Angelica Mayo’s eyes shine as she speaks about her new counseling service, “Anima Mundi, Center for Imaginative Studies.” She looks forward to sharing her educational skills and training people who decide it is time to work through personal issues that have been holding them back. “The whole thing is about helping people help themselves. Anima Mundi (from Latin) means ‘tending the soul of the world,’” says Mayo.

Mayo’s new office is located in the Children’s House building at 801 North Beach Road, Suite B. Comfortably furnished with soft lighting and rich green walls, the office is designed to provide a warm and safe place. Here clients, with her help and support, can find their way to what she calls “the Aha moments that mean something new is giving birth.” Although she is qualified to work on all issues, Mayo says her particular specialties are helping to work through fear, abandonment and self esteem problems.

At an earlier time of her life, Mayo had a career in the airline business. This opened the door to an exciting job as a VIP representative for the 1976 Olympics at Innsbruck. When that was completed, she took an acting job and became a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.

Her interest in the counseling field began as a personal growth journey and evolved into something bigger. Feeling guided, she moved to Orcas Island, leaving behind a good job.

She wasn’t on the island long before she had a car accident and that sent her on a deep personal and educational path. From 1998 until 2006 she poured herself into college studies, receiving a double focus degree from Evergreen State College in “Psychology and the Expressive Arts” in 2002.

In 2006 she graduated from Pacifica College in California with a Masters of Counseling Degree with an emphasis in Depth Psychology. Her continued belief and commitment to learning has her now working towards a PhD.

Mayo says her intuition, spiritual trainings and knowledge of diverse therapeutic approaches have given her many avenues to connect with a client in a personalized way. Mayo is committed to working from a place of “depth and divinity” rather than from a Western pathological treatment model which is based on the concept of fixing something that is broken.

Mayo came back to Orcas two years ago. “The island calls you and the island sends you away,” she says. She feels the timing is right, the space is right, and she is ready to share what she has learned. She will be working by appointment and is available at 376-4432.