My Healing Journey

I’m writing this because I noticed that in the last testimonial I posted, there was a mention that there is no self-aggrandizement in my work. I really felt particularly grateful that this was noticed because I think this in itself takes a lot, a lot of refinement, understanding and measured work. Today it feels necessary to explain what this all means, and the healer’s healing journey because without previous experience, this one insight may elude you as it did, me.

My first few healers were very much all about, ‘your process began when you met ME” or all the descriptions about why someone was super powerful or all knowing or superior to me in some way. In fact, one of my healers said to me, verbatim, “I’m strong and they’re weak, because they’re my patients” at the time I was in my mid twenties, new to all of this, I didn’t understand mysticism or metaphysics then, and so I believed.

I also believed in the savior/rescued dynamic that keeps us all trapped in pitfalls of misery as humans. I thought that these people fixed me, saved me, I completely wrote myself out of the equation. I gave my power away.

Because of these early exposures, I do in fact make sure that everyone in my practice is reminded of their own power. That I’m not saving, fixing or rescuing. I find these steps to be fundamental to healing, because how else can we rise in our own power and sovereignty if we do not first believe ourselves to be capable and independent? It is the very FOUNDATION. If someone takes that foundation away from the first moment you start building a foundation for yourself, which has happened to me in my childhood and in my healing journey, then it is very bad news.

I look at and read over old testimonials that I wrote where I’m delighted by my practitioners (and granted, a few of them, very few, were very good healers) who I believed were beyond my power, or attribute things to them that they “fixed” that were wrong with me. And I shudder. These beliefs didn’t come from me, they came from people telling me, themselves.

I spent years in some turmoil about this, on one hand I do feel that there were particular people who were very helpful in my healing course, but I reflect back as a healer myself, and think about the things they said to me and am just.. devastated. I have compassion, because I know that the true healers that are born of this world with our gifts and mission are put through the ringer in early childhood, in ways that can damage someone’s self-esteem for life. A grandiosity is definitely an offshoot of that, and especially in something that later garners a lot of acclaim for that person in particular can trigger this grandiosity that’s just an offshoot of the abuse we endured as children. A lot of us come from narcissistic and sociopathic caregivers where grandiosity is currency.

However, the ones that truly accelerated my path were those that recognized beyond ego. They were the ones who were humble and showed me the way, and showed me that the way was mine.

Someone’s spiritual process, their awakening, does not begin when you meet someone else. It’s already happening, and the timing of meeting can often come down to spiritual contracts or guides who help guide us to others to help us. Someone can surely trigger spiritual growth in someone else, but no one is solely responsible for someone else’s soul timing. Some healers have very keen awareness for when someone is in process, and others, like myself, make myself available to those who seek my help because I trust that souls know their own timing and what it is they need. My soul, my guides, have always led the way for me, and I just want to remind others that just because someone makes the focus of your healing that it is because of their power does not make it so. Did we not learn anything from Cruella (which is an amazing movie by the way!), those who have power don’t talk about it.

Testimonial from a lovely client!!

When I read this testimonial I had tears in my eyes. Being a practitioner who’s been able to track where she started vs where she is now is… remarkable. A lot of this work isn’t something where we can measure it on a scale or use a measuring tape— as in to say, not quantifiable, as it transforms the quality of life, so it’s hard for myself to put it into words, but Karla did it so elegantly. If I could describe her progress in 1 sentence, it’s, she’s connected to her soul now, she’s connected to her power, she’s connected to her essence and she’s integrated all of it (that’s a bit of a run-on, I know- how do you describe the quality of relationship to self and its impact on all other relationships?). I think it goes deeper than either of us imagined.

Let me start by saying this: a little over a year ago, BEFORE starting the journey with Maria, I thought I wouldn't make it out alive. Life was bleak, and my mental and physical bodies were responding by shutting down. I barely had energy to do much other than binge eat and wallow in confusion, depression, and an unwavering fogginess. A perpetual dark hole.

Cut to starting sessions with Maria: slowly, with hard and consistent work (including a lot of introspection and putting new habits into practice), I started to feel lighter, more joyful, and magnetic to joyful opportunities in life. I went from complete lethargy, to moving across continents and exploring new cities with confidence, with joy, a taste for adventure, and my old exuberance back. I was strong enough to set boundaries and reclaim my independence in family, work, and social contexts. I reconnected to myself - and learned more about what drove me to the dark place I was in, as well as how to create a new life that was worth living.

This is not easy work. You're going to have to face yourself, your internal demons, and potentially uncover shadows that you didn't know existed or worked very very hard to suppress. However, I couldn't imagine going through it with any other practitioner. Maria's knowledge is so deep, and so genuine. There is no toxic positivity mindset as is pervasive in this commoditized space of spiritualism. She's real. She is careful with the speed and intensity at which you progress in the journey. There are no false grand schemes of "buy my services and you will be happy". Maria never pushed her services on me, which I felt was very important to experience given insecurities around being taken advantage of. She is versatile - in language, in technique, in communication - and it was truly amazing to see just how tailored her care is to each client.

It truly is hard to write out in words the impact Maria's work has had on my life, or the rare beauty of her skillset - a truly truly remarkable one without self-aggrandizing or pushing your limits for results. If you're curious, I encourage you to try a single session to see for yourself (and be prepared to be blown away).

All I can say is this, today I live life with a deep sense of gratitude, an openness and ease of recognizing the beauty of life and all the in-betweens (whether seemingly simple or magical/other worldly in scale), a warmth in my heart and openness to love (my self, family, colleagues, strangers, Earth, etc), new dreams that feel genuine and authentic to me and my younger self, and above all, a will to live. This last part I never thought I'd experience again.

Trust your gut & try a session.

PS worth mentioning, I've complete 2 x 10 series with Maria. The investment was every bit worth it. I've also had reiki sessions (again - not imposed by something I felt called to do).

Perfectionism

I myself am guilty of perfectionism. There is always an unrealistic standard that I’ve set for myself that I somehow fail to meet. In my mind, it’s realistic because I’ve been exposed to this standard before, it’s not born of nowhere.

I won’t go into the mechanics of how perfectionism is created through upbringing, since many of you already know what goes into this and how it’s modeled.

What this creates in someone who lives with this is a deep fear of “not good enough” and secondly, a developing well of self directed frustration as well as feelings of failure that are semi-repressed. It’s semi-repressed as long as there’s some metric of success that you must score high on. Perfectionism is fear based, and for those of us who’ve lived with it, we’ve turned that fear (and anxiety) into something that motivates.

It was always very conscious for me as a teen and young adult that if I let go of this, and just suddenly realized I was “good enough” that I’d stop trying. I felt that the alternative was apathy, which I have experienced before. I didn’t know what to substitute the fear motivation for, or that there was another form of motivation.

As I’ve grown, I’ve come to face that fragile ego that’s underneath all of this. The one that took in the programming of deep unworthiness. I remember being very young and in situations where I felt failure, how much I couldn’t handle it because it brought out deep shame. In classes that I wasn’t the best, the stakes felt so high and so intolerable. I somehow couldn’t take it in stride like all the other people who were not the best, who were not good. People who could fail at something or not be good at something and not have it affect their sense of self seemed to have a healthy self-esteem that made them know that just because they weren’t good at this thing, they could keep trying and get better. They also knew that just because they weren’t good at this one thing, it didn’t mean that they were flawed as a person. These were thought processes that I didn’t have even if I identified them consciously.

As I’ve gotten older and done a lot of healing and integration, I’ve specifically challenged myself to do all the things that I’m not particularly gifted at. Sure, other people might argue that I’m not that bad, in fact, that maybe I am better than I think (because in my mind I think I am just awful which is a particular trait associated with perfectionism as well- that my assessment of myself always tends to be worse than what’s “real”). What this challenge does is it forces me to grow- it forces me to confront those shadow elements and fear. It shows me that there’s nothing to fear, and to be more lighthearted in my approach- that just because I can’t do a particular jump or my brain isn’t as quick with a quippy response in improv doesn’t mean that the world is ending, which it often felt like it was when there is a perfectionism that is expected of you, and performance is everything. Most importantly, it shows me to have fun which is something I had long been lacking in childhood.

I remember when the darkness of perfectionism hit me the worst, it wasn’t that long ago. My ego was still in control then and it needed above all else to bolster itself from its feelings of inferiority and frailty. So, I chose to only do things that I was the shining star in. And then my world became so limited, my ego was satisfied but my soul wanted more.

Overall, we’re here for the experience. That means, the totality of life that we get to experience in this human form, with this human intelligence. It’s not about good or bad, it’s about how we meet those experiences and what we take away from them. In the end, I’m. not going to care that I was the best in this one class or one thing, because I care more about growth and process, truly. Success of course is important, and I plan to succeed at the things that I’ve chosen, but I’m also learning to re-assess the bar that I set for myself. I want to do my best, not be the best.

Unexpected email

I’ve only worked with this client once in an integrative healing session— full disclosure, I had completely forgotten about our session early last year! He sent me this today:

“You helped me so much during the pandemic. I learned a lot, and you were the catalyst for the breakdown of my attachment to my shell formed due to years of trauma. I want to extend my appreciation. Your words were like the unlocking parts of my mind I was not aware I was avoiding and denying. I want to sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am sending love your way,”

Thank you <3

Testimonial

One of my clients who finished an Integrative Healing 10-series with me recently wrote the below. It was his first time with any healing.

“I gotta say that Maria is an expert in her craft! She took the time to walk me through how the process works and took the time to listen to me to assess where I'm currently at. I would say this is perfect for someone whose looking to change their life for the better. There's a lot of exercises we go through in order to tap within myself where I was able to confront a lot of my previous trauma. The work is ongoing but because of this program, I was successfully able to attract better opportunities in my life (for example: better job opportunities, being in a better state of mind and even experiencing a healthy relationship for the first time). I highly recommend Maria to anyone looking into a spiritual journey and healing. Keep an open mind and Maria will do her magic! You'll be surprised when she's able to pinpoint things about you without even saying a word but I knew from that moment that this is the person to be working with! I was very happy with my progress and look forward to a brighter future. Thank you Maria for everything!” - Damith W.

It’s incredibly inspiring to witness the changes that my clients undergo especially if I have the chance to supervise during a span of time, like the 10-series allows me. I really care about each and every one of my clients and their progress and breakthroughs feel like my own. What a true pleasure as a healer.

Positive Shifts

One of the things I love hearing about are the positive shifts that occur for my clients. It is so nice that you guys take the time to write to me to share with me.

Here are a few from recent times, anonymously. It brings me so much joy to know that the work that I’ve dedicated my life to has impact. These are only a few from the countless emails I’ve received- even if your feedback isn't here, know that it meant a lot to me. I exercise discretion based upon what personal information is shared.

A lot of my work involves uncovering triggers- meaning, all the emotions from the past that come up in the present that hold us back. Once we shift the way we react and respond to triggers, then our whole realities shift, and so do our self concept. No longer are we powerless, we become confident and powerful.

“I hope all is well. I just got out of an extremely stressful meeting and normally I would be dry heaving due to the induced stress that a meeting such as this would cause. However, I am feeling very calm and well. I fully attribute this to you and our last appointment. Even though it was almost two months ago now, I can still feel the last effects. I wanted to thank you again as I realize what extraordinary effort and energy it takes on your end during an appointment.”

“I want to share the amazing shift I felt this week after our session! I’ve been dealing with coworkers that have been less than kind and speaking ill behind my back. Typically, I would carry this weight with me and find fault within myself or get very angry and resentful, but I feel indifferent this week- and can shift my focus to other positive things. It’s truly amazing and wonderful to feel that difference! So thank you!!!!”

My client above was finishing up her 10-series with me

I should tell you a short story that happened earlier this week. I was taking a taxi cab some place. The driver showed up late and was a little rude to me. Normally in situations like this I would have said nothing then later hated myself for being silent; or I would have tried to defend myself but be extremely nervous (stuttering, fast heart beat). But on this last occasion I quickly and firmly responded to the driver’s rudeness feeling calm and self-confident. The driver was more respectful after that. So I want to say: Thank you so much! I feel like I’m doing much better.

My client above was working with me through remote reiki

“Maria I just wanted to let you know I got the job!

The energy work helped me so much and I can still feel the effects. I’m so grateful for your guidance…..[the reiki sessions] helped so much. I felt/feel really empowered…”

My client above was working with situational reiki— meaning, she wanted to get a job and I helped her to clear what was blocking her. She wrote me a few weeks later to tell me she got the job!

“I wish I could pay you a million dollars for the work we’ve done together”

My client above was finishing up her 10 series.

“Maria! I’ve been meaning to message you. Since our healing, a LOT has changed. I finally left the toxic relationship I was in. My life is in full bloom at the moment, and it has only been one month since I left. I feel so showered with blessings and grateful. My energy levels are higher than ever before! I feel so in tune with myself, my intuition, and my life. Thank you so much,”

My client above worked with me through reiki

“Just wanted to say after our session I fell in love and am now engaged :) crazy stuff! I’ve surprised even myself!”

My client above worked with me through clairvoyance. It’s very normal for exes to come back, new love to come in once we identify and clear patterns/blocks for love. Reiki also works for this- I’ve had clients come back to say that very night we worked together they met their person even if they were single for many many years!

“Wow, just wow. It took me a great while to respond to this email, for it was like a giant gong beaten on the back of my head. Jesus. I don’t think you could’ve described him in better words,”

My client above opted for a photo reading

“This. Is. Spot. On. You are a really gifted clairvoyant. Thank you for not telling me what I should do, but rather tap into my energy to see what would truly make me happy,”

My client above opted for a emailed question about her life path

Integrative Healing 10 Series

It feels important to write about the 10-series I offer, and why one would opt for this series as opposed to individual sessions.

The people who normally book the series are usually following a calling- it’s a calling of big transformation for them, either they’re in their spiritual awakening process or a spiritual expansion phase. If you somehow keep gravitating towards this idea, there’s a reason. It’s in our egos to have resistance and to make excuses, but if it’s a spiritual calling, the universe will support it in all ways including materially because the way we expand is exponential.

What this series is is a deep dive into trauma release, de-programming and re-programming. We’ll work to uncover unhealthy beliefs and rework them to streamline your internal process, to get you into your alignment. A lot of this work goes into imprints from past lives and from your present past. Our realities are determined by how we perceive and react to stimulus. If we change what that stimulus means by clearing all of what it meant to us before, we can respond in a renewed way that changes all outcomes, and brings forth new possibilities.

This work spans multiple levels and multiple dimensions— it’s somatic work all the way to spiritual work.

Commitment to the series is a big one-with the regularity of working together every week, it establishes a container for the work that helps us go deeper and helps us have the continuity required for clearing out the nitty gritty and reinforcing new beliefs and behaviors.

More than anything, at the end of the 10 series it’s a timeline shift to one that matches your new vibration of abundance, love, harmony and self-love. So you can be free and empowered.

One of my first clients mentioned to me after we completed our 10 series that she felt like she could finally live. I think that sums it up beautifully. I think that before we venture into our freedom, we’re stuck in surviving, not thriving.

Hope to “meet” you soon. I’m excited for all your growth and for you to step into your truth and calling.

x M

Staying In Your Own Experience

One of the biggest life lessons I’ve ever learned was in an acting class a few years ago. It has even transformed my whole practice.

That’s what I think is beautiful about life, we can make all these connections based on things that seemingly are not connected at all. In the scheme of things, everything we learn becomes a composite within us, and is coming from the knowledge of a collective experience. So all things create what we are, and all ways of learning can enrich our direct experience.

Just a little background, at the beginning stages of my spiritual awakening, I was hungry for knowledge pertaining to healing and esoterics. But then at later stages, like the one I’m in now, I’m learning about broader concepts, life philosophies that broaden my whole understanding about life through nature, through disciplines. It’s really amazing how much we can pull from various subjects.

Anyway, in this acting class my teacher, who was a gifted empath herself, stopped me mid-scene and said, “Maria, you take care of your partner so much in your scenes. Energetically it comes through. Focus on your own experience, it gives your partner more to respond to,”

That clicked. Well, it took some time for me to really digest it. But I understood she meant that my default was that I wanted my partner to be okay, for my lines not to impact them too hard, but by doing that I was robbing them of their own experience. It wasn’t intentional, I had good intentions for taking care of their feelings, but by focusing on them so much I wasn’t contributing the other half of what was necessary for a scene to work. If I had a strong emotion, I needed to bring it, and if it took my partner back, that was their work. In totality, that was the scene.

Having been trained from a young age to naturally be a caretaker, it was like flipping my whole world upside down. I didn’t know how to have my own experience, my own emotions, if I’m honest. So the work began to take shape as I started to dig deeper and find my own emotions, those ones I pushed down in favor of helping others through their own.

In a scene from a few months ago, I remember having a very strong reaction and you could see how hard it hit my partner. He didn’t know what to do, emotionally. As he struggled, you could see that it transformed the way he related to the scene. He suddenly felt so vulnerable, and then he felt so bad because he saw/felt how his words had impacted me, and then our scene developed contours that weren’t there before.

As this framework settled into my life, I noticed that yes, obviously my job involves focusing on my clients’ experiences and emotions, but that the more I have my own experiences (and contain them, for the session) the more my clients have theirs. If I’m lost in the healing, if I’m not there, then I’m not holding space. Although I’m completely focused on my client, I also need to be a very anchored and strong force that comes with the entirety of my life experience and knowledge.

Back when I started healing, I was still working through a lot of the healer/empath dilemma. I was so sensitive to the suffering of others, and that pulls you into the dangerous rescuer dynamic. I always put my clients first, so much that I couldn’t really have my own life. I gave all of my energy, absorbed all their pain, and had nothing left for myself. I’d drop everything if a client needed me. And you know what, that’s not okay.

I will never bring my own stories into sessions unless it's necessary, as sometimes guides will ask of me to share personal experiences to ground certain lessons, but I think that to be a well-balanced healer requires you to focus on living your own life, discovering your own emotions for the 75% of the other time you’re not healing. My balance before was more like 20-80, 20 for me. I’ve noticed that even in that 75% though, it’s about my own healing. The more I can show up sovereign, empowered, the more my clients can too.

That’s something I’m coming to appreciate more and more about being a healer. It’s a calling for me that runs so deep, but more than that, it’s my ikigai— that sweet spot where you don’t feel like you’re working when you’re working. It comes so naturally to me, and I recognize that by having signed this “pact” so to speak to be of service, it means that I understand that healing myself is a continual process and essential for my work. So all opportunities are growth opportunities, and my whole life is based around healing, but not all allocated for the actual healing work itself. It requires you to have a strong sense of self, but also a well contained ego.

Outgrowing

When we’re on the path of growth, ascension, healing, whatever you choose to call it, you invariably start adopting your own pace that’s a reflection of your vibration. It’s really difficult for two people to travel vibrationally at the same rate because we’re all unique.

Something I’m learning through my own path is that there will be times that are very uncomfortable as we shift into new ways of being. The matches externally die out as we shed new skin, and we can no longer match certain people in our lives that we, at lower frequencies thought we’d know for a lot longer. It can come very suddenly and can often times be very jarring. Why does it feel like I can no longer talk to this person? Why am I suddenly dreading responding to them, like my energy doesn’t want to go near them? These are some of the thoughts that pop up when I reach this stage. It’s not avoidance, because nothing changed in the relationship— but, I changed.

Sometime we outgrow our teachers. I’ve had teachers and healers, and sometimes both are the same, meet me when they were of a much higher vibration. But, somewhere along the way I rose in frequency above them and their words, teachings, healings, no longer carry any resonance for me. Their truth is not my truth, even if I once saw it as the truth. I’ve come to find that in these cases, either they will shift out something just won’t work— like you can’t seem to coordinate a time to meet, or what once felt really easy to align won’t anymore. Sometimes it’s not just a scheduling mishap- it’s literally something in the connection that’s out of alignment. When you match with someone, things feel more effortless. When things start to tip out of balance, you’ll know too.

The most important thing here is respecting your own vibration. I feel that human beings often confuse things and think we’re all the same, or there’s one path. But people come into this world with different levels of skillsets and some move faster and some move slower. Everyone has their natural cadence, strengths and weaknesses and they can’t be assessed based on one set of criteria. People will also hold you to their own limits, whether they’re conscious or unconscious. So if you allow them to determine where you can go and where you are, you’re agreeing to their limits which may hold you back. Limits may feel safe to begin with because they establish a certain code of conduct, or way of understanding/relating, as you’re adjusting to a new framework. But, if you stay true to you, you’ll know when it’s time to move and stretch your container. You also know when someone is growing continuously and not imposing limits on you.

For me, it’s become more and more important to find people who do not have limits. These are people who’ve made the impossible possible, because these are people who do not think about the world in limits and do not look at me that way either. They often tend to attract a higher caliber (and I mean this as vibration and consciousness) of people who also exceed imposed limits that are decided based on limited consciousness and a consensus, an average.

Jamie Sam’s book Dancing the Dream talks about various paths that we walk. Sometimes, people skip certain paths and come back later to review, some people get stuck on one path, some people move through all swiftly. Our teachers also need to be a few paths farther than us so they can show us the way. In those uncomfortable moments when we’re shifting out of paths and everyone else is still where we left them, it’s important to just breathe and know that just because there’s an empty space now doesn’t mean that new people won’t come in, or the universe won’t guide you towards another teacher. In fact, it’s the empty space that is the very thing that will attract those people to you faster. This is the important moment of self-mastery where we do need to be conscious of what comes up- fear, loneliness, grief etc.. we need to feel them, honor them, but we don’t need to let them overtake us and sacrifice our own vibration to scratch an itch.

It’s very human to want to run back to what we know, but the spiritual path requires us to have integrity with regards to our own journey and our own reason for being here. Some mindset coaches will tell you to transcend the emotion. I’m not, I’m saying that it’s important to feel them through, but that we don’t always have to act on them. We most certainly don’t want to suppress them, or bypass them, or “transcend” them. We need to be honest with ourselves, use our tools to process, but ultimately make informed decisions based on prioritizing our greatest good.

Regardless, the main takeaway in all of this is, sometimes someone’s truth can be your truth for a while, but there is never an absolute truth and in finding our own truth and sovereignty we need to remember that we have the power to decide what is true for us, even if it’s true for someone else.