I play in the space between grief and gratitude.
I may have become a grief worker by accident, but it is my calling.
I come from a place of profound personal and professional experience with grief, and have a deep understanding of each of the stages and the dangers inherent in suppressing them.
While devoting 800+ hours to ushering individual clients through debilitating grief, I developed a simple but surprisingly effective technique.
What I offer is companioning rather than counseling or coaching.
We share storytelling conversation sessions that explore your worries as well as your wild dreams for the future. Together, we co-design a supportive structure and foundational story, along with daily tools so you can guide yourself forward with care and confidence.
We begin with the most difficult task: recognizing that we are already facing forms of collapse that are already dramatically altering the way we will live within the next decade.
Despite the solutions we already have.
Despite the efforts and progress already made.
Despite the positive attitude we apply to our climate work.
It is quite a leap to go from ignoring the dissonance we feel inside to recognizing the reality of our predicament, understanding our emotions, and settling into a state of calm clarity while actively choosing adaptation practices that build resilience.
You can't go through this transformation without experiencing inner turmoil.
But know this:
in just two weeks, through this series of ongoing conversation sessions,
you can reach new levels of creativity and commitment
that will enrich and elevate your vision of the future.
I don't pretend to be a climate psychologist or eco-therapist.
But I am uniquely positioned to guide you through this personal transformation thanks to:
🟦 my work helping 130+ individuals move through their grief in order to thrive in new ways
🟦 my own life experience processing profound grief and loss
🟦 my training in trauma-informed facilitation and creative breakthrough coaching, and my role as a mindfulness trainer
My work is also informed by:
🟦 my 30+ years of learning about deep ecology, behavioral psychology, and systems change via the work of Joanna Macy (The Work That Reconnects, The Great Turning, Active Hope), Donella (Dana) Meadows (The Limits to Growth, Thinking in Systems), and others
🟦 my engaged exploration of collapse by studying scientific research and integrating relevant information from the work of Jem Bendell (Deep Adaptation, Breaking Together), Nate Hagens (The Great Simplification), Nora Bateson (Warm Data) Ginie Servant-Miklos (Pedagogies of Collapse) and others
🟦 my role in successfully guiding dozens of climate-focused innovators through this process in a series of conversation sessions via text, email, voice/video messages, and Zoom
🟦 my deep and ongoing experience in embracing adaptation and making major life changes - from international moves and building entirely new communities to immersing in new learning experiences that transform my own work
🟦 my concern for young people - as the grandmother of five little ones under the age of six, I know the sadness, guilt, anger, and helplessness we often feel about the metacrisis, and am actively navigating these worries for my grandchildren while focusing on joy and resilience
Luz
psychotherapist
Spain
"I was struggling with grief even though I am a therapist who has been helping others through this process for nearly 30 years. I couldn't work. I lost my appetite. My health suffered.
Maya helped me to recognize that I carried a story of guilt about the way my partner of 24 years had died. Despite having a year together knowing he was dying, and a very clear plan in place, that last day felt like a disaster and a personal failure. Everything went wrong in so many ways.
It was Maya who gently guided me to realize he would have laughed at the absurdity of it all! This was an enormous relief, and allowed me to let go of my sense of responsibility for the comedy of errors that occurred.
Despite my training and experience, I had not put this together myself. I am deeply grateful to Maya for her unique insight and loving guidance."
If you're ready to re-frame and re-imagine your view of the future
and keep your mind, eyes, and heart wide open
to both the challenges and the opportunities of this journey
from despair to determination to delight,
I would love to partner with you.
Choosing Adaptation is for those ready to transform their vision of the future.
It is designed to serve as
a deep dive
into inquiry and storytelling
with daily contact
for two weeks
with clear action steps
followed by two weeks of accountability check-ins
Choosing Adaptation takes you from the grief of recognizing our metacrisis and its implications
to gratitude for your new path through adaptation.
Together, we explore the possibilities that are open to you in ways of thinking, acting, living, and working in alignment with your deepened understanding of our likely future scenarios.
We focus on:
🔹grounded gratitude
🔹regenerative thinking
🔹social rewilding
🔹creative adaptation
🔹crafted resilience
This series is ideal for those who recognize their unease and feel ready to learn its lessons.
It guides you to funnel your new energy into actionable adaptation practices that develop personal and professional resilience.
In this two-week series of ongoing conversation sessions plus two follow-up sessions,
we mix it up, using text and voice/video messages as well as live face-to-face calls.
This allows for more reflection between questions, dramatically increasing the depth of your insights and opening new ways of seeing your opportunities.
Choosing Adaptation includes:
🟦 2 50-minute Zoom sessions (around Days 1 and 14)
🟦 ongoing storytelling and Active Inquiry-based sessions via text/chat, voice and video messages (your choice)
🟦 1 50-minute accountability Zoom session on Day 30
🟦 1 50-minute accountability Zoom session on Day 45
Your journey is YOURS.
We start where you are, focus on your needs and longings, and find your best way forward.
It is designed for:
🔹solopreneurs, consultants, creatives, and non-profit leaders
🔹those working in sustainability-related roles who recognize the shift that is needed
🔹those who are between roles
🔹curious, pro-future folks ready to reframe their own ideas of what's possible
🔹anyone seeking grounding and inspiration during this time of accelerating change
Price: US$995
Schedule now for 2 openings available in April 2025
PLEASE NOTE: For the rest of 2025, I am working with those located in Europe/United Kingdom and North America ONLY.
"What I loved most about my experience with Maya was her prompts to share my stories related to Nature.
It was the beginning of a beautiful reconnecting to who I was as a child, happily riding my pony, playing in the creek, and discovering new wonders daily. Those stories and memories inspired me, bringing a new resonance to my life and work."
"I felt completely isolated in my ideas, and was afraid to talk to anyone. Maya was warm and supportive.
I was surprised by the depth of our conversation despite its casualness. It was refreshing to laugh about the absurdities of our way of life with someone who really gets it! It definitely made the hard parts more bearable.
I feel relieved and ignited."
"I honestly don't know what I would have done without Maya's gentle kickstart.
It was exactly what I needed to face the fact that it was time for a big change.
Even though my project is new, I am heartened by my progress so far. I love feeling wide awake and fully engaged instead of sleepwalking through my days!"
Now, the thing about collapse awareness is that the emotions come in waves, triggered by what we read, discuss, and experience daily.
So, I'm certainly not promising you will never feel sad, guilty, or angry about the state of the world!
But through our series of conversations, you will:
1) recognize what triggers your personal swirl of emotions and how they show up for you,
2) develop a greater ability to ride the waves and positively channel the energy they give you, and
3) create your own plan for how you want to adapt as you move forward with this new awareness in ways that lead to discovery and resilience.
Not everyone is ready to go deep,
even if they suspect there is light on the other side.
I work with those who would rather face reality fully than keep their head in the sand.
It is an honor to guide people who are willing to
spend time doing the inner work of amending their world view
and making a profound pivot.
The first step is always the hardest.
Ready to explore what you have long suspected, and start living fully and deliberately with that wisdom?
PLEASE NOTE:
I am not a licensed psychologist or therapist, nor am I offering traditional counseling or therapy.
My training is in trauma-informed facilitation and creative breakthrough coaching.
My unique weaving of storytelling, Active Inquiry, and companioning addresses both longing and belonging, and encourages personal evolution and action, including self-care, outreach, and activism.
Read about how I developed my process here.
IMPORTANT: Though I work with those struggling with grief, I am not the right person to help you if you have a history of severe depression or are currently experiencing suicidal ideation.
If this is true for you, please seek help immediately from a qualified professional psychiatrist.
I have had my own battles with despair. I care about you, and urge you to get the treatment you need. There is a path forward for you!
Do you have questions about whether this is right for you?