About Dawn

Moving to Berlin in 2010, knowing no one but my then-boyfriend (now husband), was the first time I had to build a life from nothing. I did not speak the language at all (and do not have an affinity for language learning), did not know how anything worked, and did not have a single friend to call on a hard day. Everything that used to define me, including my job, my social circle, and the version of myself that made sense in context, was gone, and I had to work out who I was without any of it. If you have ever moved somewhere new and had to start over without the people or the context that used to make you feel like you, whether that move happened years ago or you are going through it right now, here in Berlin, some of this will probably sound familiar.

It was so much slower than I expected, and lonelier at times than I want to admit. Learning the language brought out so much insecurity and emotional pain. I expected to master the language in months, and it took years instead. But it also taught me something I did not fully understand until years later: that starting over is survivable, even when it does not feel like it at the time. You rebuild a life the same way you rebuild anything, one small, deliberate step at a time.

The second big transition came with becoming a mother to two children, in the middle of COVID. The whole world was paused then, but for families with young children, that pause carried its own weight. There was no childcare, no nearby support, no clear sense of when any of it would ease. I stepped back from training and coaching to care for my kids, and by the time I was ready to return, so much about me had changed. My values, my sense of what mattered, even what I wanted from my work had all shifted.

So I did what I now ask my clients to do: I started asking what actually fulfilled me, instead of assuming I already knew. The first steps were hard. Doubt was loud. But somewhere in that searching, I recognized something clearly: working with women, in groups and one-on-one, brings me real joy. Not just satisfaction in a job well done, but the kind of fulfillment that told me I would found the right next chapter.

Since then, watching my own children move into school has surfaced something else: how much families, parents, and children need real connection and community, not just services. That recognition is part of what has grown into my Women’s Cohort Program and Coworking.