Today we’d like to introduce you to Maiah De La Rosa.
Hi Maiah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was trained in systems — clinical systems and public health systems. I earned my Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health and became a clinical social worker to understand how trauma, environment, and identity shape behavior. My early career focused on behavioral health, rooted in ethics and evidence-based practice.
But clinical settings revealed something critical: people don’t just want treatment plans — they want frameworks for meaning. They want to understand patterns in their relationships, their timing, and their decisions. They want language for what they intuitively know but struggle to articulate.
Tarot entered my life as a symbolic system — one that, when approached responsibly, functions as a structured tool for pattern recognition. It engages narrative, archetypes, and projection in ways that parallel established therapeutic techniques. It creates space for reflection without removing personal responsibility.
My transition into tarot was not a rejection of science or structure; it was an integration of them. I bring a trauma-informed, ethically grounded, psychologically rigorous perspective to my work. I am less interested in prediction than in discernment — helping people see clearly, choose intentionally, and operate from autonomy.
We are in a cultural moment where people are seeking insight outside traditional institutions — but they still want intelligence and integrity. My work lives in that intersection.
Clarity is not mystical. It’s structural. And when you understand the pattern, you can change the outcome.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been anything but smooth. Leaving a traditional clinical and public health path meant stepping outside of structures that feel safe and clearly defined. I had to confront my own ideas about credibility, stability, and what it means to do “serious” work.
There were moments of doubt — not about the work itself, but about how it would be perceived. I had to examine my own perfectionism, my attachment to external validation, and the frameworks I’d been taught to operate within. Reinventing yourself professionally forces you to look inward in ways you can’t avoid.
Ultimately, the growth came from that process. I couldn’t ask others to explore their patterns if I wasn’t willing to challenge my own. The road wasn’t linear, but it was clarifying. And that clarity strengthened both my work and my sense of autonomy.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My work is about impact — personal and systemic.
I began my career in public policy, mental health, and public health, where I was trained to think in terms of structures, outcomes, and measurable change. As a clinical social worker with dual graduate degrees in social work and public health, I learned to assess patterns — not just within individuals, but within environments, institutions, and power dynamics.
Today, I apply that same analytical lens to my work as a tarot reader and content creator.
I specialize in pattern recognition. Whether I’m working one-on-one or speaking to a digital audience, I help people identify the dynamics shaping their relationships, decisions, and timing. I approach tarot as a structured tool for insight — not prediction. My background ensures that everything I do is trauma-informed, ethically grounded, and focused on strengthening autonomy rather than dependency.
As a content creator, I translate complex psychological and archetypal concepts into language that is direct, modern, and actionable. I’m known for being clear and discerning — for cutting through noise without sensationalizing. My audience trusts that I won’t over-spiritualize challenges or remove personal responsibility. I contextualize them.
What sets me apart is integration. I bring the rigor of public health, the ethics of clinical social work, and the accessibility of digital media into one cohesive framework. I don’t separate symbolism from structure — I connect them.
What I’m most proud of is building work that creates measurable internal impact: clarity, stronger boundaries, better decision-making. When people can clearly see the pattern they’re operating in, they can change the outcome.
That’s the throughline in everything I do — clarity that leads to impact.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I don’t see risk as recklessness — I see it as calculated expansion.
My training in public health and clinical social work taught me to evaluate long-term impact, unintended consequences, and sustainability. So when I stepped away from a stable career and the communities and credibility that came with it, it wasn’t impulsive — it was measured. But it was still a risk.
Leaving a defined system to build something less structured meant trusting my skills, my judgment, and my own voice in a completely new space. I think of risk as alignment: staying in a system that no longer fits can be riskier than stepping into the unknown.
Jacqueline Kennedy once said, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” I take that as a reminder that meaningful change often requires stepping outside expectations. The risks I’ve taken have been values-driven, strategic, and transformative.
Risk isn’t about gambling — it’s about having the courage to move when growth demands it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flowers_n_cigarettes
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@flowers_n_cigarettes
