Writer, Speaker, Researcher | Private Companioning For Profound Transitions
THE CHANGES ARE ACCELERATING.
I work with those who are no longing willing to pretend we can avoid the impacts.
They are asking:
¨How do we live fully now?¨
For the last six years, I have helped hundreds of clients in 20 countries who have been impacted by systemic failures of all kinds.
They have:
◾felt distrust, disillusionment, and despair
◾experienced disruptions and destabilizing changes
◾longed to face reality without getting lost in anger, anxiety, or disengagement
◾chosen a caring, collaborative way forward
Climate-related disturbances and displacement.
Political polarization. Economic instability. Social unrest.
Ongoing uncertainty.
This is what we are living through now, and it can feel crushing.
But the collapsing of these systems also opens us to imagining and creating what is possible in our own lives, and in our communities.
I developed a 30-day process specifically designed to help those who recognize the ruptures in the old patterns and practices and long for a new way of living.
Together, we turn despair about what´s ending into clarity, creative energy, and adaptive capacity for what´s emerging.
The daily cadence of ongoing prompts and reflection restores curiosity, rewilds imagination, and reinvigorates inquiry. This leads to a perspective transformation that changes choices, habits, and habitats.
Momentum builds naturally, with no forcing or rushing.
It's about tapping into longing, and letting it lead the way.
THE PRIVATE COMPANIONING PROCESS IS TESTED AND TRANSFORMATIVE.
This reorientation work is designed for those who are ready to:
- cultivate attention instead of reacting or disengaging
- create the habits and habitats that align with their values
- commit to engaging more fully in their local community
- craft adaptive capacity that is robust and improvisational
SKILLED AND TRUSTED COMPANIONING THROUGH COMPLEXITY
What does Private Companioning look and feel like?
One client, Lena, described it as ¨like having a series of epiphanies while walking with a friend...every day for a whole month. :-)¨
But you don´t have to take her word for it.
In a series of qualitative case studies, I share the pattern snapshot of each client´s starting point, process, and their personal reflections on their experience.
Lena created a whole new life for herself in her own neighborhood.
ONGOING RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION
Anthropology and ecology. Environmental and ecological psychology.
Behavioral science and biology. Mindfulness practices and contemplative ecology.
I play in the spaces between these fields, lacing together the learnings of each to understand our current human experience of uncertainty and adaptation.
My NOW page has links to some of the scientific papers, novels, art, and other media that are informing my work and research.
SPEAKING AND WRITING APPEARANCES
I regularly share my explorations in presentations, podcasts, and publications.
Recently featured:
A LIFE SHAPED BY 50 YEARS OF MINDFULNESS PRACTICE
1975: My first introduction to meditation was when I was struggling as the sole survivor of a tragic car accident at age 15. I created a mindfulness game I played myself, using nature-related cues as reminders to pay attention. It had a profound impact on my ability to heal from trauma.
1981: Spent my senior year in college immersing in Buddhism as part of a nine-month experience of living and learning in nine Asian countries.
1983: Moved to Japan, and deepened my mindfulness practice while adjusting to a new life with many challenges, including becoming a mother in a rural area steeped in antiquated practices
Me meditating in Sri Lanka in 1982.
2002: In my early 40s, I was processing the loss of two brothers by suicide and one of AIDS.
I turned my early mindfulness game into an online newsletter and course that inspired thousands of subscribers in over 100 countries.
It was featured in over 150 media outlets around the world, as well as books for teachers, artists, and consultants.
2020: COVID had revealed the reality of systems collapse and the impacts on how we live. I created Collapse Companioning to support those navigating grief, uncertainty, and compounding shifts.
2023: After the pandemic, I created the Doom to Bloom series to help people move away from anxiety and isolation and start cultivating habits and habitats that fill their lives with meaning, connection, and joy.
2026: As our predicament escalates, I am doing research on attention and adaptation with a special focus on the role of longing. Lucid Longing is the concept I am currently developing for use in other settings.
I continue to work with clients, and share my insights via print interviews, podcasts, and speaking engagements.
FROM ¨MINDFULNESS¨ TO ¨ATTENTION¨: WHY I AM SHIFTING
For the last few years, I have been using the term ¨collapse¨ to describe what is happening and ¨mindfulness¨ when addressing our need to increase inner and outer awareness.
But through my work with clients, it has become clear to me that a focus on mindfulness (and especially meditation) can become its own form of distraction or disengagement.
So, I am now using the term ¨metacrisis¨ more often, and choosing to focus on the need to cultivate attention. It involves both cultivating and curating, and it is a critical step that allows us to truly recognize the urgency of our crisis while avoiding getting stuck in despair or disengagement.
We need a way of paying attention that makes a different life possible.
That´s exactly what I write about in the latest version of my Substack newsletter, Cultivating Attention.
It´s about exploring the ecology of how we change.
I share the questions that are sparking my research, the discoveries along the way, and real stories from clients about what has helped them most when their lives were upended by changes.