María Luisa Díaz de León Zuloaga. MA, REAT, MSMT, MSME
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

My professional experience in psychology, somatics, and the arts spans over twenty-five years and includes work in education, private practice, community intervention, and organizational development. 

I am the creator of Mythic Life: Embodying Wisdom, Beauty and Courage. Through Mythic Life I facilitate meaningful and transformational experiences to women from all over the globe. I developed a mythosomatic framework, which is a forward thinking integration of myth, arts, somatic movement and archetypal psychology. This framework, while embodied in my professional praxis and ethos, is articulated in an unpublished collection of academic essays, Somaphilia: Re-membering the Soul and the Aesthetics of Being, which is my masters’ thesis. 

I am a registered Expressive Arts Therapist through the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association, and I am a registered Master Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator from ISMETA -the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association. I served on the ISMETA Board of Directors for nine consecutive years, the last three as Board President. Through my Board service I gained organizational embodied leadership and insights into the work that it takes to collectively support an emerging field and profession. I continue to serve as a volunteer in the Professional Standards and Equity, Justice, and Accessibility Committees. I enjoy collaborating with the ISMETA Board of Directors to grow the field of somatic movement and advance the profession of somatic movement.

As an adjunct faculty at Southwestern College I teach graduate courses on the concentration on Consciousness in Action; as well as in the community programs through the New Earth Institute. I am an Associate Teacher at Tamalpa Institute where I previously served as Program Director and core faculty.  I supervise advanced students’ fieldwork projects and also offer public workshops where I highlight and celebrate the Tamalpa Life/Art Process in my life’s work.

I obtained my M.A. in Engaged Humanities with Emphasis in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. I am a Tamalpa Life/Art practitioner and did a comprehensive certificate program in movement-based expressive arts therapy. Most recently I’ve studied with Mark Taylor at The School of BodyMindMovement; in particular the modules on the Endocrine System and Motor Human Development; I completed a certificate in Advanced Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute; and an in-depth course on Trauma-informed practice through ISMETA’s Professional Development Center. I have countless hours of self-studies and I consider myself a perennial learner.