Maya Frost's First Collapse Companioning™ Clients: Atsuko and Brenda

Maya Frost, creative adaptation and personal resilience expert, developed her unique process that would become Collapse Companioning™ while doing pro bono work with women around the world who were struggling at the very beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.

Recognizing the failing systems that allowed Covid to become a global epidemic, Frost responded in a way that acknowledged the collapse experience of those who were most seriously impacted.

Reaching out to her non-profit contacts in countries she had previously lived in, Frost offered to help those who were in despair. She was particularly focused on serving those who were grieving after the loss of a loved one due to Covid while also forced into isolation that prevented them from getting the support and collective processing they needed. 

Her first two clients were facing deeply painful circumstances.

First was Atsuko, a woman in Japan whose husband, a doctor, had been among the first to die from Covid in that country. At that early stage in understanding the transmission and symptoms of the coronavirus, officials there sealed off Atsuko's home (where her husband had died alone while Atsuko was out of town), and even euthanized her beloved dog and cat. Atsuko was sent to a makeshift quarantine facility, where she spent an entire month in isolation. 

And at the same time, Frost was introduced to Brenda, a high school teacher in the U.S. who had been injured in a school shooting by one of the students in her class.  One student had been killed, and several others, including Brenda herself, were critically injured. Recognizing this as a systemic failure to protect students and teachers in U.S. schools from gun violence, Frost offered to work with Brenda at no cost to help her process her experience and find a new way forward. 

Both Atsuko and Brenda worked with Frost from their imposed isolation: Atsuko in the quarantine facility in Japan, and Brenda in a hospital in the U.S. as she recovered from her gunshot injuries.

During their daily companioning process over the course of one month, both Atsuko and Brenda turned their despair into clarity, creative energy, and inspired action.

While still in quarantine, Atsuko created an online course about how to make friends, her way of responding to the loneliness epidemic in her country and her own deep isolation.

Brenda, using her skills as a creative writing teacher and her new understanding of the emotional turmoil faced by those who survive a school shooting, created a way to help students process their experience through playwriting and poetry.

In both cases, the women created something that sparked the attention and imagination of of others who were in lockdown, going viral and leading to press appearances. 

That ultimately led to interviews with Frost in U.S.-based media outlets, including Thrive Global,  InStyle, and others. 

Developing the Collapse Companioning™  Process: Combining Psychology and Human Behavior Research With Lived Experience In Overcoming Trauma and Grief

Frost recognized the danger these two women were facing. They were traumatized, grieving, isolated, and restricted from having contact with loved ones. 

Frost herself had experienced trauma, grief, and survivor guilt after a fatal car accident in which four other teens, including the driver, were killed instantly. She was uninjured. Since the accident occurred miles from her hometown and with young people who attended a different school, both the police and Frost's parents insisted that it would be better for her if she never mentioned the accident to anyone. They believed it would be easiest if she simply went to school the next day and pretended that nothing had happened. 

Frost, in shock, agreed, promising she would not talk about it. And she didn't say a word about it to anyone, not even her siblings, for years. (That's how people dealt with trauma back in the 70s.) 

This experience changed Frost's life. Not only did she have to find a way to face her own deep grief and guilt, but she had to do so in isolation. It was during this time that she developed what she would later recognize as a mindfulness game.

She created a list of sensory things she loved, such as the softness of her cat's fur, the smell of the hay in the field below her home, a particular birdsong, the taste of the fresh blackberries growing along the gravel road, and other cues. 

Each time she remembered one of these cues, she would simple say, "I am paying attention" and notice herself noticing. She added more cues. Soon, she could not go ten minutes without popping into this state of awareness, and recognize herself doing so. (This was in the 1970s, long before mindfulness was widely understood or gamification was a recognized method for motivating people to acquire a new skill.)

As Frost describes it, "I created this fun game that I couldn't wait to play. I played it all day long. I got good at it. And it saved me." 

Many years later, as she struggled with her grief around the loss of two of her brothers to suicide and one of AIDS, Frost remembered her little game. In 2003, she created an online version of this mindfulness game, and through her newsletter and course, sparked the imagination of thousands of subscribers in over 100 countries. It was featured in a wide range of media outlets around the world.

Why Frost Chose a Model of Daily Support For 30 Consecutive Days Rather Than Traditional Weekly or Bi-Weekly Sessions Used In Therapy and Coaching

To Frost, it was clear that her first two clients were struggling. 

She knew what it was like to be suffering alone and carrying a heavy burden.  

She knew how it felt to know that no one was coming to help. 

So, she created a process inspired by both research around habits and her own experience of using her mindfulness game to reconnect with awe, awareness, and imagination. 

Unable to bear the idea that these women would be alone and suffering each day, Frost offered, at no charge, to show up for them every single day, for 30 days in a row. 

Because she was living in Argentina at the time, Frost had to rely on technology: Zoom chats, video messages, voice notes, and texts. All except for the video conversations were done asynchronously, meaning Frost would send a message, and a few hours later, Atsuko and Brenda would send their responses. 

Frost maintains that it this easy, steady flow of conversation that builds consistency and momentum naturally over the course of 30 consecutive days, leading to deep insights between touch points and surprisingly profound and rapid shifts. 

Here are a few of the women who experienced a meaningful transformation during their companioning work with Maya Frost.