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A sanctuary for holistic well-being that honors the
intersection of body, culture, and spirit.

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Let's begin your journey toward healing....

Hello and welcome!  I’m Maria Rivera—though you can call me Mara. As the Founder and Director of Maraka Healing, I’m dedicated to co-creating safe, nurturing spaces where you can tune into your body’s profound wisdom and reclaim your personal power. I am a Board Certified Dance/Movement Psychotherapist, Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, Spiritual Life Coach, and Energy Medicine LightWorker. At Maraka, I offer a sanctuary for holistic well-being that honors the intersection of body, culture, and spirit. Together, we’ll use body-based and energy healing practices to transform your life and reclaim your body as your greatest tool for wellness.

Maria "Mara" Rivera

BC-DMT, LCAT, SLC​

María “Mara” Rivera is a native Puerto Rican energy therapist, dance/movement psychotherapist, somatic wellness practitioner, dancer, educator, and spiritual life coach, who currently lives in the Bronx, New York. She has acquired extensive experience (15 years +) serving servicing adults of diverse backgrounds both New York and the Caribbean. Her exploration of African-based cultural dances in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti has deeply influenced her psychotherapeutic practice, integrating Afro-Centric values, Afro-Caribbean dance aesthetics, and its foundational spiritual/healing principles.

Recognized with the “Excellence in Education Award” by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) in 2021, she is the visionary behind the 4 Levels of Empowerment (4LOE). 4LOE is a holistic therapeutic model, which states that embodied medicine is accessed and claimed through our bodies, our collective spaces, cultural identity, and spiritual technologies in order to resist oppressive ideologies and sustain physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Join Mara on this unique and transformative journey at Maraka Healing!

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About Maraka Healing

Established in 2015, Maraka Healing is a sanctuary for body based psychotherapy, integrating energy-based balancing practices, somatic therapy techniques, and Afro-Indigenous practices. We specialize in a co-creative process to incorporate movement and body-oriented techniques (body-based psychotherapy/somatic wellness), spiritually informed, and energy balancing tools as a way to access and reconnect with your own internal resources. 

 

Our philosophy is founded on the notion that cultural-spiritual healing traditions and rituals, especially those found Indigenous and African Diasporic cultures are the foundation of modern psychology and practices. Our roots lie in ancestral healing practices, psycho-spiritual perspectives, and principles of body energy systems. We also hold a deep belief that to effectively support the healing of emotional distress, mental health challenges, and traumatic experiences in black and brown bodies, a de-colonial approach rooted in culture, psycho-spirituality, and social justice is essential. Understanding the body as a vessel for cultural memory, resistance, and liberation. 

 

Maraka Healing strives to provide its clients with a personalized path and journey towards healing. As a result, this journey has the potential to dissolve emotional and energetic blockages, disrupt intergenerational cycles, drive social change, or be guided by your own intuitive gifts. We understand that everyone’s healing path is unique, and we are wholeheartedly committed to supporting you on your individual journey towards lasting well-being.

We believe in showing deep respect for your individuality, your process, your multiplicity, and your humanity, guided by compassion and care.

Maraca [Maraka]: an indigenous instrument made out of the fruit of the “higuera” tree. Its round and circular shape serves as a container to hold seeds. When shaken, it produces sounds which support and manifest the keeping of rhythm, calling for the divine, and uniting with the earth. Both a catalyst and a vessel, it traditionally accompanies the sacred arts of singing, dancing, praying, and conjuring.

– Mara Rivera, Founder of Maraka Healing

Foundational Principles

We're guided by our core values to make your journey unique and meaningful.
These values are at core of what we do at Maraka Healing:

Body Wisdom

We believe in creating a safe space for you to tap into your body’s
wisdom as way to connect to your intuition, internal resources,
and true self.

Decolonizing the Body

We honor diverse cultural healing traditions, reclaim embodied wisdom, and see the body as a site for resistance, healing, and liberation. ​

Non-Pathological Approach

We believe in working with the healthy aspects of your being, and your body’s natural tendency towards healing through a strenghts-based and non-pathological approach

Energy Based Healing

We’re here to honor the innate wisdom of your energetic signature and that healing also involves “restoryng”‘ flow and harmony in your energetic system.​

Spirit

We’re open to exploring spirituality and how it fits into your healing process, respecting the unique dimensions that are meaningful to you.​

Healing Services & Offerings

BODY-BASED PSYCHOTHERAPY & SOMATIC WELLNESS

Body-based psychotherapy sessions are tailored to support individuals in coping with stress, overcoming depression, anxiety, healing from trauma, and/or navigating psycho-spiritual challenges. Rooted in the interconnectedness of body, culture, and spirit, it offers a gentle integration of verbal processing,  body (soma)-based practices, and spirituality/energy medicine. 

 

These psychotherapeutic sessions aim to support you in cultivating, developing, and honoring the practice of “inner listening” and the integration of the physical, emotional, social, historical, and spiritual aspects of your personhood for deeper self-understanding  and the strengthening  of internal resources. 

SESSION DETAILS

Individual Sessions 

Fee: $200/50 min (limited sliding scale available)

 

Note:  For NY residents only. These sessions are for adults (21+) regardless of cultural/ethnic background. Virtual sessions are mainly offered at this time. 

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“MOVING SEEDS”™ WELLNESS SESSIONS

Our ‘Moving Seeds’™ Wellness Sessions are a somatic and movement based offering rooted in Afro-Diasporic movement, ancestral wisdom, energy balancing practices, and natural elements’ frameworks. This offering roots on the idea that each person carries “seeds” shaped by their culture, lived experience, and ancestral lineage. These seeds live in the body and can emerge and flourish through movement, rhythm, gesture, symbols, images, and relational presence.  It can help participants reconnect with their bodies, steady their nervous system, and feel rooted in their cultural and ancestral resources.  Please note that these sessions are not psychotherapy, but rather it offers a body centered space for grounding, movement, and cultural remembering.

 

SESSION DETAILS

Individual Sessions 

Fee: $125/50 min (limited sliding scale available)

 

Note: These sessions are for adults (21+) regardless of cultural/ethnic background. Virtual sessions are mainly offered at this time

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CLINICAL SUPERVISION

Clinical Supervision (For Therapists, Mental Health Practitioners, and Students)

A safe and accountable space is co-created in order to support mental health practitioners, somatic wellness practitioners, creative art therapists, and dance/movement psychotherapists or students fulfill their professional goals and delve into the path of developing a psycho-spiritual and culturally-informed clinical practice.

 

In our supervision sessions, we co-create your journey towards developing and crafting your own unique therapeutic approach to make a meaningful impact on your clients.

SESSION DETAILS

Practitioners (1:1)): $100-125/hr
Student (1:1): $85/hr
Organizations / Institutions: $150hr-$175/hr

 

Note: Only virtual sessions are offered at this time

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Testimonials

“I was feeling pain on the left side of my chest. My therapist shared with me about the left side of the body being the receiving side of the body and the right side to be the giving side. I felt the pain of not allowing myself to receive without guilt. On the contrary, I am always giving and overextending myself for others. In addition to doing stretches, I made a personal note about giving and receiving and I’m paying attention to find balance. My pain is gone. I feel open and ready to give and receive."
-S.G.
“Maybe you should try a different 'kind' of therapy,” a friend wisely suggested after I shared my frustrations with the several therapists I tried to see. That shift in perspective led me to Maraka Healing and I’ve been an appreciative client for six years and counting. With María’s help: I moved through my immediate crisis, built a body/spirit-centered toolkit to navigate newer challenges as they arise, and identified the root of my mental/emotional issues. I can look to the frequency of our appointments as a marker of my continued progress; we went from weekly for years, then moved to bi-weekly, and now we have monthly maintenance appointments. I trust this wholistic practice will also support your healing and transformation.”!
-J.LA.
“I truly appreciate you, Mara. Your natural way of being an enthusiastic Gemini as well as your perspective Scorpio nature helps me trust your interest, understanding and kindness. You are energetic and relatable. You come across as someone who has spent a lot of time studying in her field. I appreciate you and how you hold space as a therapist and healer.”
-A.C.
“I received spiritual guidance from Mara in the middle of the pandemic. I loved how her spiritual guidance incorporated actual steps I could take in my life towards my souls desires. The check-ins about six months visualizations kept me accountable to what I wanted to see happen and I am grateful to say I achieved those soul goals that I visualized for myself. My astrology offerings boomed in 2022!”
-C.A.
“Maria Rivera is an amazing, charismatic, empathetic and intuitive dance/movement therapist and overall psychotherapist. Maria's guidance embodies a strong connection to spirit and ancestral wisdom that allows you to feel seen, heard and cared with little effort. Maria has supported me through many emotional, career, and life challenges. I can't recommend Maria enough. Thank you Maria for the dedication and support you have dedicated to my well-being.”
-Y.C.
“I am so grateful to work with Maria. She creates a safe space where I feel heard, respected, and curious. The questions she asks are different than what I expected and encourage meaningful reflection. She is a good listener who summarizes back what she hears. Working with Maria has expanded my understanding of myself and my experience in a validating way. She has been affirming of my queer and trans experience. I have gained many skills working with her and would highly recommend others work with her too. “
-S.O.
“Ms. Rivera has excellent listening and communication skills. She knows how to communicate ideas, and provide guidance without harshness or judgment. Her power of observation and constant reminder of connecting with my body allows her to fill in the gaps and find ways to better help me with my struggles. She focuses on leading me towards feeling confident and empowered enough for me to be able to make positive changes. I have always experienced her as an empathic and compassionate therapist who always centers cultural humility in all of her work”
-S.G.

Media

The Afro-Caribbean Dance Healing System

"The Afro Caribbean Dance Healing System (Rivera, 2018), later renamed “The Four Levels of Empowerment” (4LOE), is a holistic theoretical and therapeutic model based on my own ethno-racial-cultural-spiritual identity development journey and research on cultural dance traditions in the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. This work honors my ancestors, elders, teachers, and colleagues for their support, guidance, and wisdom."

– Mara Rivera, Founder of Maraka Healing

Maraka Healing

Business Hours

Mon/Thur/Fri: 10:00 am–4:30 pm
Tues: 10:00pm–2:00pm
Wed: 9am-11am

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