Maya Hennessey

Consultant/Trainer /Author

Location(s) served: Illinois

Address: Chicago, Illinois

Email: mayahennessey@sbcglobal.net

Website: http://www.mayahennessey.com
Maya is author of If Only I'd Had This Caregiving Book, on developing an effective social support network to prevent the caregiver from being the second victim of their loved ones illness, and other vital lessons she learned caring for her husband through his illness and death from brain cancer. Maya's Model takes the caregiver through exercises to create the essential support to survive and thrive in the sea of caregiving demands. Maya is a consultant, trainer, teacher and author, whose life mission and passion has been to help disempowered addicted women. After being a caregiver Maya's mission broadened to include the plight of caregivers. Maya is a member of the Chicago Caregiver's Advisory Council. See her webside for more areas of expertise, workshops, and links to several of her articles. Maya was featured on the Bill Moyers series titled Close To Home, on the power of system collaboration; she's been on TV, on the radio and has presented thousands of workshops.

Area of Expertise:
Maya's expertise includes design and delivery of experiential skill buiding workshops development of curriculum, empowering addicted women, caregivers, helpers of caregivers, case managers, counselors. Maya conducts training of trainers, and is a member of the Chicago Caregivers Advisory Council, has testified to legislators, and influenced policy changes.

Caregiving Experience:
Cared for husband during his illness and death from brain cancer.

Fun Fact about me:
I have 5 delightful grandchildren.
I love love living on Lake Michigan. dancing, workshops, groups of all sorts, book clubs, personal growth groups. I love meeting new people and discovering new places.

Profile:
My life work, my spiritual mission, and my passion is advocating for other women. Fascinated with groups and the skills of effective change agents, I became a certified facilitator and studied communication skills to ignite motivation in myself and others. Personal growth is my highest value, driving me to claw at my issues. I've been executive director for non-profit organizations to help pregnant addicted women and women with children. I worked for Illinois state government for 12 years, with a long list appointments to city, state, federal projects and committees on child welfare, corrections, sexual assault, and domestic violence, with a strong dedication to influencing policies. I was project manager for Project SAFE, an award winning collaboration between child welfare and substance abuse, and developed policies to preserve and reunite families that would otherwise have been torn apart by addictions. I participated on a federally funded Real Choice Systems Change Project, helping people transition out of nursing homes and into community living.