which touches on the themes of adaptability, connection, flow and stillness. The importance of words within her life combined with imagination and creativity is illustrated through her passion for writing which led to her publishing two books; Nature’s Guide for Leaders and Nature’s Guide for Coaches.

At the heart of the conversation is a gentle thread of belonging whether to ourselves, one another, the places we choose to inhabit, and the more-than-human world around us.

Bio

Joy Khoo is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation and author of Nature's Guide for Leaders (2023) and Nature's Guide for Coaches (2026). Since 2003, she has worked with leaders from all walks of life, helping them embrace their authentic selves and develop greater self-awareness in service of humanizing the workplace. Her coaching integrates nature, mindfulness, neuroscience, art, and embodied practices, creating a unique and holistic approach that fosters presence, clarity, and resilience in her clients.

A champion for women leaders, Joy has served as a Facilitator for Stanford University's Women in Management Group for four years and has been a Founding Guide for Chief, a private network for senior women executives, since 2021. She teaches mindfulness at resorts in Southeast Asia, offers semi-annual nature workshops for the Gates Foundation alumni program, and leads immersive self-discovery sessions exploring nature, mindfulness, and art at wellness retreats, including Rancho La Puerta in Mexico.

Joy lives in Oakland and returns annually to her hometown of Taiping, Malaysia, where the rain trees grow and where she hikes Maxwell Hill, reconnecting with the landscapes that first called her into nature.

LinkedIn

Resources

The Earthbody Institute

New Ventures West

Hollyhock

Esalen Institute

Soul Collage®

BK Authors

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

“I was hungry for some sense of the sacred, I think, from quite a young age.” - Isla Macleod, Ceremonialist, Ritual designer, Soul guide and Companion at the thresholds

From her yurt in the vales of Somerset, Isla Macleod lives close to the rhythms of the land; following the turning of the seasons and tending what is needed. A ceremonialist, ritual designer, soul guide and companion at the thresholds, Isla’s work is rooted in a lifelong longing to remember what is sacred and to help others find their way back into relationship with the natural world.

Her journey has taken her through the study of history, photography, shamanism, indigenous traditions, ceremony and ritual, including a formative period living in solitude in the ancient woodlands of Sussex, where nature became her teacher. It was here she “re-wilded” herself and returned to a conscious and alive relationship through ritual with the more than human world and her indigenous ancestors.

In this conversation, we explore the question that has guided much of her life and work: what gives meaning to human life? We talk about belonging, lineage, ritual and the sacred, and what it might mean to cultivate a more intimate, meaningful and reciprocal relationship with the Web of Life.

We explore nature as teacher, the importance of seasonal rhythms, and the possibility of bringing ceremony into the everyday. We talk about the stories we have inherited, the need to re-enchant the world, and how changing those stories might allow us to imagine different ways of living as humans on Earth.

The conversation also moves into darker territory: grief, death, endings and the underworld. Isla reflects on the discomfort of being alive during a time of profound ecological and societal change, and how learning to be with darkness, uncertainty and loss might create space for something new to emerge.

Bio

Isla Macleod is a ceremonialist, ritual designer, soul guide and companion at the thresholds, supporting others to create meaningful spaces for times of transition and explore the bigger questions that life asks of us.

Isla’s work is an exploration of how we can reclaim the ancient human practice of ceremony for contemporary life and reimagine our relationship with the more-than-human world. Facilitating retreats, pilgrimage, crafting workshops and a tapestry of seasonal, community, and individual ceremonies and rites of passage, Isla is devoted to restoring the sacred in our everyday lives.

In her book Rituals for Life, she shares practical, creative and nature-rooted rituals for bringing greater meaning to both extraordinary milestones and the ordinary moments of being human.

Based in Somerset, Isla’s offerings are deeply rooted in the living landscape, natural wisdom and cycles, and remembering the ways we belong to the earth.

Website: https://islamacleod.com/

Instagram

Substack

Resources

Hermes Amāra Foundation — Rob Burbea

Carolyn Hillier

Mac Macartney

Daniel Foor

Glennie Kindred

Sharon Blackie

Grace Hempshall

Leigh Brooks - Firebelly Films - Magic in the Mundane

Gaia House

Embercombe - The Journey

Rooted Healing

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

“Out of a very terrible burnout and depression came actually something beautiful” – Kim Taylor

Kim Taylor, founder of the Little Dutch Farm, joins us from her traditional Dutch ‘Stolp’ farmhouse, just north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands as autumn starts to arrive in Northern Europe. She shares her journey from a career in cleantech and sustainability, through burnout, miscarriages and the death of her father, to discover the restorative power of nature and creating a very different way of working and living.

The conversation touches on grief, nature connection, garden therapy and regenerative leadership, and how time on her land gave her the space to slow down, reflect, heal and reconnect. She is now on a mission to support others and offers different experiences to support individuals and small groups at the Little Dutch Farm. Research is currently underway on her six-week garden therapy programme in partnership with academics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam) to explore the evidence behind nature-based approaches. It is hoped the results will build credibility with GPs, psychologists and the wider mental-health system in the Netherlands.

She recently launched Little Regenerative Farms, a network of small regenerative farms around the world, where her vision is beautifully simple: places where nature restores people, and people restore the planet. Kim talks openly about the practical realities; from financial barriers to land access and challenges of renovating a 1900s farm, alongside the power of collaboration and building a sustainable business model.

From growing food and restoring biodiversity to creating a global network of small regenerative farms, Kim offers a hopeful and practical vision of what a different future could look like: one rooted in connection, community and taking things one zone at a time.

Bio

Kim Taylor is a nature coach, garden therapist and founder of Little Dutch Farm, a regenerative farm in the Netherlands where nature is used as a guide for personal growth and leadership. After 19 years in high pressure, fast growing companies, Kim's own burnout became the beginning of a different path, one rooted in soil, seasons and the nervous system rather than performance and productivity.

Through nature coaching, garden therapy and regenerative leadership programmes, she works with individuals, teams and leaders who are ready to slow down, reconnect and lead from a more grounded place. Her work sits at the meeting point of planetary health and mental health, showing how the two restore one another.

Kim has just launched Little Regenerative Farms, together with Little Portuguese Farm, an academy and license model bringing this way of working to farms around the world. The vision is simple: places where nature restores people, and people restore the planet.

Website: www.littledutchfarm.com / www.littleregenerativefarms.com

Instagram

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

"The more I read and the more conversations I have, the further I seem from any form of answer. And perhaps that's a healthier place to be." - Anna-Marie, Rooted & Rising Podcast Host

In this first-ever solo episode of Rooted & Rising, Anna-Marie steps away from the interview format to share personal reflections on coaching, ecology, spirituality and the questions that she’s been musing over in her mind.

Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world, she explores observations from her coaching practice: exhaustion, uncertainty and the growing tension between human wellbeing, organisational demands and planetary health. There’re no easy answers, and instead invites listeners into a space of curiosity, asking what coaching is really for and whether it is evolving quickly enough to meet the challenges of our time.

Anna-Marie also reflects on her own journey over the past year navigating personal change, redefining spirituality beyond religion as a deep sense of relationship with the living world, starting to write a new book on ecospiritual coaching and creating her home in Somerset, England.

This is an honest, contemplative conversation about slowing down, embracing uncertainty, and remembering what it means to belong not just to our professions, but to the Earth itself.

About

Change agent, connector, coach, collaborator and podcaster Anna-Marie combines her passion and curiosity for peak performance across her work and life. She brings a wealth of over twenty-five years’ international experience to craft a portfolio career.

She is a self-certified learning junkie with a Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Coaching from the University of Derby and Master’s in Teaching from the University of Sydney; amongst other psychological and psychometric based coaching tools. Happiest outdoors Anna-Marie loves to escape the confines of four walls and co-create coaching conversations with nature.

Anna-Marie is on a mission to encourage a different approach to work where our natural environment is valued within the business world. She facilitates outdoor coaching supervision circles; co-hosted the biweekly ‘Coaching Outdoors’ podcast for five years; co-wrote chapters in ‘The Coaches Handbook’ and ‘Succeeding as a Coach’ on eco-coaching and co-edited 'The Outdoor and Nature Coaches Handbook'. She was a driving force behind the two successful Coaching Outdoors Podcast LIVE @ Henley Business School festivals.

Former British Army Officer, she has worked in challenging environments from snowy Arctic tundra to hot and sandy deserts though currently resides within the rolling countryside of Somerset. Alongside her passion for performance and coaching Anna- Marie has a severe ultra-running habit and has raced competitively at an international level.

LinkedIn

Instagram

Resources

• Dan Burgess – Spaceship Earth podcast (becoming "crew" rather than passengers)
• Ali King-Smith – Rooted & Rising Podcast episode 16 discusses the commercial realities of coaching
• Alison Jones – book proposal writing programme and Bootcamp -
• Lesley Roberts – Coaching Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Partnering with Nature in Your Coaching Conversations
• Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass and her work integrating Indigenous wisdom with Western science
• The Outdoor and Nature Coaches' Handbook co-edited by Anna-Marie Watson, Jonathan Passmore, Paul Lawrence and Alex Burn
• Coaching Outdoors Podcast archive

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘It's all forming, changing and rising as I find my roots with my husband and my lovely dog here in North Devon, in our new place’ - Aly King-Smith, 56-year-old wife, mum, friend, coach, founder of Clearworks and self-described sporty outdoor cat.

From a life-changing pilgrimage along Offa's Dyke to building a new home and business in North Devon, Aly reflects on how nature became more than a backdrop; to her guide. Her decision to leave the Midlands after twenty years was the answer to an inner yearning to return to the mountains, sea and herself.

Drawing on her background in physiotherapy, commercial leadership and more than a decade coaching senior leaders in STEM and biotech, she shares profound shifts she's witnessed in the business world. Today's leaders are no longer asking, "How do I achieve more?" but "Who am I becoming?" and "What legacy do I want to leave?"

We dive into why taking coaching outdoors transforms quality of thought, how movement helps ‘unstuckness’, and why reconnection with our own bodies can be the first step towards reconnection with the living world. Aly reveals her trust in intuition through subtle signals, patterns and inner "knowings" that emerge when we slow down and pay attention, then how she gently weaves these insights into her coaching practice.

The conversation touches on Aly's belief in reciprocity with nature and her commitment to building healthier communities through the recently founded North Devon Pickleball CIC, a not-for-profit initiative with a simple but ambitious vision: to get more people moving, connected and less lonely.

From pilgrimage, systems thinking, leadership, community and the more-than-human world, this conversation is an invitation to redefine success focused on productivity or performance, to a deeper belonging, relationship and a return to what matters most.

Bio

Aly King-Smith has been leading Clearworks since 2013, working with lead teams in the STEM sector. Drawing on two decades of creating businesses, scaling initiatives, and shaping teams, she works alongside leaders to launch & lead projects and teams, clarify vision, and build high-performing cultures.

Aly is a lifelong advocate for sports and the outdoors and started her career as a physiotherapist. She champions healthy, happy, high performance and rages against the burnout epidemic that grips so many leaders now.

Aly lives & works in North Devon. Now in her mid-fifties, she has a deep interest in the wisdom that we’ve forgotten as humans, the information in our bodies, communities and in nature. After feeling the massive benefit of a long trail walk two years ago, she now encourages leaders to include walks, especially long walks (or pilgrimages) into their work together. Connecting STEM leaders who live in their heads, back to their bodies and their intuition, is bringing a real shift at Clearworks.

Website: www.clearworkscoaching.co.uk

LinkedIn Profile

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘In Gaelic, it's called ‘duchas’. It's that connection to place and belonging and heritage and land. And I thought, wow, what a beautiful word, why have I not had that in my own language? There's this actual word to describe this sense of belonging to place’ - JK, Coach & Creator of The Burrow at Little Seed Farm

What does it mean to truly belong to a place, community and yourself? In our conversation, JK reflects on identity, heritage and the journey back to the wildness that lives within us all. From her Gaelic roots and the concept of dùthchas, a profound sense of place and belonging to her childhood spent feral, JK explores how our names, landscapes and life experiences shape who we become.

Together they discuss the pressures of high achievement, burnout amongst mental health leaders and the irony that those caring for others often neglect their own wellbeing and self-care. JK describes how rediscovering walking became a pathway back to joy, guiding her from a life driven by external validation to one rooted in curiosity, stewardship and trust in the more-than-human world.

The conversation explores coaching as an emergent practice, learning from landscapes rather than simply working inthem, and her creation of ‘The Burrow’ at Little Seed Field near Ripon which is a space for reflection, confidentiality and renewal. They also delve into grief, ritual, seasonality and our often-fractured Western relationship with endings, asking what nature can teach us about loss, regeneration and hope.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen deeply and remember that sometimes the simplest act of being present with the land is enough to begin coming home.

Bio:

Jennie-Kate (JK) McQuinn is the founder, coach and facilitator behind Where the Mind Grows, a nature-led coaching organisation helping individuals and teams reconnect with the wild and rediscover their true nature. She delivers trauma-informed, regenerative approaches from woodland in North Yorkshire and other wild spaces across the UK.

With a background in mental health and employability service leadership across the voluntary, private and public health sectors. JK found her own path back to nature, not simply by being in it, but by learning from it and designing life and work to belong as the natural world.

She launched her coaching venture in 2017, the same year she lost her father. Over time, she recognised that grief and loss were present in much of her work with people and teams.

Drawing on ecopsychology, nature reconnection and traditional coaching approaches, JK supports others to navigate life, work and adversity, including bereavement, change and the turbulence of life with compassion & courage. Just like the wild!

Website: www.wherethemindgrows.co.uk

Instagram

LinkedIn - Personal Profile

LinkedIn - Where the Mind Grows

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘How can we overcome this polycrisis, if you like, the sort of disconnect with nature, the disconnect with each other, and the disconnect with self. How can coaching play a part in that?’ - Paul Rodwell, Regenerative Thinker & Coach

From the stunning Tramuntana Mountains of Mallorca, surrounded by Holm Oak and plum trees Paul Rodwell reflects on a life of service that has taken him from the luxury hotel industry in Chile’s Atacama Desert and Morocco’s Marrakech to the diplomatic world of the UK Civil Service and Foreign Office.

Throughout his life encounters with Indigenous communities, sacred rituals and powerful landscapes have sparked a profound shift in how he understands identity, place and our relationship with the natural world.

Together, Anna-Marie and Paul explore themes of colonialism, belonging, spirituality and regeneration, and discuss how awe, silence and connection to place have shaped Paul's coaching philosophy. They examine the discomfort and possibility of liminal spaces, the growing movement towards coaching for nature, and how regenerative thinking might transform the future of the profession.

The conversation also explores professional coaching standards, Paul's alignment with the International Coaching Federation, the evolving role of AI in coaching, and a provocative question for the profession:

Is coaching still fit for purpose in a world facing ecological, social and spiritual challenges?

Bio

Paul Rodwell is a coach, coaching mentor and outdoor facilitator exploring how deeper connection — with nature, with each other, and with ourselves — might help both people and planet heal and thrive. Born in Kent, England, and now also a Spanish national, his life has been shaped by deep roots, movement and a quiet spirit of exploration.

Over the last thirty years, he has lived and worked across Europe, North Africa and Latin America, first through hospitality and wilderness travel — including managing the explora lodge in Chile’s Atacama Desert and also Aman in Marrakech — and later through sixteen years as a diplomat with the UK Foreign Office. Encounters with remote landscapes, indigenous cultures and people from very different walks of life deepened his curiosity about simplicity, presence and what human beings need in order to feel connected and alive.

Now rooted in Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains with his family, Paul’s work centres on nature-connected coaching, retreats, regenerative leadership and co-creating a foundation exploring how reconnecting people with place might help villages in Mallorca flourish once again.

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram @paul_rodwell_inspires

Resources

Laura Storm / Regenerators Academy - Regenerative Leadership Journey, a year-long journey

Presencing Institute / Otto Scharmer

u-school - courses such as Leading from the Emerging Future

Outdoor Facilitation course — Change in Nature

The Outdoor and Nature Coaches’ Handbook

Imagine If… by Sir Ken Robinson and Kate Robinson

Coaching Outdoors Podcast - Giles Hutchins

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘I feel really touched. I feel really blessed. There's an element of sadness that season one is coming to a close. I set out on this journey and I didn't know where I was going at all. It was just such an unknown. Each conversation, has carved arc and now it's ending. How can I do the season justice and draw it to a close, have a pause, and then come back for series two. There is definitely going be a series two. That's not a spoiler alert’ - Anna-Marie Watson

From the autumn to spring equinox eleven guests have kindly shared insights and stories from their lives that trace their roots and what rises within them as coaches or psychotherapists and human beings in connection with our natural world.

In our thirteenth episode Anna-Marie and Rob who’s usually behind the scenes as podcast producer reflect on their journey over the last seven months and share their thoughts on the main themes that have emerged with transformation, change, purpose, play and notice the gaps that have also arisen. Anna-Marie offers her perspectives as podcast host and how each podcast guest has influenced her work and life. Season one draws to a close for Anna-Marie with a mixture of pride, joy, sadness and gratitude.

About

Change agent, connector, coach, collaborator and podcaster Anna-Marie combines her passion and curiosity for peak performance across her work and life. She brings a wealth of over twenty-five years’ international experience to craft a portfolio career.

She is a self-certified learning junkie with a Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Coaching from the University of Derby and Master’s in Teaching from the University of Sydney; amongst other psychological and psychometric based coaching tools. Happiest outdoors Anna-Marie loves to escape the confines of four walls and co-create coaching conversations with nature.

Anna-Marie is on a mission to encourage a different approach to work where our natural environment is valued within the business world. She facilitates outdoor coaching supervision circles; co-hosted the biweekly ‘Coaching Outdoors’ podcast for five years; co-wrote chapters in ‘The Coaches Handbook’ and ‘Succeeding as a Coach’ on eco-coaching and was a driving force behind the two successful Coaching Outdoors Podcast LIVE @ Henley Business School festivals. Former British Army Officer, she has worked in challenging environments from snowy Arctic tundra to hot and sandy deserts though currently resides within the rolling countryside of Somerset. Alongside her passion for performance and coaching Anna- Marie has a severe ultra-running habit and has raced competitively at an international level.

LinkedIn

Instagram

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com