Helping collapse-aware leaders, thinkers, and dreamers turn despairalysis into depth, discovery, daring, and doing.
Welcome!
I´m Maya. Adaptation activist. Imaginative futurist.
Realist with a twist: embracing joy as resistance and renewal in this time of collapse.
As the founder of Collapse Forward and the Doom to Bloom™ process, I help those who are wide awake to our reality use their attention and creativity to:
🔷disrupt their despair and paralysis
🔷dig deep into their longing, and
🔷delve into future-crafting with eyes, heart, and mind wide open.
This unique process has been applied in pandemics and war zones, big cities and villages.
It has transformed the lives of clients in 20 countries, turning even can't-get-out-of-bed levels of despair into:
🔷grounded gratitude
🔷rewilded imagination
🔷enlivened engagement
🔷creative adaptation
I work with:
🔶change-makers seeking balance and energy
🔶leaders recognizing their pivotal role
🔶thinkers ready to explore and expand
🔶dreamers longing to turn their ideas into action
Much has been written about the need to go slowly during this time of crumbling systems.
To feel our emotions. To sit with our sorrow. To witness and process.
We are encouraged to avoid deciding or doing anything during this uncertainty.
Okay, yes, it is useful to spend time understanding our responses and recognizing the gravity and complexity of all that is happening.
THE PROBLEM:
For many, this processing can go on for months or years. We can get stuck in withdrawal, loneliness, depression, and inaction.
This despair and paralysis becomes our new normal.
THE GOOD NEWS:
We can choose to begin our transformation NOW rather than simply carry on and hope things get better later.
FRIENDLY REMINDER: Waiting for things to get better is what got us here.
It is time to remember that we can simultaneously go deep and move forward to connect and act.
This connection and action is a catalyst for healing.
Ready to begin doing rather than simply dreading?
You are in the right place.
Let´s start where you are, and go where you are longing to go.
RECONNECTING:
¨I spent nearly a year feeling overwhelmed. I just kept spinning the same stories in my head. I lost friends, and became distant from my family. I chose to work remotely, which added to my isolation.
With Maya´s help, I finally broke free from that sad place.
Things in my life have improved quickly. I have a core group of others I respect and trust, and we are developing new skills together.¨
David - IT professional
REIMAGINING:
¨I lost the job I had loved for twenty years. I spent months at home, watching terrible news. I hit rock bottom, fearing for myself and the world.
Maya guided me through a creative re-imagining process. This inspired me, and led to being offered an amazing new role!
I feel like a different person now. I honestly believe that this experience with Maya saved my life.¨
Maria - director of a community-building organization
REDIRECTING:
¨I wanted to make a big change in my business. But I wasn´t sure how my team would handle the truth about our climate reality and my decision to go in a new direction.
Maya supported me before and after I facilitated a conversation at our off-site. It was the most deeply human experience I have had as a leader, and paved the way for our transition.¨
Eric - owner of a flooring company
REINVENTING:
¨I got to the point where I could barely look at my kids without getting weepy. It felt impossible to protect them. I watched them become fearful. It broke my heart.
Maya helped me pour my sadness about the world into loving action. She offered support as I moved with my children to France to live with my aunt.
Now, my children spend time in nature daily, and are free to explore this village. We are learning how to grow food and make things, and to speak French. I feel calm and happy here, and so grateful for this new life.¨
Lisa - county administrator and single mother of three
Despairalysis refers to the combined impact of our nervous system´s freeze state (designed to preserve energy) and our emotional response to climate change, authoritarianism, global unrest, and uncertainty.
You may be carrying:
🔷grief for all that is and will be lost
🔷anger toward those who are causing so much harm
🔷fear about the future
🔷guilt about your own past and current choices
But instead of processing these emotions, you might feel numb and disconnected (the freeze), or choose to distract yourself to avoid becoming overwhelmed.
That´s understandable.
After all, we humans are not designed to deal with this continuous flood of both daily triggers and distant threats.
So, we developed this habit of collective denial and a shared belief about what is real.
It´s actually called consensus trance. 😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫
And it is keeping us from seeing, accepting, and acting.
🔷We are designed for collaboration and care, and we can return to that.
🔷 Your grief is a clear sign of your love for living things, and we build on this foundation.
🔷 Your anger can be converted into energy for creativity and thoughtful action.
🔷 Your fear can be stabilized by learning how to view uncertainty with curiosity.
🔷 Your guilt can be turned into inspiration to live fully within planetary limits.
🔷 You can experience a deepening and a breakthrough, and reconnect to wonder and joy.
If you´re longing to move through the messiness of 2025 in a reality-based way that feels
manageable, meaningful, and motivating,
it all starts by evolving collapse awareness beyond doom and embracing ways to come alive.
The Doom to Bloom™ process disrupts the swirl of grief, anger, guilt, and fear.
Together, we untangle the triggers and responses that may be preventing you from opening to what is emerging without getting lost in despair.
Next up: understanding your individual (and our collective) longing, and working toward creating what will inspire and sustain you.
Change starts from Day One, with insights that are continuous and compounding.
We go deep, but stay light, recognizing the power of attention, creativity, and humor to shift energy, spark insight, and stir action.
RECLAIMING:
¨Becoming aware of our metacrisis was a rude awakening for me. I questioned everything I was doing, how I was living, and certainly how I pictured the future.
Maya´s process helped me reclaim my choices. I committed to big changes, and took action immediately. Already, life feels so much richer."
Michael - former media consultant
REINTEGRATING:
¨I had not realized how much I had pulled away from people. I could barely get up to face the day. Anything social felt like a farce.
So, I was surprised by how much I actually laughed with Maya. With her encouragement, I started a small group to talk about our crises. That changed everything! I no longer feel alone, and we are actively learning and laughing together."
Monica - public library employee
REDEFINING:
¨Maya helped me to crawl out of a deep hole during the pandemic. I went to her again when I saw our systems are collapsing. I had already learned from her how to shift and focus my attention, but I needed to know how to teach others.
She generously guided me to become a collapse-aware leader. She has changed my life TWICE!¨
Alma - executive director of a non-profit organization
I'm not a typical coach.
And I'm certainly not a therapist.
My background is in alternative education, trauma-informed facilitation, creative breakthrough coaching, mindfulness training, and deep activism.
That means I can teach you in non-traditional ways how to:
🔷 navigate the emotions and physical responses that arise
🔷 break through barriers to reflection, creation, and adaptation
🔷 turn your precious attention toward enlivened engagement
REFRAMING:
¨We have had an increased demand for support from those experiencing anxiety and depression related to climate and political changes.
Our participants are flocking to the collapse conversations that Maya outlined for us, and finding them helpful in developing their coping strategies and a new vision for the future.¨
Lorae - executive director of a mental health organization for youth
RETOOLING:
¨I work with those struggling with a range of acute personal crises. The tools I normally use are not very effective in addressing our collective anxiety. Maya gave me a structure that helps my clients and also guides my personal responses.¨
Sara - psychologist working in crisis intervention
REGENERATING:
¨The teams of activists we train focus on collapsing systems, and that comes with challenging levels of uncertainty and despair. Working with Maya has helped me guide our team to create space for shared emotions and doing this work with a soft heart and strong love.¨
Russell - coalition-building advisor for activist groups
When I was a child, my grandmother taught me about the power of marigolds as companion plants in the garden, keeping aphids, tomato worms, and squash bugs away.
She told me, "Marigolds are friends that help other plants grow strong."
What I offer is wise companioning rather than coaching or counseling, so I use marigolds as a beautiful symbol of this work.
I spent the pandemic stuck in a studio apartment in Buenos Aires for months during one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world.
I knew there were people who were suffering terribly all over the world.
And I longed to help.