Author
Coach
Mother
Retreat Leader
Podcaster
Hey, I'm Maria
contradiction, resistance, dreams, imagination, relational complexity, artistic process, existential uncertainty, and the wordless intelligence of the body.
My work lives in the territory most self-improvement culture struggles to account for:
intersections.
I’ve worked with people whose names you’d recognize, from New York Times bestselling authors, founders, Hollywood writers, actors on shows you’ve seen, and people whose lives unfold far from public attention. Teachers, parents, entrepreneurs, mystics, lawyers, artists and wonderful weirdos with day jobs.
My first book, Making Time was published in January 2025. I host the Make Human podcast.
In truth, everything beautiful I have ever created was because I ignored advice to “fix” something, trusted what seemed to be “wrong” as a message from the soul, and listened to it.
I live with my family in the Driftless region of northeast Iowa among limestone bluffs, long winters, and more unfinished projects than I care to count right now.
I make sacred spaces for people to think courageously, live coherently, and create from somewhere deeper than performance, with no five-step system.
Just so you know what you’re getting into.
I have stopped trying to separate spirituality from creativity, intellect from embodiment, inner work and culture work, or ambition from soul. My work lives in the
I’ve worked with people whose names you’d recognize, from New York Times bestselling authors, founders, Hollywood writers, actors on shows you’ve seen, and people whose lives unfold far from public attention. Teachers, parents, entrepreneurs, mystics, lawyers, artists and wonderful weirdos with day jobs.
My first book, Making Time was published in January 2025. I host the Make Human podcast.
In truth, everything beautiful I have ever created was because I ignored advice to “fix” something, trusted what seemed to be “wrong,” and amplified it.
I live in the Driftless region of northeast Iowa with my family, surrounded by limestone bluffs, old houses, books, music, unfinished projects, and recurring attempts to make soup transcendent.
I make sacred spaces for people to think courageously, live coherently, and create from somewhere deeper than performance, with no five-step system.
Just so you know what you’re getting into.
In case you’re wondering where I learned things:
a deeply non-exhaustive list
Simone Weil, James Hillman, Octavia E. Butler, Thomas Merton, Annie Dillard, Gillian Rose, Marion Woodman, Eugene Gendlin, Stephen Jenkinson, Parker Palmer, Christian Wiman
Process-Oriented Facilitation training with David Bedrick.
Master’s degree from Yale Divinity School.
Certification in spiritual direction through the Benedictine Peace Center (which is a formal way of saying I studied with nuns).
An almost-completed MFA in poetry from University of Minnesota because I love the dangerous possibilities of language.
Coach training through Lumia.
I’m shaped by thinkers and traditions that understand humans not as self-contained units, but as beings formed through relationship with place, community, the divine, history, beauty, and the more-than-human world.
A loose sketch of the intellectual and spiritual lineage informing this work:
Biggest Fear:
Selected Lore
Extended small talk.
My Freetime is Spent:
Hidden talent:
Astrology Big three:
Reading five books at once, dancing with my kid, and sewing.
I do an impression of Bjork that will knock your socks off.
Taurus Sun | Aquarius Moon | Sagittarius Rising
