About Maya Frost | Creative Adaptation & Personal Resilience Leader
For my professional bio and headshot, go here
LIVED EXPERIENCE AND LIFE-LONG LEARNING: AWARENESS AND ADAPTATION
I created Collapse Companioning™ to support thoughtful people navigating grief, uncertainty, eco-anxiety, and compounding shifts in this time of entangled crises.
My work combines deep listening, emotional steadiness, creative exploration, and future-oriented reflection in a highly personalized process designed to help people adapt meaningfully to change.
Clients often describe the experience as having a trusted thinking partner during one of the most important transitions of their lives.
Below, I share some of the learnings and life experiences that form the foundation of Collapse Companioning™.
EARLY LIFE CHALLENGES
I have focused on building resilience my entire life. Early on, it was a means of survival.
I grew up in rural Oregon, and experienced significant loss and instability from the time I was a toddler. At 15, I survived a car accident that killed four other teenagers, an experience that profoundly shaped my understanding of grief, silence, isolation, and the heavy burden of pretending everything is fine.
In the years that followed, I became deeply interested in mindfulness, psychology, and the ways we humans adapt to overwhelming change.
Me at age 10.
EDUCATION + GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
I studied psychology and Asian Studies and spent my senior year studying in nine Asian countries. Buddhist philosophy and cross-cultural experience deepened my interest in mindfulness and awareness.
Over the decades since, I have lived internationally, worked across multiple cultures and careers, and guided thousands of people through periods of reinvention, uncertainty, and transformation.
Me with friends I met trekking in Nepal, 1981.
EYES-WIDE-OPEN MINDFULNESS TECHNIQUE
In the early 2000s, I created an unconventional mindfulness approach that helped people in more than 100 countries cultivate greater calm, clarity, and creative awareness.
My work was featured in more than 150 media outlets worldwide.
But it was the flood of stories I received from those using my techniques that convinced me that playful acts of awe and wonder can lead us to presence, healing, and transformation.
MY BOOK ABOUT INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES
In 2009, my book, The New Global Student, was published by Crown/Random House.
It became a trusted resource for students and families exploring creative alternatives in education, international living, and life design.
"Funny, innovative, and meaningful...a how-to guide with heart." The Boston Globe
"Tremendous insight...essential reading for families yearning to step off the treadmill and plunge into the world." Daniel H. Pink, New York TImes' bestselling author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND
ILLNESS AND HEALING THROUGH CREATIVE ACTION
While living in Mexico in 2015, I became seriously ill during an epidemic. I contracted a mosquito-borne virus that triggered a serious degenerative condition.
That experience led to a two-year exploration of art and natural healing methods, with remarkable results for both my creativity and my health.
It strengthened my conviction that, even in times of systemic failures, humans remain capable of profound transformation through creative action.
Part of my series, La Cucina, featuring embroidery on fresh tortillas, 2016.
HOW MY CURRENT WORK DEVELOPED
Collapse Companioning™ began to take shape during the early months of the pandemic while I was living in Buenos Aires under one of the world’s longest lockdowns.
Witnessing widespread grief, isolation, and emotional overwhelm, I began supporting people who felt unable to process the scale of personal and global change they were experiencing.
Blending my lived experience and the latest research, I developed a deeply personalized companioning process rooted in consistent presence, emotional honesty, mindfulness, creativity, and intentional adaptation.
RESEARCH + INFLUENCES
My work is informed by research in behavior change, emotional resilience, mindfulness, and human adaptation, including the work of Dr. BJ Fogg and Dr. Judson Brewer.
I have also been deeply influenced by Joanna Macy’s early ¨despair work¨ which later became the Work That Reconnects.
I use the humble marigold as a symbol of companioning.
When I was a child, my grandmother told me that marigolds were “good friends to other plants just by being there.”
That idea of protective presence stayed with me and eventually became the foundation of my work.
CURRENT LIFE IN AMSTERDAM
In recent years, I have spent significant time supporting loved ones through caregiving and end-of-life transitions.. These experiences deepened my understanding of what people need during periods of profound change.
After over a decade of being scattered across different continents, I now live in Amsterdam within easy walking distance of three daughters and their families. This was an intentional move for all of us, and it has brought so much joy!
I offer Collapse Companioning™ to clients around the world, and share my process and insights in articles, keynote speeches, podcasts, and collapse-focused events.
My first Amsterversary, 2026.
IS COLLAPSE COMPANIONING™ RIGHT FOR YOU?
I work with a small number of clients at a time in order to offer thoughtful, deeply attentive support.
If you are navigating uncertainty, transition, grief, or the sense that your life is asking for meaningful change, I would be honored to explore whether this work is a good fit for you.
You can start our conversation by filling out the short form here.