Executive Coach · Clinical Psychologist · Leadership Advisor
Executive coaching grounded in clinical science, systems theory, and sixteen years at the intersection of psychology, law, and senior leadership.
Years of Practice
Licensed Clinical Psychologist with deep expertise in high-performance behavioral change and executive assessment.
Global Reach
Based between the United States and Europe. Working with leaders across global institutions, law firms, and organizations.
Academic Affiliation
Adjunct Faculty, Yale School of Medicine. Facilitator, Yale School of Management.
About
There is a particular kind of challenge that arises at the top of high-performing institutions — one that technical excellence cannot solve, that hierarchical culture makes difficult to name, and that most coaching frameworks are not built to address. I have spent my career at precisely that intersection.
I am a licensed clinical psychologist with sixteen years of practice, a certified executive coach, and a former Senior Vice President who has worked directly alongside lawyers, executives, and institutional leaders navigating some of the most consequential decisions of their professional lives.
My forensic assessment work has given me an uncommon window into the psychology of lawyers specifically — how they think under pressure, where they are most vulnerable, and what they need in order to grow. My work at Yale School of Management and Yale School of Medicine has deepened my ability to engage professionals who demand intellectual rigor and resist anything surface-level.
"The most important leadership development happens in the space between what an organization demands and what a leader can authentically sustain."
I divide my time between the United States and Europe, working with clients across global contexts, in person and virtually. My clients are not struggling — they are exceptional, and they have arrived at a point where the next level of growth requires a different kind of support.
Methodology
Most executive coaching starts with the individual — their strengths, their gaps, their goals. Mine starts with the system. Before we can understand why a leader is stuck, we need to understand the forces acting on them: the cultural norms, the role dynamics, the competing commitments that quietly undermine even the most sincere intentions to change.
Sixteen years as a licensed clinical psychologist gives my coaching a depth of behavioral understanding most coaches do not possess. I know how high performers get stuck — and what it takes to produce durable shifts under pressure.
Drawing on Schein, Oshry, Edmondson, and Kegan & Lahey, I help leaders understand the systems they inhabit — the structural forces and hidden commitments that shape choices before awareness arises.
The Leadership Telemetry Diagnostic™ draws on ecological momentary assessment to capture data from a leader's actual lived experience — building a real-time intelligence picture, not retrospective recall.
Theoretical foundations:
Services
For partners, senior associates, and counsel at elite law firms. Addressing leadership identity, the transition from technical expert to business leader, partnership-track development, and the psychological dimensions of high-performance legal practice. I bring sixteen years of direct experience working alongside lawyers — including forensic assessment — and a clinical understanding of the specific stressors that define legal careers at the highest levels.
For C-suite and senior leaders navigating institutional complexity, leadership transitions, or the particular demands of leading at scale. Engagements combine regular advisory sessions, real-time decision support, and the Leadership Telemetry Diagnostic™ for evidence-based coaching calibration. Typically six to twelve months.
For organizations seeking to embed rigorous, clinically-informed leadership development at scale. Programs designed and facilitated for leadership teams, emerging leader cohorts, and partnership-track professionals — drawing on the same frameworks and methodology as individual coaching, adapted for group learning and organizational context.
For organizations whose wellbeing initiatives need scientific credibility and behavioral depth. Clinical training in sustainable human performance brought to the design and facilitation of resilience programming — ensuring wellbeing efforts land with the precision they deserve, not as wellness add-ons but as strategic leadership infrastructure.
Lawyers at the apex of their profession work at the apex of human experience. Unlocking their development requires someone who understands both the psychology and the environment — from the inside.
Dr. Nakia Hamlett-Nunes, PhD
Contact
Engagements are by direct inquiry and referral. If you are a senior professional — or are reaching out on behalf of one — I welcome the conversation.
I respond personally to every inquiry, typically within 48 hours.
All inquiries are treated with complete confidentiality.