moral cartography for conscientious leadership
healing the stories that shape how we serve
leadership coaching + consulting for people and organizations navigating moral injury, institutional betrayal, and collective grief
STORY-HEALING | MORAL COURAGE | COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION | SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY
After almost two decades working in and leading mission-driven sectors I believe those of us who choose to work in service of others love the work and are compelled by a common desire to alleviate the suffering of other humans — even if it means bearing our own pain in shame and silence.
But those same two decades of experience have shown me that service doesn't have to come at this cost.
At Roots in the Clouds, we practice moral cartography: naming the terrain we are in, tracing the fault lines between our values and our actions, and helping people and organizations create pathways toward integrity, care, and sustainable service.
reclaiming our humanity and making service sustainable isn't an individual burden — it's a shared responsibility.
It took me years of unlearning to understand that the exhaustion, the trauma, the moral injury, the growing distance between my values and my daily reality weren't signs that I wasn't cut out for this work. They were the predictable outcomes of trying to serve inside systems where the ethos of care enshrined within beautiful mission statements never extended to the people doing the work.
In an era of polycrisis, where a convergence of overlapping global, political, ecological, economic, and institutional breakdowns that amplify and accelerate each other, these pressures don't just live out there. They show up in our bodies, our relationships, our leadership, and our capacity to care.
They create ruptures: moments when our values, conscience, or sense of purpose collide with systems that ask us to fragment ourselves. When we name those ruptures, we stop internalizing systemic harm as a personal failing and begin to see the terrain more clearly: an ecosystem of disconnection, dehumanization, moral conflict, and collective grief.
That clarity isn’t the end of the work. It’s where the map begins.
choose your path
Wherever harm has taken root, healing can too. Moral cartography begins by locating where you are now, what has been wounded, and what kind of support can help you move with more clarity, courage, and care.
individual
for mission-driven professionals navigating moral injury, institutional betrayal, systemic or collective grief, burnout, or the ache of serving out of alignment with their values.
organization
for government, humanitarian, nonprofit, and mission-driven organizations ready to name the hidden costs of service, address root causes of harm, and build more human-centered cultures.
community
for mission-driven professionals longing to do this work with others — to be witnessed, supported, and accompanied while exploring moral injury, collective grief, story-healing, and what sustainable service can become.
Tell Me My Story
"What if the service path we've chosen is actually an invitation—to see and heal and love and embrace our own humanity through the stories of the people we're serving? And what if that healing could happen at both the individual and organizational levels?"
— Dimple Dhabalia - Tell Me My Story
Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self
My book, Tell Me My Story, is where this map first began to take shape: through the stories we inherit, the wounds we normalize, and the narratives of service that ask us to abandon ourselves for the mission.
The work now continues through coaching, consulting, collective care, and community spaces that help people and organizations tell the truth about what has happened, reclaim what still matters, and practice a more humane way forward.
upcoming engagements
spring 2026
Serving Our Clients Without Losing Ourselves — Law Society of Ontario 2026 Mental Health Summit for Legal Professionals | Virtual
From Restoration to Regeneration — Spiritual Ecology and Collective Care as Response to Collective Moral Injury and Institutional Betrayal – Durham University, International Centre for Moral Injury | Durham, United Kingdom
Holding Pain and Possibility Together - Simple Grief Rituals for Collective Care in Fractured Times – Yale Women’s Mental Health Conference | New Haven, CT, USA
Challenging the Narrative — Healing the Stories that Shape How We Serve – Beyond Aid Summit - The Women Behind the Work | Virtual