From the Inside to Impact
Kun — to begin from your roots
Kun was born in Rome in 2014 and works today from Dubai as a global, ICF-accredited coaching academy. The name is a Quranic word — the command to be — because we believe growth starts at the roots: with your honesty with yourself first.
The Kun story
How Kun began — and why its conviction hasn't changed.
The founding arc
Kun began in Rome in 2014 — a coaching-services company with one conviction that hasn't changed since: real growth doesn't come from imitating anyone; it comes from learning to Be your authentic self. There was no grand plan in those early days. There was a question, the one Samer had carried since his earliest years in martial arts: how does a person recover their drive from within? The company grew the way trust grows — one person telling another. Today Kun works from Dubai as a global coaching academy and has trained more than a thousand coaches across more than fifteen countries and delivered more than half a million coaching sessions, and through them the work has reached more than a million lives. The numbers matter less than what they stand for: every coach who leaves here carries the same quiet conviction outward. Who you become comes first. What you achieve with mastery follows.
Our direction
Our Vision
Our path
To revive the art of cultivating the human being from within — building communities rooted in presence that grow from their authenticity toward a renewed awareness and a living impact.
Our Mission
What we help with
We walk alongside individuals and organisations through experiences that deepen their presence and return them to themselves, opening authentic paths of growth whose impact widens from within them to the world around them.
Our values
Presence
Presence is an innate capacity we all carry, and the root of every skill we learn. To live consciously, we need to notice ourselves and our interactions with life as they happen — as they are, without resistance or escape.
Authenticity
Authenticity is when mind and body carry the same message without contradiction. To live from who we are, not from inherited reactions — and to meet ourselves and our communities with transparency and truth.
Ihsan
To work with mastery, from the heart, not from attachment to the outcome. At Kun, we offer what we love, with ihsan — because the value lives in the act itself, not in its return.
Connection
We cannot divide the human being; body, self, and behavior all interact as one. We believe life is governed by laws of connection — everything we live is shaped by what is within us and around us.
Companionship
To live these values, we need honest, safe companionship. At Kun we don't instruct and we don't judge — we accompany. Together we practice being true to who we are, in every time and place.
Why Kun began
In Samer Hassan's words
When I began my path in training and self-development more than twenty years ago, I wasn't looking for ready-made tools or techniques. I was looking for a path that would bring me back to myself — one that wouldn't ask me to abandon my roots in order to grow, or to imitate anyone in order to look mature. Kun was born from an honest desire for an authentic path of cultivation — one that grows from our land, speaks our language, and embraces our values.
Samer Hassan — Founder of Kun
“A companion on the path, not a leader of it.”
From our journey
Milestones along the way
From Rome 2014 to Dubai today — the real milestones that made Kun.
- 2000–20132000–2013
Before Kun: the search
The years of search — from China to Canada to Europe — through martial arts, healing arts, and coaching, and the founding of Dragon Academy in Cairo. This is where the seed of Somatic Thinking™ took shape.
- 20142014
Rome: Kun is formally founded
Kun’s first official home opened in Rome. There, Somatic Thinking™ matured as a philosophy of cultivation — activating the relationship between body, intention, and awareness, and returning a person to themselves through presence.
- 20172017
MCC accreditation from ICF
Samer earned the Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation — ICF’s highest coaching credential.
- 20182018
Our training program is accredited
The Somatic Thinking™ program earned international ICF accreditation — a coach-education path built on an authentically Arab philosophy, now taught in three languages.
- 20192019
ICF Young Leader award
Samer received the ICF Young Leader in Coaching award (2019).
- 20192019
Egypt: the Arab extension begins
Kun opened in Cairo, launching training programs rooted in Arab values, language, and context.
- 20222022
Iraq: a community partnership
A partnership with Dr. Khaled Al-Busaisi launched development programs in Iraq, grounded in the balance of individual and community, authenticity and creativity.
- 20222022
Dubai: strategic base
The headquarters moved to Dubai and the academy’s digital gateway launched — focused on the learner’s experience and on Gulf and global reach.
- 20242024
Jeddah: paths of cultivation launch
In partnership with Coach Reem Bakheet, Kun launched integrated paths of cultivation bringing Somatic Thinking™ to life in the Saudi context.
- 20242024
Abu Dhabi: a call to revive
At the Arab Coaching Summit, Samer issued his call to revive tarbiya — the cultivation of the human being — as a way of life, not merely a mode of teaching, and to redefine the coach as a Murabbi: a coach and mentor who activates your values and knowledge within your behaviour.
- 20262026
Riyadh: a strategic partnership in the Kingdom
Kun’s strategic partnership with Compass Impact begins in Riyadh — our trusted Saudi representation — bringing Somatic Thinking into the Kingdom through Saudi partners trained by Samer Hassan.
Toward the horizon
Kun’s learning platform is live, and what comes next is clearer still: curricula reaching new languages, an in-person home for the Kun experience, and a generation of coaches carrying the Abu Dhabi call into its impact — the Murabbi, who begins with themselves to revive those around them.
Our team
Leadership at Kun is shared and collaborative — and behind these faces works a team of coaches and facilitators from across the Arab world.
Kun Coaching Academy is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), offering ICF-accredited Level 1 and Level 2 programs.
Our corporate clients
Organisations we had the pleasure to serve
Saudi Industrial Development FundGovernment · Industrial development
Misk FoundationLeadership & development
EmaarReal estate & development
BIPA — BahrainGovernment · Public administration
HM GovernmentGovernment · Diplomatic
UNDPInternational organisation
Public Health Agency of CanadaGovernment · Public health
MotorolaTechnology
BayerPharmaceutical
AlexBankBanking
Elsewedy ElectricIndustry
Caesars EntertainmentHospitalityPartners & Sister Companies
We build our relationships on shared values and shared vision — real partnership starts from the inside.
Our trusted Saudi representation — a human-development and coaching company whose partners trained with Samer Hassan, bringing Somatic Thinking™ into the Kingdom. "The compass leaves a mark."
Our Jeddah chapter, in partnership with Coach Reem Bakheet — carrying the Somatic Thinking™ paths to the western Kingdom.
FAQ
Kun is an ICF-accredited coaching academy, born in Rome in 2014 and working today from Dubai, reaching across the Arab world and beyond. It’s not a workshop you attend once and forget — it’s a complete space: one-on-one sessions, learning and programs, professional ICF certification, and retreats that bring you back to yourself. One thread runs through all of it: to grow from the inside, not to collect tools from the outside.
“Kun” is a Quranic word — the command to be, “Be, and it is” (كُن فيكون). The name reflects our belief that growth doesn’t start from the top; it starts from the roots — from your honesty with yourself first. Our signature carries the same idea: Be yourself first — كُنْ نفسك أوّلًا.
Samer Hassan is the creator of Somatic Thinking — a published coaching methodology — and an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC). He started in martial arts over thirty years ago and, from there, arrived at the question that led him to coaching: how does a person recover their drive from within, rather than from a teacher outside them? Through Kun he has helped train 1000+ coaches across 15+ countries in three languages, received the ICF’s Young Leader in Coaching award (2019), co-authored the peer-reviewed Coaching Presence (McGraw-Hill, 2021), and published From Balance to Baraka (2025).
Kun is a global, ICF-accredited coaching academy, founded in Rome in 2014 and based today in Dubai. To date it has trained 1000+ coaches across 15+ countries, with the work reaching 1M+ lives through 500,000+ coaching sessions delivered. The numbers matter less than what they stand for: every coach trained here carries the same conviction outward — Be yourself first.
Kun was born in Rome in 2014 and works today from Dubai as a global, ICF-accredited coaching academy, reaching across the Arab world and beyond, with Saudi representation through Compass Impact (2026). The canonical website is kuncoaching.com. There was no grand plan in the early days — just one question Samer had carried since his years in martial arts: how does a person recover their drive from within? The company grew the way trust grows, one person telling another.
All it takes to begin is one moment of presence.
Whenever you’re ready, you’ll find Kun beside you.