Working Sabbatical™

Supporting women to do what they're here for

Her Sabbatical Space · For women professionals

Successful, and longing for more.

Make room for what's yours to do. Lead from your core, not from who the world asked you to be.

A private collaboration to set down what's weighing on you and bring forth more of what's in you, without stepping away from the life and work you've built.

Request a conversation How Her Sabbatical Space works →

What may be showing up

How it looks from the outside

Capable. Well-regarded. Reliable. Responsible.

How it feels on the inside

Pushing through. Quietly unfulfilled. Wondering if there's more.

Performing well, while setting aside parts of you.

A restlessness pointing toward something you long for in your life, but you can't see a way forward.

A growing sense that your time and voice are meant for something that truly engages you.

Flashes of inspiration, quickly reasoned away by a practical voice in your head.

Saying yes to what's stirring in you can feel overwhelming, or like letting someone down.

If you're feeling that tug, don't dismiss it. It's your life asking for more. It doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours.

What's in the way

If you've tried to think your way through it, you've probably hit a wall. Reading books, weighing options and pushing through may have helped, but none of it has quite reached the place beneath the stuckness, where you simply know what's yours to follow.

That's because, early on, your body learned to take in others' expectations, needs and even dreams, and to set your own aside. That's held deeper than thinking can reach, which is why moving toward what's yours can feel hard.

The good news

What isn't yours can be set down, so what is yours can come forward.

Nothing about you needs fixing. As old patterns unwind and what weighs on you is set down, what you're longing for becomes clearer, and so does the way forward: a knowing that lives deeper than your doubts. New possibilities begin to open.

Her Sabbatical Space

A sabbatical space in the middle of your week

A protected, private space within your full life, where you can pause, listen inward, and come to know what's yours and find your way forward, with someone beside you who has walked this path.

It isn't time away from your life. It's time with yourself, right inside it.

Pause

A space that is truly yours, where you don't have to perform, fix or explain. Just room to come back and hear yourself again.

Know

We go beneath the thinking, to the knowing you feel in your body. Through gentle, body-based work, what isn't yours can be set down, and that knowing becomes your compass.

Bring it to form

Step by step, at your pace and in step with your responsibilities, you change what's in the way and give form to what's yours. As things shift on the inside, they shift on the outside too, for you and the people you love.

Change happens in relationship. I stay with you inside the process, through honest dialogue, lineage and somatic work, while holding clear boundaries so the work remains yours.

What opens up for you

As what's yours comes into focus, this is what women often find waiting for them.

Knowing and self-trust

Knowing in your body, not just thinking, what you're here to do, and trusting yourself.

In your own lane

Waking up feeling you're in your own lane, even on the hard days.

Following your inner compass

A compass you feel, rather than one you reason or push your way through.

Standing your ground

Holding your own course instead of being pulled into other people's plans for you.

Energy and creativity come back

Not the push-through kind, but a steadier energy, with room for ideas again, that doesn't run out by the end of the day.

Relationships that give back

Connections built on respect and mutuality, where you are not always the one giving more.

A natural glow

When you're following what's yours and feel at home in yourself, it shows. Many women notice they look brighter and more rested, as if setting down what weighed on them took a few years off too.

Leading, and living, as yourself.

Meet the founder

I know this place well.

Maria C. Tello, founder of Working Sabbatical

In my early thirties, I was successful, and also quietly unfulfilled and growing restless. What I longed for most kept surfacing, no matter how often I set it aside, telling myself, after years of trying, that it couldn't happen. I also started wondering, Is this still my lane?

Every idea I explored left me overwhelmed, because I couldn't see a clear path.

What changed everything was working with someone experienced, who knew the way through that maze of thoughts, feelings and inner conflicts, and walked it with me. Looking back, our sessions felt like a sabbatical space in the middle of my busy week: a place to set the weight down, unwind what was in my way, mend what hurt, find my answers, and create what was mine.

That's when I understood that no one is meant to walk these roads alone. What stands in our way changes in relationship.

I spent the next ten years training rigorously to offer others that same space and accompaniment, integrating somatic and human development, deep body-centered energy work and therapeutic process.

Before this work, I was Director of Development at a major engineering company, leading global projects for Fortune 500 clients. I know from the inside what it takes to lead in large organizations, and what it can cost.

Working Sabbatical is how I bring all of that together.

View my training and credentials

Questions you might be holding

I've already tried many things. How is this different?

Most approaches to change work with mindset or strategy. Talking things through can bring clarity, but it doesn't always change what the body feels and holds on to, or move you toward what you're longing for. This work focuses on exactly that: the body, your relationships and the family patterns underneath them, which is often where what holds you back actually lives. What you've already done still counts. This work builds on it, at a deeper layer.

My schedule is already full. How do I add one more thing?

Our collaboration is built around a demanding calendar. Sessions are spaced out, and the reflection in between is deliberately light: no homework to feel guilty about skipping. Most women find they look forward to it. For those who want to go deeper, there's optional material to explore between sessions.

What if opening this up is too much?

The work moves at the pace your system and life can take, and part of each session is making sure you leave feeling steady and energized.

I feel guilty investing in myself. Do I really need this?

Many women in leadership feel this, especially when others rely on them. Whether this work is right for you now is yours to decide, and a first conversation is a good place to explore it.

Does needing support mean I can't do this on my own?

No. Patterns that span generations aren't meant to be resolved alone. Choosing support is a leadership decision, and a private one. It can also save you years of dead ends.

Is this therapy?

No. This work complements medical and psychological care, and I often work alongside a client's physician, therapist or other clinicians.

Do you work with men?

Yes. Most of my clients are women, and I also work with men. A first conversation is the best way to see if it’s a fit.

For organizations

Support your women leaders, so they stay and thrive.

Working Sabbatical offers private, confidential support for the senior women carrying the most in your organization, without time away from their roles. It's a way to prevent burnout before it costs you the people you can least afford to lose.

Explore Working Sabbatical for your organization →

What is calling you that you haven't made room for yet?

You don't have to find your way alone.

This work begins when you're ready to make what's yours a priority. The people around you benefit too. A first conversation is a chance to talk about what's calling you, and what's been in the way, and to see whether this is right for you. Send me a few lines, and I will reply personally. It is confidential, with no obligation to continue.

Request a conversation