Growing Together Through Collapse
I may be an accidental grief worker, but it is my calling. From a young age, I experienced grief that rearranged me. I felt the weight of personal and existential collapse as a constant presence.
It taught me what systems could not.
Specifically, that:
🔸the body notices first
🔸small actions matter
🔸companionship invites courage
Collapse Companioning™
Like marigolds (companion plants that strengthen what grows beside them), it offers presence, protection, and partnership.
Inspired by Nature and the principles of regeneration, Collapse Companioning™ is a practice that invites us to:
🌿 listen deeply
🌿 lighten heaviness
🌿 liberate flow
🌿 leverage energy
🌿 localize healing
After serving as a collapse companion for hundreds of individuals around the world for over six years now, I am deeply steeped in this unique form of complex grief work.
Together, we can expand your capacity to stay grounded as you build robust roots and live fully despite the darkness.
For us, growing together means turning the truth of our reality into transformative expressions of human connection.
In the face of our predicament, we choose to:
SEE CLEARLY
Collapse literacy without panic.
We name what’s actually happening — without denial or doom spirals — so that you can shift your focus from fear to courageous awareness.
STAY STEADY
Nervous systems before strategies.
Regulated people regulate rooms. We build steadiness first, and then find ways to fully express the power of our presence, care, and joy.
ACT CREATIVELY
Small, visible, sometimes silly subversive actions. Tiny acts of beauty and care.
Celebrate-the-moment moves. Gasp-and-giggle disruptions that signal: we are here and wide awake together.
This isn’t therapy, coaching, or consulting.
It’s a loving, lived-experience process that opens new options.
No rushing to "solve" or "fix" things. (That's the old way.)
We talk. We notice. We imagine, laugh, plot, and experiment.
(That's the co-creative part that emerges once you're steady.)
The next steps become clear, and momentum builds naturally without goal-setting or pushing.
This is a good fit for you if you:
- see systems failing and refuse to look away
- feel grief and urgency but want to engage thoughtfully and lovingly
- prefer meaningful creative action, not abstract theory or endless processing
If you are ready to move from processing what we are facing to participation in crafting what´s emerging, I offer a TWO highly-personalized 1:1 ways to work together.
1) DOOM TO BLOOM™ - A 30-Day Collapse Companioning™ Experience
This is my signature series offering *daily* support, encouragement, and co-creation for 30 days.
It naturally builds consistency and momentum from Day One, with compounding insights and clarity that lead to inspiration, creative energy, and the development of a meaningful project.
For an entire month, we focus on:
🔸restoring your capacity to remain steady
🔸reflecting on loss and longing
🔸rewilding your imagination
🔸reigniting your creative energy
🔸reinforcing your connection to others in your community
2) CO-ACTIVE ADAPTATION™ - A 3-Month Collapse Companioning™ Experience
This series offers a profound transformation for those who are facing extensive personal and/or professional shifts that require deep realignment and inspired action to create a new way forward.
It is designed to support you as you redesign your life, bringing collapse awareness into your relationships with loved ones, your livelihood, and where and how you choose to live now.
In our three months together, we focus on your:
▪️source and sense of meaning
▪️capacity for marvelling through heightened curiosity and rewilded imagination
▪️commitment to magnifying what matters most
▪️intrinsic motivation to grow & help others
▪️unique method for grounding yourself and transforming your way of life
We start where you are, and let longing lead the way.
Reading the stories of others can help you imagine what is possible for you, and help you decide whether Doom to Bloom or Co-Active Adaptation is the best fit for you and your situation.
Which one of the following client stories resonates most with you?
30-day Doom to Bloom™ clients:
¨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 embraced my grief, and made me laugh again. She guided me through a creative re-imagining process that led to being offered an amazing new role! I honestly believe that this experience with Maya saved my life.¨
Maria - former events producer, now director of a community-building organization
"As a single mother, I was fearful about my ability to raise my son in this time of uncertainty and distrust. I felt alone in my awareness of collapse.
I am so grateful for Maya's wisdom. As a mother and grandmother, she helped me see new ways to think about the future for my son. We moved to a smaller community where we immediately felt a kinship with others.
Yes, things are scary, but I have practices that keep me steady and a commitment to making each day fun and wonder-full for both of us."
Erica - nurse practitioner, founder of a healthcare co-operative for single mothers
¨It was a bit like the shoemaker´s children who have no shoes. As a grief therapist, I found myself completely frustrated (and humiliated) by my inability to work through my own grief.
After the passing of my partner of 20 years, I felt blocked and guilty.
Maya listened with love, and helped me realize something I had completely missed. Everything lifted after that.
Her care for me was loving, patient, and joyful. I learned so much from her, and have brought her companioning concepts into my own work.¨
Luz - grief therapist
"Everything seemed pointless. I could not even bring myself to walk into the studio.
Maya said just the right thing that brought that hum back into my brain. I started dreaming in color again. And in just a couple of weeks, I was back at the easel, obsessed even, with ideas and flow I have rarely experienced. The world feels heavy, but I feel deeply inspired and love teaching again. What a gift in this dark time!¨
Dee - painter and art instructor
3-month Co-Active Adaptation™ clients:
¨Due to this administration, I was pushed out of a role that had defined me for decades. I was devastated. After months of licking my wounds, I was ready to start something new.
Maya listened, and helped me see that I had interesting options. Thanks to her insight, words of encouragement, and thoughtful nudges, I have created an organization that feels deeply meaningful and focused on exactly what we need right now.¨
Richard - former sustainability lead, now director of a regeneration non-profit
¨I was targeted and harrassed by an angry citizen. Even a restraining order did not keep my family safe.
Maya helped me pour my fear, anger, and resentment into action. She offered loving support and much-needed laughter as I moved with my children from the U.S. to France. I feel safe, calm, and happy here, with a community and work I adore. My children are thriving! I am so thankful for this new life.¨
Lisa - former county administrator, now owner of a natural foods store
"I was in a creative slump. For the first time in my life, the words didn't flow. I was losing my faith in our future.
Maya sparked serious joy, oomph, and a brilliant re-imagining of my tired business. I absolutely love my work again!
AND she was my co-conspirator in crafting an updated vision of what I loved about my childhood. Now, I have a crooked-but-workable greenhouse and actual dirt under my nails. I trade my veggies for video editing, and started singing with three neighbors who have become dear friends.
Also: I´m now the queen of collaborative power storage. (batteries? check! generator? check! solar installation? check!)
Maybe we can't change the direction of the world, but our cul-de-sac? HELL yes."
Susie - copywriting consultant for non-profit organizations and local coordinator
🌿WHAT WE NEED NOW:
🔶community (family, friends, neighbors and others we care about)
🔶mutual aid (to share skills and support within our community)
🔶learning (to help us imagine new ways of doing things)
🔶art (as a way of expressing our creativity and sharing with others)
🔶humor (laughter is healing, and builds trust and solidarity)
🔶joy (it keeps despair from thinking it's in charge)
🔶LOVE (it fuels all of the above)
You don’t need to create a master plan.
Start with a first move.
If you feel the tug of this work, trust it.
(Around here, reconnecting to our intuition is one of our favorite hobbies.)
🌿 Collapse cracks us open.
But it also reveals hidden gifts.
Let´s find the ones that are waiting for you.
Here's one:
Sign up for my weekly Collapse Companion newsletter
and get a FREE copy of Field Notes On Collapse Companioning. It's a quick read about how companioning can help you and those you serve.
This work has been germinating for years.
It sprouted when the pandemic hit.
And it turned into a lush garden that has now seeded the thriving communities of clients in over 20 countries.
Complexity calls for simplicity.
I use the term "collapse" intentionally.
It signals awareness, honesty, and the courage to name our reality without sugarcoating it.
But I also speak the beautiful language of coherence and emergence.
I am a long-time fan of Joanna Macy's work around The Great Turning, appreciate the poignant and poetic framings by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Vanessa Andreotti, and am familiar with a range of ways to describe what we are experiencing.
However you choose to talk about our current reality, I am happy to accompany you!
When the world is in confusion, the wise act with simplicity.
Lao Tzu