About Mara

Hello and welcome!

I have been following my curiosity down many different paths for the past 20 years. In that time, I have been (and still am) a professional voice actor, creativity coach, playwright, and musician. My original plays have been performed in the Triangle and NYC and I have held creative writing residencies in Hudson, NY and Martha’s Vineyard. I believe in the power of our unique forms of self-expression and that creativity takes many shapes. In the community, I serve on the board of School of the Alternative, an experimental learning space in Black Mountain, NC. By day, you can find me in private practice as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. I provide individual counseling for teens and adults either via telehealth or out of my home office in Durham. For those in the Somatic Experiencing certificate program, I am a training assistant and offer sessions at the Beginning and Intermediate Levels.

Do you need mental health support?

Recent Podcasts
ASBX Episode 146: “You are here. Navigating your creative journey thru the pandemic.”
ASBX Episode 147: “Overcoming creative inertia”

Blog posts and podcast episode about the Creative Accountability Group:

  1. Take your work seriously: put Creative Resistance on notice!
  2. Better Together: A Creative Accountability Group debrief with Mara and Tamara
  3. Ask WHY to create opportunities for compassion
  4. Map your dreams

Blog posts about creativity resources:

  1. Cleaning house: Making space for creativity
  2. Nourish your creative self: Give your creative self a lift with something beautiful
  3. The importance of physical practice: Get out of your head and into your body
  4. Community Building
  5. Preparing for a creative residency
  6. Processing a milestone

Blog posts about creative obstructions that present themselves when you’re on your creative path:

  1. Impostor Syndrome: Who do I think I am? Why even try?
  2. Perfectionism: I’m so afraid that my creation will not be perfect that I never actually do it.
  3. Comparison: I’ll never be as good as that person. I should probably quit.
  4. Distraction: I’ve convinced myself that all these other things have priority over my creativity.
  5. Reclaiming creative identity after a loss
  6. The Creative Vacuum