Compassionate Inquiry
Certified Compassionate Inquiry® Practitioner · Trained directly under Dr. Gabor Maté · 6,000+ private sessions · ICF Master Certified Coach
The Compassionate Inquiry® Approach (CI)
Compassionate Inquiry®, developed by Dr. Gabor Maté, is a gentle yet powerful way of revealing and releasing the traces of early trauma held as stories, symptoms, stress, and addiction in the body. In many workplaces, that addiction isn't to substances - it's to achievement, speed, external validation, and hyper-connection: patterns that slowly pull people away from themselves.
When organizations can’t nourish our deeper hungers for belonging, freedom, imagination, and genuine recognition, we adapt by over-performing, over-functioning, and overriding our limits. What begins as brilliance and survival can harden into painful disconnection from our own inner GPS. Compassionate Inquiry® helps loosen the grip of these adaptations so you can move toward spontaneity, genuine choice, and a felt sense of inner freedom.
This approach is especially supportive in seasons of transition - when identity, purpose, or direction are in flux, when relationship patterns repeat, or when old coping mechanisms no longer work. Instead of forcing change, it invites understanding. Triggers and intense emotions become information rather than enemies, and over time, many people experience themselves as more present, less reactive, and more grounded in self‑trust.
This work does not rush you. It meets you where you are and invites you forward with honesty, compassion, and quiet strength. In a world that rewards performance over presence, Compassionate Inquiry® offers a place to bring back the parts of you that learned to hide.
What if your feelings were not a liability, but a sophisticated compass for how you lead and live?
Testimonial
Maria has a rare ability to create a space that feels both deeply safe and genuinely alive - grounded enough to soften into, yet stimulating, thus inviting real insight.
Beyond CI (Compassionate Inquiry), she draws from a rich diversity of modalities but what stood out most to me was how quickly and intuitively she adapted to my way of learning and processing. Rather than following a fixed framework, she met me exactly where I was and worked in a way that felt so natural and collaborative.
In just a handful of sessions, I gained clarity and perspectives that would have taken me much longer to reach on my own. Our conversations stayed with me well beyond the sessions themselves - and I continue to use the tools she shared. I’d encourage working with Maria to anyone curious about their inner world and looking for thoughtful, skillful guidance held with warmth, presence, and deep care.
Clem T - Production & Event Logistics Professional
How I accidentally met myself - A Poem
I came for self-improvement
Maybe a tool, maybe a tip.
And instead, I tripped over my inner child who was naked, crying and asking why no one picked me first.
I met my gut
It turns out that it talks first!
Loudly with strong opinions.
But then my brain turns up later with a PowerPoint,
Explaining why my gut was wrong
Apparently, authenticity and attachment are not the same thing
One states 'take me or leave me'
The other whispers 'please don’t leave me, I’ll make you another cup of tea'.
I learned to watch body language,
Including my own.
Its actually been waving red flags at me
With folded arms,
Tight jaw
The ancient art of saying 'I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine'.
Cognitive understanding said
'Yes, I see your point'
Emotional insight said
'Wow I feel this in my bones' but…
Only one of them is changing my life,
Because I did not feel wanted
I made myself feel needed,
Helpful
Useful.
The emotional equivalent of fixing someone else’s roof in the storm
Then I found the well of shame
Old as the bog, deep as silence.
Full of stories from generations that came before
Decorated with myths they passed on as fact.
Perceptions were fired
Knowledge was hired
Understanding arrived
But insight is helping me survive
And hey, I met others on the same journey.
Understanding me
Seeing me
Holding me
Then safety began to show up
Connection followed
My nervous system blinked…
'Can I relax now'?
I learned that the answers are inside me
Which was rude!
Because I had looked everywhere else
Yes, my mind creates my world
But long before that my world created my mind
And now
For the first time
I am braver
Curious instead of analytical
Observant instead of reactive
More compassionate
More aware
More willing to question the stories I once called ‘truth’.
- credit for this poem belongs to a 2025 CI student group