Mary Ann ‘Max’ Cullinan

Mary Ann ‘Max’ Cullinan worked as an organiser in the emerging democratic trade union movement in the early eighties. In the following decade of mass mobilisation against apartheid, she worked as a human rights activist in various grass roots organisations resisting forced removals from the land, opposing restrictions on freedom of speech, and in the monitoring of political detentions during the various states of emergency. Prior to the 1994 national democratic election, she worked in the mediation field developing community conflict-resolution and voter education training tools.

From the early 2000’s she has been practicing as a clinical psychologist, pursuing further interests in the areas of mindfulness and somatically influenced modalities (Focusing), Trauma Processing (EMDR) and Ecopsychology. Since 2013, together with fellow psychotherapist Anya Mendel, she has co-created and run several Eco-Focusing workshops, most recently one on Ecological Grieving in 2019.

She lives in Cape Town, and her holdfasts in this beautiful and burning world are her community, her partner Cormac, earth activist and author of Wild Law, and their shared 5 grown-up children. She leans heavily and gratefully on ongoing practices of yoga and meditation.