Maia has been a student-teacher of metaphysics and body/mind/spirit since a child. Her maternal Grandmother, who in Maia's opinion was a Saint, exposed her to the power of prayer at a very young age.

Maia is also of the opinion that her shamanic gift was inherited by the paternal side of the family. In her first few shamanic journeys, Maia met her paternal Cherokee Grandmother, whom she had never met in ordinary reality before she passed away. Throughout her teenage and well into her adult years, Maia has studied and continues to study shamanism, alternative healing methodologies and metaphysics.