Mary O’Malley is a speaker and the author of Belonging to Life: The Journey of Awakening, The Gift of Our Compulsions: a Revolutionary Approach to Self Acceptance and Healing, The Magical Forest of Awakening, and What’s In the Way IS the Way. She is a certified counselor in the State of Washington in private practice in Kirkland, Washington. She leads groups, retreats, and classes throughout the United States and in Denmark.

Mary O’Malley grew up in Washington State and attended Puget Sound University in Tacoma, Washington.

Throughout her youth, she experienced an ever-deepening descent into darkness, culminating in hospitalization in 1968. The year after her hospitalization, after a number of suicide attempts, she had a life-changing realization in which she saw through the games of the struggling mind and experienced a full and complete connection with life which is the foundation of her work.

She then spent a number of years studying with Patricia Sun, Stephen Levine, Jack Kornfield and Pema Chodron, and Brian Swimme and she has done ongoing work with Adyashanti. As she grew in understanding, people started seeking her out and asking for guidance. Since the early 1980s she has been writing books, speaking to groups, leading retreats and working with people individually.

As Neale Donald Walsch says, “…paying attention to what is ultimately happening as opposed to what we observe to be happening can so affect your life that you may never have to endure emotional turmoil again. Ever!….This is where all true Masters live such as Stephen Levine, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, and Mary O’Malley. These are people who understand and who some say have mastered life.”