Who we are
Built on one fairly simple idea.
That people aren't broken, and that the right conversation with the right person genuinely changes what becomes possible. Everything else here follows from that.
What we mean by presence-based
It isn't a technique, and it isn't about atmosphere or soft lighting. It describes where your counsellor is working from: an attention steady enough that you can bring something difficult into the room without the room flinching.
Most of what makes counselling work isn't the model being used. It's whether the person opposite you can stay with what you're carrying without needing to fix it, reframe it or move you along. Everything technical we do, from EMDR to somatic work to attachment-focused therapy, is delivered from that ground rather than in place of it.
Where the approach comes from
Maitreya is an awakening and liberation teacher based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and her own path began with a kundalini awakening in her early twenties. She has been teaching for around two decades, drawing on Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Sufism and Christian mysticism, and her work reaches students around the world through the Uncommon Wisdom™ platform and the humanitarian foundation that sits alongside it, which is active in nineteen countries.
Maitreya Counselling is the clinical side of that work. The teachings point beyond the personal, whereas counselling works with the personal directly: your history, your body, your relationships and your grief. Some people do both, and we keep them as separate rooms on purpose.
On being told the truth. A counsellor who agrees with everything you say isn't being kind to you. Yours will tell you what they notice, including when it's uncomfortable to hear. It will always be said with care, it's never a verdict, and you're free to disagree with any of it.
We won't ask you to rise above it
This is worth saying plainly, because a lot of the field does the opposite. Presence isn't a substitute for treatment, and no amount of awareness practice will resolve an untreated trauma response on its own. If what you need is structured clinical work, a psychiatric referral, or care beyond what we can offer, we'll tell you and help you find it. Taking the spiritual side seriously means refusing to use it as a way out.
What we're for
Everyone needs support at some point. Ours comes without judgement, and it takes the whole of you seriously rather than just the part that's currently causing trouble. You don't have to arrive already well enough to deserve it.
Part of something larger
Maitreya Counselling is part of Uncommon Wisdom™, alongside the Uncommon Wisdom Coaching Institute and the foundation's humanitarian work. The same view runs underneath all of it: that suffering can be worked with, that people have far more in them than they tend to believe, and that nobody should have to pay their way into being taken seriously.
The practice, in short
Where we stand
20+
Years of teaching behind the work
19
Countries reached by the foundation
100%
Virtual · worldwide
15 min
Free consult, always
Come and have a look.
Answer three questions, or just write to us and describe it however it comes out. Both end up in the same free conversation.