Author – Educator – Explorer of Conscious Learning
I’m a lifelong learner…
I’ve spent my life asking one question:
How do we grow into the fullest version of who we came here to be?
For 25 years, I worked inside classrooms, trained teachers, and led schools—believing that education was how we change the world. And it is.
But what I learned is that our systems don’t always nurture the brilliance they were built to serve. Too often, they quiet the very spark they were meant to ignite.
So I left.
I walked away from the predictable and the prescribed to rediscover what learning really means.
I forged new pathways…
I helped launch the microschools movement, helped parents and communities re-imagine education, and wrote my first book, HELP! My Child Hates School, to guide families in reclaiming curiosity, creativity, and joy.
Then I wrote The Micro-School Builder’s Handbook — a step-by-step guide for educators and parents ready to create new, human-sized schools where children thrive. That book supported the work of dreamers and doers across the globe—people designing learning environments that honor children’s uniqueness and their educators’ creative fire.
And then life invited me deeper still…
A second breast cancer became a teacher. Healing became a curriculum.
Now I’m writing again—this time not just about how we learn, but how we heal, create, and become whole.
That work is unfolding in my next book, Becoming a Wounded Healer, a memoir of my insights gained in experiencing a cancer diagnosis twice. I’m writing it for anyone navigating transformation, loss, or renewal. I’m also creating The Wounded Healer Tarot—a companion card deck born from my own healing journey, designed to help others translate pain into wisdom, see their story as sacred, and walk the path of transformation with courage and grace.
Dr. Mara Linaberger 