“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.

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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

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To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com