Executive coaching · certified coach and psychotherapist · updated 2026
Executive coaching for South Asian professionals: pressure, visibility and the cost of being the reliable one
Executive coaching works forward from a functioning baseline towards decisions, performance and influence. Therapy works on distress and pattern. Komel Kaur is a certified executive coach and a psychotherapist, and spent 14 years in high-pressure, people-facing corporate roles before moving into private practice, which is why the coaching work centres on conflict, negotiation and service recovery rather than generic goal setting. Sessions are online worldwide, 60 minutes, USD 70 or USD 49 as a new client offer.
For South Asian and Indian diaspora professionals who are delivering, being relied on, and not being moved forward. Online worldwide, with slots late enough to fit around a working day in any time zone.
Komel Kaur
Psychotherapist + Executive Coach
M.A. Psychology
CBT and DBT trained psychotherapist
5 languages
English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Kashmiri
60-minute sessions
Online video, times shown on your own clock
No payment to request
Ask for a time first, pay once it is confirmed
Reviewed by Komel Kaur, psychotherapist and executive coach, M.A. Psychology
Last reviewed 28 August 2026
Komel Kaur, in plain facts
This practice stated plainly, including what it does not offer.
- Name and title
- Komel Kaur, psychotherapist and executive coach.
- Qualification
- M.A. Psychology, with certified training in CBT, DBT, SFBT and REBT, plus an executive coaching certification. Practises under clinical supervision.
- Not claimed
- Not a psychiatrist, not a clinical psychologist, and not licensed or registered in the UK, US, Canada, Singapore, Australia or India. No medication is prescribed or managed.
- Languages
- English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Kashmiri, and sessions can move between them mid-conversation.
- Based in
- United Arab Emirates, working online worldwide. Slots run 11am to 1am UAE time, which covers India, the Gulf, the UK, most of Europe, and the North American evening.
- Works with
- Adults, teenagers and children, individuals and couples, with a specific focus on the Indian and South Asian diaspora.
- Common reasons people come
- Anxiety, low mood and depression, adult ADHD, trauma, OCD, burnout, in-law and family conflict, marriage and pre-marital questions, and big career or relocation decisions.
- Session format
- 60 minute one to one sessions on Google Meet, or a 30 minute intro consultation first.
- Cost
- USD 35 for the 30 minute intro consultation. USD 70 for a full 60 minute session, or USD 49 as a new client offer. Five session plan at USD 49 per session, paid one session at a time. Couples session USD 120, or USD 99 as a new client offer. Charged in AED or USD.
- How booking works
- Pick a slot shown on your own clock and send a request. Nothing is charged at that point. The slot is held for 48 hours while Komel confirms the time and sends a secure payment link.
- Not the right fit for
- Anyone in immediate danger or active crisis, medication management, severe or acute illness needing a higher level of care, court-ordered assessment, or anyone who needs an insurance-reimbursable provider licensed in their own country.
- Free tools on the site
- Clinician-validated screening questionnaires including GAD-7, PHQ-9, ASRS v1.1, PCL-5, OCI-R, PSS-10, SPIN, ISI and SDQ, scored instantly. Screening only, never a diagnosis.
Related: South Asian therapist online, free burnout self-test, credentials and training, and about Komel.
What the sessions actually work on
- Conflict and difficult conversations
- The conversation you have rehearsed nine times and not had: with a peer who undercuts you, a manager who takes credit, a team member who is not delivering. Rehearsed in the room, including the second and third moves after the reply you did not plan for.
- Negotiation and self-advocacy
- Salary, scope, title, hybrid terms, exit packages. This is where an upbringing that treated self-promotion as bad manners costs money. The work is scripting a case that fits how you actually speak, rather than performing confidence you do not feel.
- Visibility and influence
- Being the person everyone relies on and nobody names in the room where decisions happen. Concrete work on how contribution is made legible without turning into someone your colleagues find performative.
- Recovery after something has gone wrong
- A missed number, a client escalation, a botched launch, a public mistake. Handling the aftermath deliberately rather than shrinking, and how the sequence of who you tell in what order determines whether it is a story or a scar.
- Burnout in high performers
- The version where output holds and everything else quietly stops. Screened properly, because if it is clinical burnout or depression, coaching alone is the wrong container and it will be said out loud.
- Decisions with a family in them
- Relocation, taking the risky role, going out on your own, or going home. For diaspora professionals these are rarely only career decisions, and pretending otherwise is why generic coaching stalls on them.
Who this fits
- Mid to senior professionals in the Gulf, the UK, North America, Singapore, Australia and India.
- First-generation professionals in a role no one in their family has held.
- Founders and self-employed people with no board and no manager to think out loud with.
- Managers who were promoted for delivery and never taught to handle people conflict.
- Anyone weighing an exit, a relocation or a step up in the next six months.
Where coaching is the wrong container
Named plainly, because coaching sold into a clinical problem wastes months.
- You are in active crisis or immediate danger. Use an emergency line and a local service.
- The core issue is untreated depression, anxiety, trauma or an addiction. That is therapy first, and coaching afterwards if you still want it.
- You need a clinical diagnosis, medication, or a fitness-to-work or occupational health report.
- You want an insurance-reimbursable service. Coaching is not clinical care and is not reimbursable.
- You want a workplace grievance investigated or mediated. That is HR and legal work, not coaching.
Common questions
What is the difference between coaching and therapy here?
Coaching works forward from a functioning baseline: decisions, influence, difficult conversations, performance, career direction. Therapy works on distress, symptoms and patterns, usually with history in the room. Komel does both and keeps them separate, and will tell you in the intro consultation which one your situation actually calls for rather than selling you the one you asked for.
Why does a psychotherapist do executive coaching?
Because the two failure modes look identical from the outside. Someone stalling before a promotion may be facing a skills gap, or may be burnt out, or may be carrying a family expectation that makes visible ambition feel dangerous. A coach without clinical training tends to treat all three as a motivation problem. Being able to tell which one it is changes what the sessions do.
What does the corporate background add?
Fourteen years working with people under pressure in commercial, people-facing roles: conflict resolution between teams and with customers, negotiation, service recovery when something has already gone wrong, and managing performance in front of an audience. That is applied psychology in a commercial setting. It means the room already understands escalation, politics and the gap between what is said in a meeting and what is decided after it.
What do South Asian professionals bring that is specific?
Recurring themes: being read as reliable rather than promotable, discomfort with self-advocacy in cultures where it was actively discouraged at home, accent and name bias, being the first in the family to hold a senior role and having nobody to ask, sending money home while paying for a life abroad, and the visa dependence that makes leaving a bad manager a legal question rather than a career one.
What does a coaching engagement look like?
Usually a 30-minute intro consultation to check fit, then 60-minute sessions. Some people take a handful around one decision such as a promotion, an exit or a relocation. Others run fortnightly for a quarter through a transition. There is no minimum commitment and nothing is charged when you request a slot.
How much does executive coaching cost?
The same as therapy sessions: USD 35 for the 30-minute intro consultation, USD 70 for a 60-minute session or USD 49 as a new client offer, and a five-session plan at USD 49 per session paid one session at a time. Charges are taken in AED or USD.
Can my employer pay for it?
Often, yes, under a learning or development budget. An invoice can be issued in the company name. Note that this is private coaching, not an EAP contract, and it is not an insurance-reimbursable clinical service.
Is it confidential if my company pays?
Yes. Where an employer funds sessions, the content stays between you and Komel. What the employer receives is an invoice, not a report on the conversations.
How it works
Three steps, about five minutes.
No waiting list, no phone tag, no chasing a reply. You can have a time requested before you close this page, and nothing is paid until it is confirmed.
01
Pick a session and a time
Choose the session you want and a slot that suits you. Times are shown on your own clock, and evening slots are open.
02
Request it, no payment yet
Leave a few details and send the request. The slot is held for you while Komel confirms she is the right fit.
03
Confirm and get your Meet link
Komel sends a payment link for that session. Once it is paid, the Google Meet link lands in your inbox.
Sessions and pricing
Pick the session that fits, then a time.
Intro consultation
30 minutes
USD 35
One-off, no commitment
A short first conversation to see if we're a fit.
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Full session
60 minutes
USD 70USD 49
New client offerOne-off, no commitment
A complete therapy hour, one to one.
Book this →
Most chosen5-session plan
60 minutes
USD 49per session
Save 30% per sessionNothing upfront, pay one session at a time
Five hours of real work at the lower rate the whole way through.
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Couples session
60 minutes, for two
USD 120USD 99
New client offerOne-off, no commitment
One hour with both partners on the same video call.
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From the practice
What Komel writes about, week to week.
When this is not the right fit
Komel is a psychotherapist and executive coach based in the UAE, working online worldwide. Sessions are private and self-funded, and cannot be claimed on local insurance or used for legal, medical or workplace reports. She does not prescribe or manage medication.
This is not an emergency service. If you are in immediate danger, use a local crisis line rather than a booking request. Her credentials and training and the full scope of practice are published.