Esra Özsüer Is the President and Founder of Maya Vakfi Foundation, providing mental health and psychosocial support for trauma rehabilitation as a response to the complex needs of families and children in crisis.

Esra speaks about her transformative life experiences that helped her understand her purpose and the role that healing plays. By listening to her heart she created the Maya Vakfi Foundation and is launching the new online school of healing, HarmonySpiritus. Listen to hear how pure love transformed a child in their program and her advice on using intuition as a compass in philanthropy.

Esra Özsüer is a Reiki Master, a Sufi and contemplative practitioner. While facing a life threatening illness Esra found herself exploring new paths to health through energy work and wellbeing practices. Her experience was included in Dr Mehment Oz’s studies on energy healing at the Columbia Presbyterian hospital when she had major surgery at the age of 28. Following this transformative period Esra found new life through spiritual practices and evolved in a myriad of ways.

Her dreams led her on a heartfelt journey to launch Maya Vakfi (Foundation) in 2014 to provide mental health and psychosocial support for trauma rehabilitation as a response to the complex needs of families and children in crisis. The guiding principles of the Foundation are to provide a society formed by healthy individuals who spend their childhood and youth freely, safety, confidently and productively. She is a member of Synergos’ Global Philanthropist Circle, a network of over 90 leading international philanthropic families launched by David Rockefeller and his daughter Peggy Dulany. She is an active participant in their Funders of Mindfulness and Spirituality group. Esra is also engaged in the Global Sustainability Network on SDG 8, where members pledge to take action to terminate modern slavery by the end of 2030 and on the boards of the Istanbul Modern Gala and the Bosphorus Summit.

When COVID 19 triggered fear and isolation Esra was the architect behind the Embrace Circle. She gathered spiritual and energy leaders together to lead and support communities in times of uncertainty. Held biweekly with Esra at the helm as an energy harmonizer, the Embrace Circle, finds and explores open heart connections, compassion, social field awareness, systems thinking and collective wellbeing with the goal to be graciously present despite these chaotic times. As follower of Rumi’s wisdom, she includes Sufiism in her teachings.

After exploring this path of consciousness, she intuitively understands that new frequencies and vibrations are the keys to success and aims to reach leaders and change makers that can spread positive changes globally. Through partnerships, she enables people to reach to their optimal frequency to create mass mind shifts in order to heal and give fresh skills for people to rebuild their own lives. Building upon her work at the Foundation she continues to specialize in trauma rehabilitation. After her observation of systemic gaps in today’s practices used to support mental health she sought alternative approaches. Inspired by her experience at the Foundation she’s developing an integrated experience she calls HarmonySpiritus, a platform for healing, teaching certified alternatives to traditional approaches to trauma and psychology. HarmonySpiritus will improve current methods through universally accessible hybrid trainings and involves recognizing the relationship between the mind, the body, the soul and the heart to help better meet the needs of our times. She believes that mindfulness and subtle energy work will be the game-changing ingredient to offer a deeper and more sustainable process to address the needs of all populations. 

When not hard at work at the Foundation she can be found with her biggest pride of all, her husband, three active children and four small grandchildren. Esra is committed to spreading love and is devoted to helping others in their journey to inner harmony to create more impactful, abundant and joyful world.