I love getting together in person to share and connect.
As an educator, my preferred medium is speaking face-to-face.
My speaking experience includes:
● Appearance on multiple podcasts internationally.
● Public speaking experience in English and Spanish, both in online and in-person events and conferences. See full list below.
● 10 years of experience in speaking and lecturing for groups.
Whether it’s talking about language learning, education, poetry, creativity, mental health, or creating intimate workshops, there is something so enriching about group connection.
If you’d like me to speak at your event, I’d love to hear from you. Please, use the contact form to send across details for your event.
Speaker's bio
María Ortega García is an embodied language coach, a certified Spanish as a foreign language teacher, writer and poetry therapy practitioner, with a background in Humanities and applied languages.
She has over 15 years of experience teaching languages and 10 running her own education business. This business has pushed her to keep growing and acquiring skills in the realm of personal development, embodiment, creativity, leadership and business.
She believes the current language learning world is lacking heart, what is more, it’s lacking body and the experiential expression that comes with it. She believes language is cultural and social, but also personal and political.
She is an advocate for facilitating a language that fosters empathy, connection and understanding, rather than separation.
Speaker's fees
Speaking fees for schools, organisations or corporates are charged on a case-by-case basis.
Reduced or negotiable rates are available for sole traders, community organisations, charities, and organisations focused on social change and impact.
Speaking topics include
● Trauma-informed language education.
● Emotional management in the classroom
● Neuroeducation
● Creativity and learning
● Poetry Therapy
● Translingualism
● Language Learning Decolonization
● Nervous system in Learning
● Embodied Language Learning
● Cyclical Learning
Past events and workshops
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Past In-Person Talks & Events
● ” Una revolución de dentro afuera: redefinición del aprendizaje de idiomas” – Universidad de Burgos (Burgos, Spain), September 2024
● “Is it happening again?” A poetry Workshop. Part of the poetry workshop series “Remaking of Life” organised by Mother Tongues. (Ireland) April 2021.
● “Multilingual Poetry Creation: Connect with your inner polyglot” – Mother Tongues Festival (Ireland), 2020
● “Creative Writing, Performance, and Public Speaking” in collaboration with Kerstin Cable. – Langfest (Canada), 2019
● “Enseñar español a través de la poesía” – CREA (Spain), 2018
This talk was addressed to teachers of Spanish as a foreign language and was part of the project CREA – El profesor como creativo (The teacher as a creative person). I talked about resorting to poetry to teach Spanish.
Past Online Talks & Events
● “Present Poetry Workshop” – The Polyglot Magazine, November 2024.
● “Realizations of the heart: Haibun” A poetry therapy workshop – Irish Poetry Therapy Network, August 2024
● “Shaping into acceptance” A poetry therapy workshop – Irish Poetry Therapy Network 11 February 2023.
● “How to lead an ethical, conscious, holistic and embodied language business” – Language Career Summit by Actual Fluency 2022, 12 – 16 September 2022.
● “From internalising to fully integrating the language” – New Year, New Language Summit 2022, 3 – 7 January 2022.
● “The healing power of multilingual poetry” – Language & Mental Wellbeing Conference, 18 – 21 March 2021.
● “Awakening to yourself through languages” with Jessica Tefengki Ruelle– Women in Language, 2020
● “Creative Writing for Rhythm and Intonation in the target language” – Women in Language 2019
● “Cracking the Language Code Through Art and Self-Expression” – Women In Language 2018
● Emprender como profesor online – Conferencia de Profesores Online (Online Teacher Summit), 2018.
Talks about art, feminism, creativity
My brainchild, “Awakened Creatress,” was born in 2016 after a period of deep healing that involved therapy and countless hours spent in the creative fire. I transmuted my anger for inequality into a passion for feminism and fierce self-expression, and from that place, Awakened Creatress was born.
We had a two-year run (2016 and 2017) in Dublin, Ireland. A gathering and celebration of women, creativity and balance through art and self-expression.