Untangled Institute
Gentle, non-clinical circles and one-on-one guidance for anyone moving through grief, divorce, estrangement, caregiving, and change — held online, from wherever you are.
Our approach
This is not therapy, and it is not a program with homework and deadlines. It is a quiet, steady practice — three movements we return to, together.
Before anything can change, we learn to see what is actually true — the knot itself, without judgement. Naming a tangle is the first loosening of it.
Nothing here is rushed. We make room — an hour, an evening, a season — for what has been carried too long, and we let it rest on the table for a while.
From that quieter place, small honest choices become possible. One loop at a time, the thread begins to run free again — in the direction you choose.
A note from your guide
Untangled Institute began in my own tangled season — the kind where you hold grief in one hand and groceries in the other, and keep smiling anyway. I went looking for a quiet room that wasn’t a clinic, and I couldn’t find one. So I built it.
What I offer is companionship with structure: small circles of people walking similar seasons, and private one-on-one guidance for those who’d rather begin alone. No diagnosis, no fixing — just patient hands and a way through. Note that Beginning Again is a women’s circle; the other circles welcome everyone.
“Without realizing it, I had slowly disappeared from my own life.”
From the opening of Untangled
Maryellen Brunyak
Founder, Untangled Institute
From the opening of Untangled
I went through a period of profound sadness after a loss I believed I would never recover from. My mind replayed what my life had become and what it should have been, and every plan to escape the pain only made things worse. Without realizing it, I had slowly disappeared from my own life.
Learning about nonreactive awareness was a turning point for me. It had never occurred to me that I could allow a feeling to pass without reacting to it, or that I did not have to follow every painful emotion wherever it led me.
I began, very slowly, to notice when I was ruminating. Then I returned to something I had loved years ago — songwriting. Choosing chords and shaping melodies absorbed my attention completely, and for the first time in a long while, I noticed moments where I was fully present instead of trapped inside grief. I could still feel moments of peace, creativity, and even happiness — and I wanted more of those moments.
I invite you to begin your own journey here. You will not be alone — and your path will be your own.
Maryellen Brunyak
Circles
Guided gatherings of no more than six, held online — so you can join from your own kitchen table, with your own tea. Six weeks, ninety gentle minutes at a time, with room for every voice.
For the season after divorce, separation, or an ending you didn’t choose.
When a life you built comes apart, the question isn’t only how to let go — it’s how to begin again without pretending nothing happened.
Six weeks through the holiday season, so you don’t walk it alone. Pilot rate: significantly reduced, including a copy of Untangled. Limited to six women, who share honest feedback at the end. Register by November 15; circles begin shortly after.
Some grief feels so profound that holding on to it feels like the only way to respect the loved one you’ve lost.
This circle respects your loss and offers a safe space to explore what quietly lives beside your sadness.
Six weeks through the holiday season, so you don’t walk it alone. Pilot rate: significantly reduced, including a copy of Untangled. Limited to six people, who share honest feedback at the end. Register by November 15; circles begin shortly after.
For estrangement, distance, and the ache of family that feels far away.
Few losses are as lonely as a living distance. Together we make room for the grief of it — and for whatever peace is still possible.
Six weeks through the holiday season, so you don’t walk it alone. Pilot rate: significantly reduced, including a copy of Untangled. Limited to six people, who share honest feedback at the end. Register by November 15; circles begin shortly after.
One-on-one guidance is also available alongside any circle, whenever you’d like a little more support between gatherings.
New circles for other difficult emotions open continuously. If there’s a season you’re carrying that isn’t named here, write to maryellen@untangledinstitute.com and let me know what kind of circle you would find helpful.
Private coaching
If a circle feels like too much right now — or you’d like more support alongside one — private guidance offers the same gentle practice, shaped entirely around your season. Held virtually or by phone.
Four private conversations, each built around one movement of the practice — notice, pause, choose, and a fourth hour to gather what has loosened and decide what you’d like to carry forward. A gentle beginning, with no long commitment.
Ask about the seriesThe full six-week journey of a circle, held privately — one unhurried hour each week, just the two of us. We move at your pace, through your tangle, toward the life that is waiting on the other side of it.
Begin with a free consultationBooks
Freeing Yourself from the Grip of Difficult Emotions
The book at the heart of it all — a literary, unhurried guide to learning nonreactive awareness: the slow art of loosening what life has pulled tight. Now in its final steps of publication.
Available on Amazon.com — read the first chapter below
A companion journal for Untangled
A quiet place to notice, pause, write, and return — gentle prompts and open pages so the practice has somewhere to live in your own handwriting.
Available on Amazon.com — paperback, e-book & Kindle
Not ready to talk?
Ask for the opening chapter of Untangled and it will arrive in your inbox as a PDF — no cost, no pressure, no follow-up beyond a single gentle note. Read it whenever the house is quiet.
Write to the address below with “First chapter” in the subject line, and the PDF will come back to you.
Your address is kept quietly and never shared. One chapter, one gentle note — that’s all.
Pilot circles · Register by November 15
Each pilot circle holds six people and begins shortly after registration closes on November 15, so you have company through the holiday season. Because these are the first circles, the pilot rate is significantly reduced; in return, I’ll ask for your honest feedback at the end.
Choose Beginning Again, Living with Deep Loss, or When Family Feels Far. You’ll give your name, email and mailing address, and your Zoom invitation will come to that email.
Reserve your seatRegistration closes November 15. Questions first? Book a free conversation below, or write to maryellen@untangledinstitute.com. Need a sponsored seat? Just ask.
The first step
No pitch, no pressure — just a quiet half hour to tell me a little of where you are, and to feel whether a circle or private coaching would fit. However it ends, you’ll leave with a next step that is yours.
Pick a day and time on my calendar, and choose whether you’d like to meet by video or by phone. You’ll get a confirmation by email.
Book your free consultationBooking opens on Calendly in a new tab. Rather write first? Use the address at the bottom of this page.