Why Karma Journey Co.?

The truth is, this business didn’t begin in 2025. It began many years ago. People often ask me why I chose the name Karma Journey Co. I have been trying to understand the word Karma since I was about eight years old. I remember writing about it, questioning it, and trying to make sense of what it meant at different stages of my life. Not just spiritually, but practically. That curiosity has followed me into adulthood, and if I’m honest, I’m still learning what it truly means.

It began in my early twenties, in a marriage I entered young, in navigating unrealistic expectations shaped by patriarchy, and in slowly unpacking childhood wounds that surfaced once I began opening myself to deeper reflection.

Healing was and is not linear. It was uncomfortable. It was confronting. But it was necessary.

For over a decade now, I have been in my own therapeutic work - supported by incredible women (and some remarkable men including my husband) who held space for me as mentors, psychologists, managers, academics, and friends. Their guidance changed my life. They modelled what it means to hold space without judgement, and to challenge with compassion.

In my late twenties, something became clear. My interest and my purpose through service lay in holding space for others while continuously learning about people, cultures, systems, and the ways our identities shape our life and work.

And then came the stigma.

Within parts of my cultural community, mental health work is often misunderstood or dismissed. I remember someone saying that counsellors, psychologists and therapists are “the most broken people out there.” The words carried shame. For a moment, they made me question myself.

But I also had people in my corner who encouraged me to keep going.

Mental health struggles in my own family (diagnosed and undiagnosed), alongside the intergenerational trauma, family violence, and the lasting impacts of colonisation within the Fiji Indian diaspora, began to make sense in new ways. The more I learned and unlearned, the clearer it became that culturally sensitive, intersectional work in this space is not optional but it is essential.

My time working within universities deepened this awareness.

At ANU and particularly within the School of Culture, History & Language at the College of Asia and the Pacific, I grew up professionally. I was introduced to scholarship on gender, colonisation, Indigenous knowledges, power, history, and intersectionality. These ideas did not remain academic - they became personal. They gave language to experiences I had long felt but could not yet articulate, and helped me understand that the histories of the Pacific including the journey of our ancestors from India to Fiji were essential to making sense of my own life.

Carrying a brochure for a Graduate Certificate in Intersectionality, Diversity and Inclusion in my bag for three years before enrolling says something about timing. Eventually, I stepped into that learning and it reshaped how I see career development, life design coaching, identity, and systems of power and oppression.

At the same time, universities were restructuring. Priorities were shifting. Roles felt uncertain. I began to feel a growing pull toward taking my life and career more intentionally into my own hands.

After more than a decade in Canberra, we made the decision to move to Melbourne. A new city. A new chapter. A short-term university role that again reminded me how dependent stability can be on funding cycles and institutional priorities.

And that’s when the clarity came.

I realised that while I value university work deeply, my impact did not need to be confined to institutional structures. I could work part-time within a university and part-time building something aligned with my own values, pace, and philosophy.

That is how Karma Journey Co. came to life. Through Karma Journey Co, I will offer coaching, reflective learning spaces, creative workshops, and community gatherings designed to help people make sense of themselves and the world around them (more on this in the next blog post).

This business is not about having all the answers. It is about holding space for people navigating identity, culture, work, healing, ambition, and meaning, especially those who sit at intersections that are often overlooked.

Karma Journey Co. is built on what I have come to understand through my own life and the lives of those I’ve walked alongside.

That healing is layered.

Growth is not linear.

That identity is complex.

That career and work is not separate from life. That power can be reclaimed, redefined, and used with intention - in service of something larger than ourselves.

And that we each deserve space to make sense of our story.

This is not a destination.

It is a journey.

And I am proud of where it has led me so far.

—

Dipika Nand

Founder & Principal Coach

Karma Journey Co.