Maris Pasquale Doran seated in a director's chair, speaking to the room, in black and white.

Maris Pasquale Doran, LCSW

Psychotherapist · Speaker · Midlife Specialist · NYT Bestselling Author

Maris doesn't lecture. She gives language to what her audiences are already carrying.

She brings clinical insight and personal honesty with the warmth of someone who has lived every topic she teaches.

Partnering with teams, communities, and audiences seeking more than information, Maris brings practical tools and clinical frameworks that create a real shift in how participants understand themselves, the roles they carry, and how they move through their lives.

Columbia University, MSW · Former Columbia University Faculty · Georgetown University, BA · New York Times Bestselling Co-Author, Piper Chen Sings

Selected events and collaborations

CSG Law · UBS · TJX · Crayola · 92NY

LA Times Festival of Books · Delta Dialogues · Jumpstart

Maris Pasquale Doran speaking with a microphone, seated on a stool beside another speaker

What Maris offers

The convergence of her experience and credentials.

What sets Maris apart is the convergence of her experience and credentials. She is a practicing psychotherapist, a former Columbia University faculty member, a New York Times bestselling author, and a woman who has personally implemented the skills she teaches. Audiences feel that combination the moment she begins.

Her talks and workshops help individuals and organizations navigate identity, stress, caregiving, and leadership. Drawing on twenty years of clinical experience, she brings accessible neuroscience and clinical frameworks into the room. Most programming teaches people to manage stress. Maris teaches people to understand what happens to them under pressure, which is what actually changes how they respond. She makes the case in Real Simple, in a piece on what wellness culture gets wrong about nervous system regulation.

Identity and Clarity in Transition

Great for: Organizations navigating change or transition. Mid-career leadership and professional development. Initiatives on identity, authenticity, and belonging.

High-stakes change arrives alongside real loss, whether that is the loss of a person, a company someone built, a structure that defined them, or an identity that no longer fits. Maris helps audiences understand what is actually driving their decisions and find clarity on who they are becoming.

Participants leave with

Understanding of the personal dynamics shaping the transition
Practical tools for high-pressure moments
Clarity on what the next chapter means

Regulating to Repair: Conflict and Collaboration

Great for: Teams facing friction, miscommunication, or trust breakdowns. HR, managers, and leads navigating team conflict. Retreats or off-sites focused on team repair.

Conflict resolution begins with self-regulation. Maris helps people recognize what they personally bring to a conflict and shift from reactivity to intentional response.

Participants leave with

Recognition of their own stress response
Tools to interrupt reactivity in the moment
A framework for repair

Supporting the Sandwich Generation

Great for: HR leaders focused on caregiver inclusion and retention. Programming targeting stress and burnout. Employee resource groups and community organizations.

For people straddling aging or dying parents and growing children at home. Maris speaks from professional and personal experience, integrating practical realities such as preparing for a parent's decline alongside the deeper, often unspoken layers about mortality and meaning.

Participants leave with

Language for what they are carrying
Tools for grief and overwhelm
Permission to name a load that usually goes unnamed

Redefining Midlife

Great for: Women's leadership conferences and ERG events. Mental health and resilience programming. Community and membership organizations.

The tools that carry people through the earlier parts of their lives are often not enough for what comes next. Maris names what is actually driving people in this phase and teaches the regulation practice that makes deeper insight and intentional choice possible.

Participants leave with

A fuller picture of what this phase actually involves
Language for their own experience
A foundational regulation practice

Audiences gain a clear understanding of how to apply her framework to the moment in front of them, whether that moment is an exchange with a colleague, a passing interaction in an ordinary day, or a difficult conversation waiting at home.

The Keynote

We live in a time and a culture where we are constantly accessible, and physical boundaries between roles are harder than ever to hold. That blurring shapes how we perform, how we lead, and how we treat the people around us. We are chronically activated, and regulation and mindfulness grant us the ability to show up with clarity, focus, and intention.

When Maris's father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she spent nine months trying to show up as an attentive daughter, a care navigator, a communicative sibling, a present mother, and a supportive wife, sometimes within the same hour. Her nervous system was on sustained high alert. She leaned into her mindfulness practice with urgency, not because she had the bandwidth, but precisely because she did not.

That foundation carried her through everything that followed, meaning his death six days after New York City shut down for Covid, the grief with no ritual, and her two children underfoot twenty-four hours a day.

Two decades of clinical work gave her the expertise. Those nine months and everything after gave her the lived knowledge no training could.

In this keynote, Maris names what audiences are already carrying and shows them what it takes to show up with clarity and intention, even when a situation is deeply uncomfortable or feels impossible to accept. She makes complex concepts approachable and delivers them with the humor and honesty that make them land.

What people say

"Maris brings a unique depth of knowledge combined with authenticity and warmth that immediately draws people in. Maris also has a remarkable talent for taking big, complex concepts and making them accessible, actionable, and relevant for any audience. She not only brings clarity to important ideas but infuses them with heart and meaning, leaving people feeling informed, empowered, and inspired."

Crystal Rountree · CEO, Jumpstart

"Maris doesn't just speak. She connects. Her blend of science, story, and humor made the material stick in a way that felt effortless. Participants were fully absorbed and left feeling seen and equipped with tools both approachable and genuinely life changing."

Danielle St. Laurent · Founder, Delta Dialogues

Bring her to your audience

Maris welcomes inquiries for keynotes, workshops, panels, podcast appearances, and facilitated conversations. Reach out to discuss your event, your audience, and what you are hoping to create together.