Hi, I’m Maia (she/her)
I’m a pain recovery coach and neuroscience nerd.
For nearly two decades, I lived with a carousel of chronic symptoms that shaped my whole world: migraines, neck/shoulder/back pain, wrist pain, face pain, extreme muscle tension, IBS, RSIs, tinnitus, and sudden injuries out of nowhere.
I saw so many practitioners that I could have started my own directory.
I was given countless explanations: hypermobility, weak connective tissue, arthritis, poor posture, muscle imbalances, eye strain, food sensitivities, candida overgrowth, hormones…
I tried all the treatments, exercise programs, diets, supplements — the mainstream and the alternative stuff. But I never found real relief.
For a long time, I believed I was fragile.
Seven years before I began to recover, I completed a postgraduate degree in psychology and neuroscience.
My EEG research at the University of Melbourne explored how the brain predicts our experience before we’re even consciously aware of it.
I didn’t know it then, but I was studying the very science that would one day help me heal.
The twist?
When I discovered pain science and the concept of neuroplastic pain, everything clicked.
I began to get curious in a completely new way.
Was I really someone with an endlessly fragile body? Or was I actually someone with a brain stuck on high alert?
I started noticing how hypervigilant my life had become:
the fear I carried about my symptoms and my body
the pressure I put on myself as a perfectionist and chronic worrier
the internal conflict I had around being highly sensitive
and the years of masking and pushing to keep up in a world not built for my neurodivergent nervous system.
Of course my brain thought I was in danger!
As I recovered, I changed my relationship with my symptoms, my body, and ultimately myself. I experienced more and more freedom in my body and in my life.
It felt like magic.
But the beautiful thing?
It was also science.
Since then, I’ve become a trauma-informed, certified coach. I’ve completed the Freedom From Chronic Pain (FFCP) Neuroplasticity Practitioner Training, where I learned from experts including Howard Schubiner, MD, Rebecca Kennedy, MD, Dr. Matthew McClanahan, DO, MA, and somatic psychotherapist Hal Greenham. I’m also a member of the Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms (ATNS) and a part of the FFCP clinical professional development network, which provides ongoing consultation and support. My work is informed by the research and clinical frameworks supported in this field.
My approach blends coaching with pain science education, brain retraining, graded exposure, Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and nervous system regulation practices.
Together, we gently retrain your brain and body toward safety, so there’s more space for your life again.
I know what it’s like to live with the grind of chronic symptoms.
And I know what it’s like to feel free again.
If you’re ready to begin that shift, I’d love to support you.