CLIENT SCENARIO MALIK

Meet Malik, your first coaching client awaits

Malik is a 38-year-old father of two who, from the outside, appears to be doing “just fine.” He has a stable job as a regional sales manager, owns his home, drives a decent car, and is known for being reliable and composed.

But inside, Malik is exhausted. He wakes up each morning with a heaviness in his chest that coffee can’t clear. Every day feels like a performance, smiling, producing, pretending. The truth is, Malik feels like a ghost in his own life. There is only one thing that makes him feel alive, and he does his best to stay as far away from it as he can.

He once dreamed of becoming a teacher or counselor, a profession that would allow him to make a real impact. But after his father passed suddenly when Malik was just 20, he took the first job he could find to help his mother stay afloat. One promotion led to another, and two decades later, he’s built a life that doesn’t belong to his soul.

Malik’s marriage is quietly crumbling. His wife accuses him of “checking out,” but he doesn’t know how to explain the emotional flatline he’s been living with. She is finishing up her Master's and looks to him for emotional support. They barely talk except about bills, schedules, and the kids’ soccer practice. He feels like a provider, not a partner. A bank, not a man. Intimacy feels like another obligation he’s failing at.

He used to write poetry. He used to pray. Now he scrolls on his phone at night until his eyelids close.

Malik has come for coaching because of a recurring dream. He’s running down a long hallway, opening door after door, but each one is empty — no people, no furniture, just echo and dust.

“I don’t know what I’m doing anymore,” he says. “I just know I can’t keep doing this.”

Malik is scared to leave his job because his family depends on him, and he doesn’t want to be like his father. He doesn’t have time or money to “start over.” But part of him is whispering…

“Maybe this isn’t starting over. Maybe it’s finally starting.”