Wanda Burch leads the Dream Workshop. She is a 20 year breast cancer survivor who discovered a healing ally in her own vivid dreams. Wanda believes that in dreaming we receive powerful metaphors and imagery which can be used  to enforce healing, provide visual imagery, and empower the mind, spirit, and body.  

Reiki Master Kathleen McPhillips made the move to the Adirondacks after a series of injuries and breast cancer with the intention of healing, writing, and deeper sadhana in the solitude of beautiful mountains and lakes.  She is a Spiritual Guide, author, Volunteer Coordinator for Mercy Care in Tupper Lake and founder of the Sisterhood of Women and Gratitude Gatherings. She also shares her Yoga practice with local residents.

Randy Lewis leads our Journaling and Creative Writing Workshops.  She is a poet, essayist and author who lives in the back woods of the St. Regis Canoe area of the northern Adirondack mountains. Among the places her work has been published are A Writer’s Almanac for Minnesota Public Radio, Adirondack Life, Blueline, and the Adirondack Daily Enterprise as a feature writer and columnist. She teaches writing at North Country Community College in Saranac Lake and is currently working on two new books.

Reiki Master Mary Ellen Blakey is a licensed Adirondack Guide who leads yoga classes as well as guided expeditions in our Adirondack settings.  She is also a  licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and program evaluator at Syracuse University.   Mary Ellen believes that you can experience the natural rhythms of life more directly when you are in the woods. 

Tana Elinsky is a Registered Nurse who attends our workshop to provide health support for participants and staff.  With a varied nursing career of almost 20 years, she is most fond of the years spent working in the emergency center. Tana is a published author and an art enthusiast, not to mention fabulous golf cart driver.

Carol Vossler leads participants in fashioning their own sculpture made of natural materials with the goal of giving the group the opportunity to draw inspiration from the wilderness.  She holds an MFA from Syracuse University specializing in mixed-media artist  and site-specific sculpture.  Carol is  also the Artistic Director of Bluseed Studios in Saranac Lake.

You can learn more about Blueseed Studios and Carol's work their website  www.bluseedstudios.org

Sue Grimm leads music-making workshops for individual and/or group self-expression, utilizing singing/songwriting, percussion, and many other instruments.  She also performs locally in classical, jazz, and Celtic groups, composes, and teaches music lessons in her private studio.  A native Adirondacker, she has lived and made music here for half a century -- and enjoys sharing with others the strength, healing, and peace to be found in these mountains.

Leslie A. Carroll, FDC (Masters of Science-Psychology, Chadwick University; Family Development Credential, Cornell University) provides Counselor Support at our Women Veterans’ Retreat. She is presently a Counselor for veterans at the Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company in Ballston Spa and is herself a veteran of the US Navy. She has had vast experience working with crisis intervention with veterans, teens and adults. She has worked with the Crisis Action Network as well as the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. She has traveled and worked extensively around the world and is a Certified Animal Wildlife Rehabilitator with the New York State Department of Environmental Protection.