Welcome!
My name is Maya Muñoz-Tobón (they/she/ella/elle) and I am a gender-fluid Latine immigrant, a Colombian living in diaspora in Oregon. I am a committed arts and environmental justice advocate, and a place-based, political and sensorial facilitator.
I have been a community educator and facilitator for over two decades, as an advocate for public health, immigrant rights, environmental justice, and community-based cultural development. All of this work has taught me the importance of connection, and of the ability to heal in relationship with others in order to create worlds we want to live in. And throughout my diverse roles I have seen how so many of us need systems and opportunities that give us space to cultivate our resilience and self-care, in order to keep showing up for ourselves and others.
I understand that we as individuals do not live in a vacuum but in structures and systems that have exploited, overused, and marginalized our humanity and natural environments, and that has hurt us all deeply. This is the reason I am doing the work I am doing, to come back to ourselves, to our bodies as home once again, and find wisdom to creatively build safe and dignifying lives and communities. I invite people to find that safety within their own bodies through imagery, movement, sound, self-reflection, ritual, and more.
I am a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist (through ISMETA). My work of movement and expressive arts is guided by the connections of our cellular, social, and political contexts to our physical, mental, and spiritual health. I do this through body-based awareness, and nervous system work to integrate traumas, challenges, and ancestral gifts. In addition to bringing in the power of the art-making process that nourishes our resilience and creativity. I honor the deep relationship of how our bodies, minds, and behaviors are shaped and influenced by the places, communities, and environments we live in, and how our creative force can heal and build the world we all deserve.
Disclaimers:
*Movement and expressive arts sessions are not a substitute for medical attention, examination, diagnosis or treatment. Physical movement and psychological inquiry may not be recommended under certain medical or mental conditions.
*I am not a medical provider (physician, psychiatrist, nurse practitioner, etc.), or licensed mental health worker. I am a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator through ISMETA (The International Somatic Movement Education Therapy Association), and an Embodied Expressive Arts Educator and Therapist through Expressive Arts Institute of Oregon.
*I am not providing health care, medical or nutritional therapy services, or attempting to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any physical, mental or emotional issue, disease or condition.
* I am not available to receive any insurance at the moment. But I do offer sliding-scale prices for communities of the Global Majority, please review the sliding scale prices here.
My Approach
As facilitator for Mayavita Expressive Arts Therapy and Facilitation, I work with individuals, families, groups, and organizations who are looking for creative ways to answer challenging questions about their environments and lives. The expressive arts process allows us to change perspectives about the stories that we have told ourselves and that others have placed on us, through the use of different modalities like movement, drawing, writing, sound, meditation, reflection, cultural rituals and many more.
My role is of a collaborator to nourish and reconnect with our creative power to work through challenging circumstances, and find new and more accessible non-verbal forms of approaching situations. I believe that this creative and healing process can bring a sense of connection to our bodies and each other. This work is welcoming of all, you do not have to consider yourself an artist or a creative, this is a space for self-expression to find your own roadmap for your immense internal capacity for healing and creation.
