Deep Dive on Existential Career Coaching with Dr. Britt-Mari Sykes

Welcome to this episode of Talking about Coaching, the podcast from coaches for coaches. 

This episode is one of Yannick's deep dives into one topic or person and we're talking to Dr. Britt-Mari Sykes about existential career coaching, and how career development and navigation in the age of AI increasingly brings existential themes to the fore, as clients have to confront questions of identity, authenticity, uncertainty, temporality, meaning, and isolation. 

What you’ll hear in this episode

• Why career coaching needs an existential lens
• How identity and meaning shift across a career life
• The role of resistance, stuckness, and uncertainty
• Why “passion” can become a limiting narrative
• How deep listening opens up more useful coaching conversations
• The importance of descriptive reflection over quick fixes
• How AI changes the way people think about work, choice, and human value
  
  

Key themes

• Where traditional career coaching fails to deliver
• The existential layer
• Stuckness as information
• Challenging narratives around passion and purpose
• AI as a third voice in the room

Chapters

0:01 — Why Career Coaching Needs an Existential Lens

1:55 — How Britt-Mari Found Her Calling

4:14 — Beyond Strategy: The Deeper Work of Career Coaching

5:53 — Bringing a Role to Life

7:11 — Why Human Conversations Matter More Than Ever

9:06 — Traditional Coaching vs. Existential Questions

11:06 — Why Practical Steps Come Second

14:35 — When Change Feels Impossible

21:23 — Listening for What’s Really There

23:34 — What “Stuck” Is Really Telling You

28:12 — You Are the Job

33:25 — The “Shoulds” That Shape Careers

39:24 — Passion Paralysis

45:32 — Why Description Beats Labels

48:58 — Reframing Purpose and Value

52:17 — When Work Holds You—and Traps You

54:18 — Stuckness as a Useful Pause

58:20 — Stepping Back to Reflect

63:29 — The Existential Gym

67:51 — Five Minutes That Change Your Day

70:02 — Practicing Reflection Like a Muscle

73:44 — Camus, Sisyphus, and Meaning

76:11 — Commitment, Choice, and Decisions

80:37 — Freedom, Bad Faith, and the Dizziness of Choice

83:30 — Choice, Tradeoffs, and Standing Behind Decisions

87:46 — How Clients Step Into This Work

91:31 — Making Space for Ambiguity and Contradiction

92:33 — Why AI Can’t Replace a Human Coach

98:43 — When AI Becomes a Tool, Not a Relationship

99:16 — Why the Existential Gym Still Matters

100:19 — What Resonated Most

103:17 — The Third Voice in the Room

104:16 — Learn more from and with Britt-Mari

BIO: 

Britt-Mari Sykes, Ph.D., is a Career Counsellor and Consultant, a Career Development Practitioner (CDP), and the founder of CANVAS Career Counselling. She is a member of Career Professionals of Canada and received the 2024 Outstanding Career Professional Award of Excellence. She holds certifications as a Career Strategist (CCS), Work-Life Strategist (CWS), Employment Strategist (CES), Interview Strategist (CIS), and Résumé Strategist (CRS). Britt-Mari has supported a diverse range of clients across Canada for over 16 years, assisting those facing career changes, burnout, or feeling unfulfilled, as well as individuals exploring new work options later in life. She also works with emerging young leaders, senior leaders managing multigenerational teams, and career development practitioners seeking mentorship and guidance. 

Britt-Mari brings an existential and experiential approach to career counselling, guiding clients to explore their relationship with work and careers, reflect on their experiences, choices, and decisions, and develop practical, meaningful next steps. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa and specializes in existential and experiential psychotherapies. Britt-Mari is the author of Questioning Psychological Health and Well-Being (2010), a historical and contemporary exploration of the meaning of psychological health and development. Currently, she is working on her second book, a collection of essays on the meaning of career and our relationship with work from an existential perspective in career counselling. 

In addition to her private practice, Britt-Mari has presented at conferences across Canada, the USA, and Europe on topics such as human development, ethics in everyday life, and the value of work. She continues to teach as a sessional and guest lecturer in university classrooms on the history and development of existential psychology and the theory of Existential Analysis. Committed to lifelong learning and professional growth, she regularly participates in workshops and certificate programs on Existential Analysis, Trauma-Informed Care, and Narrative Therapy. Actively engaged in community service, Britt-Mari currently volunteers as a Certification Assessor with Career Professionals of Canada and, for 8 years, volunteered as a group facilitator with the Discover Year program (a structured gap-year initiative).

Email: hello@mycareercanvas.co

Website: https://mycareercanvas.co 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittmarisykes/ 

Instagram: @mycareercanvas 

Brainz Magazine Profile: https://www.brainzmagazine.com/executive-contributor/britt-mari-sykes