Maya Cointreau was an American author and holistic health teacher best known for her vibrational healing and spiritual wellness work. She wrote over 30 books on energy healing, metaphysics and teen fantasy, including The Girl Who Could Dance in Outer Space, which was used in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt curriculum.
She was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, before moving to Connecticut, where she lived in New Fairfield, Woodbury, Gaylordsville, and Roxbury. She attended Rumsey Hall and Andover, and then Smith College, where she studied Russian literature. She quickly learned Russian to read original texts and graduate in her chosen major.
Cointreau spent more than 20 years practising and teaching vibrational healing. She was a Usui Reiki Master, trained in Karuna Reiki and the Iris Healing Method. Her healing work drew on herbalism, homoeopathy, flower essences, crystal healing and shamanic practices. She once wrote: "A passion for healing is not a choice, it is a calling. This belief has shaped her writing and her life.
She founded Earth Lodge Publishing and co-founded MoMaya Publications. She designed, edited and illustrated many of the books herself. Her work included Eden is Now, which she described as channelled wisdom "to help people live joyfully and ascend in peace". She also ran a short story competition with Monisha Saldanha Banerjee, publishing the winners each year.
Under the name Ellis Logan, she has written ten fantasy novels for teenage readers. She also created a children's series celebrating extraordinary women. Her last publication was a guide to adolescent transformation.
Cointreau spent the last years of her life in Wallingford, Vermont, with her husband and two children. She died on 6 October 2020 after an eight-month illness.
Photo credit: X @MCointreau
