If the world has taught you to push harder, stay smaller, or hide the messier parts of who you are, this is where you stop apologizing for being human.
We offer affirming coaching that embraces your complexity, and helps you build a life aligned with your truth and your fire.
What Coaching Is
...and isnโt
Coaching at Open Space isn't about toxic positivity, grinding harder, or becoming a different personโit's about excavating who you actually are beneath the layers of shame, should's, and self-protection. It's not about fixing what's broken because you're not broken. It's a space to exhale from performing. A place to unlearn the bullshit, name what shame has stolen from you, and build a life and leadership style that doesn't require you to abandon yourself.
Shame is the voice that tells you you're not good enoughโand then rewrites your entire identity around that lie. It's the reason you perform confidence while dying inside. It's why success feels empty, why boundaries feel selfish, why rest feels like failure. Shame doesn't just impact how you feelโit fundamentally shapes how you show up, who you become, and what you believe you deserve.
At Open Space, coaching is a high-energy, high-honesty process rooted in lived experience and radical transparency. It's a space where you can bring your whole truthโthe messy parts, the parts you hide in board meetings, the parts that wake you up at 3 AMโwithout having to make it pretty or palatable.
Our coaches don't work from pedestals or textbooks. We coach from the lived experience we've crawled out of, the shame we've processed, and the systems we've dismantled. We understand shame intimatelyโnot as a concept, but as a force we've battled and transformed. Whether you're a CEO drowning in imposter syndrome, a founder rebuilding after failure, a neurodiverse leader navigating systems that weren't built for you, a partner of a first responder carrying invisible weight, or someone ready to stop living by everyone else's rules, we hold space for your complexity with zero tolerance for shame-based living.
We believe that shame thrives in silence, secrecy, and judgmentโand it can't survive being spoken, witnessed, and met with empathy. We know that your shame isn't your fault, but healing it is your responsibility. And we're here to support you in that radical, rebellious, life-changing work.
We believe that authentic leadership starts with radical self-acceptance, that vulnerability is a superpower not a weakness, and that your mess can become your message.
This Space Is For You If...
We provide coaching that is deeply affirming of LGBTQIA+ folks, neurodiverse professionals, BIPOC leaders, partners of first responders, people rebuilding after crisis, leaders from marginalized communities, and anyone who's been told they're "too much" or "not enough" for taking up space authentically.
If you've been performing professionalism while you feel like a mess inside, if you've been leading from shame instead of strength, if you've been waiting for permission to be your full selfโyou don't need permission. This space was built for and by people who refuse to shrink.
Our Approach
At Open Space, we view coaching as an act of rebellion against hustle culture and the systems that demand we perform instead of just being. Our coaches are trained in shame resilience, trauma-informed practices, and understand that personal transformation can't be separated from systemic oppression. We don't pretend the playing field is level, and we don't coach like it is.
We understand the unique challenges you face:
For neurodiverse folks: Your brain processes everything at once, "simple" tasks take ten times the mental energy, and traditional productivity systems weren't built for how you work.
For marginalized leaders: "Professional development" often means code-switching until you forget who you are, and success requires navigating systems actively working against you.
For those healing from shame: It doesn't just whisper you're not good enoughโit rewrites your entire identity around that lie, affecting how you lead, love, and live.
For partners of first responders: You carry secondary trauma while being expected to be endlessly strong, with few spaces that understand this unique experience.
For anyone in a significant transition: You're rebuilding while everyone expects you to have it together, navigating uncertainty without a roadmap.
Whether you're navigating one or all of these realities, we meet you with understanding and evidence-based approaches that actually honor your lived experience. Your coaching journey may incorporate:
Shame resilience theory to understand and interrupt shame spirals
Somatic practices to release what's trapped in your body
Nervous system regulation for real-time stress management
Values clarification to separate others' expectations from your truth
Leadership development that honors your authentic style
Executive function support that works with your brain, not against it
Boundary setting without guilt or over-explanation
Our coaching is forward-focused, action-oriented, and rooted in radical honestyโbut always through a lens of liberation, always honoring your full identity, and always at your pace. Our goal isn't to help you fit inโit's to support you in standing out authentically and leading from that place.
Meet Our Coaches
Samantha Goldberg
she/her
What to expect
Beginning coaching can feel vulnerableโespecially if past "support" has required you to minimize your identities or ignore systemic realities. Here's what you can expect when you work with us:
A coach who understands that "mindset work" without systemic awareness is gaslighting.
Space to bring your whole selfโall your identities, experiences, and contradictions.
Practical strategies that work with your specific brain, body, and circumstances.
Support that acknowledges both what you can control and what requires collective change.
Accountability rooted in compassion, not shame or judgment.
Permission to define success, leadership, and life on your own terms.
Tools for navigating existing systems while not internalizing their messages.
Integration supportโbringing together parts of yourself you've had to separate.
Build Shame Resilience
Build capacity to move through shame without being controlled by it or defined by its lies.
Create Alignment
Design life and work structures that honor your brain, body, values, and circumstances.
Lead Authentically
Develop leadership that's rooted in your values, not performance.
Develop Sustainable Capacity
Learn to work with your nervous system instead of constantly overriding it.
Reclaim Your Voice
Stop apologizing for your existence and start owning your power.
Transform โFailureโ
Reframe setbacks as data, not verdicts on your worthโand work towards true acceptance of the past.
You donโt have to know what you needโjust bring your truth.
Your first session is about understanding where you are, what you're navigating, and what transformation could look like for you.
We want to understand both the visible challenges and the invisible labor you're carrying.
Intake Session
Your first session is exactly thatโyours. This is a space to be witnessed in your full complexity without having to perform having it together. No corporate assessments, no personality tests, no pretending everything's fineโjust authentic conversation about what's really happening.
With your permission, we'll explore what feels relevant and comfortable to discuss at this pointโwhether that's your relationship with leadership and power, how your identities shape your experiences, what systems you're navigating and their impact, where you feel stuck or misaligned, what support you've never had but needed, or what change would actually mean for your life.
Together, we'll identify what you genuinely want (not what you're supposed to want) and create an approach that honors both your urgency for change and your nervous system's need for safety. We'll discuss frequency, format, and what accountability looks like for you.
Above all, your expertise about your own life guides everything. Our work is collaborativeโand you deserve coaching that sees and celebrates exactly who you are.
Ongoing Sessions
Our follow-up sessions are where the real work happens. This is where we dig into the patterns, dismantle the shame, and build something real in its place. Each session is high-energy, high-accountability, and high-compassion.
Depending on your needs, we might explore shame triggers and building interruption strategies, leadership approaches that align with your values, neurodivergent-friendly systems and structures, nervous system regulation and capacity building, navigating workplace dynamics and discrimination, identity integration and authentic expression, boundary setting without guilt or over-explanation, processing failures and setbacks without spiraling, or moving from survival mode to intentional living.
Throughout this process, we hold space for all of it: the victories and setbacks, the clarity and confusion, the hope and the exhaustion. We celebrate small wins because they matter, acknowledge systemic barriers without letting them have the final word, and support you in building a life that feels like yours.
This is your space to bring the mess, the wins, the fears, the rageโwhatever's real. You'll be met with recognition, strategy, and unwavering belief in your capacity to create changeโand someone who's been in their own mess and came out the other side.
You've likely spent years shapeshiftingโbecoming whoever you needed to be to survive, succeed, or just get through the day. Maybe you've code-switched so long you've forgotten your natural voice. Maybe you've performed confidence while imposter syndrome whispered that you're about to be found out. Maybe you've achieved everything while feeling nothing. Maybe you've led others while losing yourself. The exhaustion isn't just from hard workโit's from constant translation between who you are and who systems demand you be.
For folks with marginalized identities, every space requires negotiation. For neurodivergent leaders, every day means working five times harder to appear "normal." For anyone who's been through crisis or failure, the shame can feel insurmountable. For trauma survivors, success often triggers nervous systems that learned achievement means danger. The very systems that promise success often require us to abandon the parts of ourselves that make us powerful.
Coaching at Open Space offers something different: a space where your full humanity is centered, not despite your struggles but including them. A practice of integration instead of fragmentation. A path to leadership and a full life that doesn't require abandoning your values, your identity, or your nervous system's wisdom.
You don't have to choose between success and authenticity. You don't have to lead from shame to be effective. You don't have to keep performing a version of yourself that's exhausting you.
Itโs time to stop translating yourself and start taking up space. And we're here when you're ready to stop performing and start living.