Peregrini and Apprentices

Michelle is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, a spiritual director and supervisor, and someone who deeply believes that the spiritual journey is not one to be taken alone.  She completed training at the Center for Spiritual Formation in 2013 and completed training as a supervisor of spiritual directors through Fordam’s Advanced Certificate program in 2023. Michelle is passionate about accompanying people in a life-giving way through the every day in a way that makes space for the Holy to be recognized and responded to. 

Contact: michelle@abideinthespirit.com

Jamie Bonilla is a finder of lost things. She often uses found objects as part of her art practice, which she believes is just as sacred as “real work.” Jamie didn’t discover her creativity until well into adulthood, and she’s passionate about the fact that you, too, are creative.

Jamie was a pediatric nurse for 10 years, but her care of others has now shifted into the arena of spiritual direction. She received her Master’s Degree in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care this year, and the many hours she has spent in spiritual direction have been some of her greatest joys. Other joys are at home, where she loves spending time with her two boys and their dad. Jamie is a 9 on the Enneagram, a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), and definitely an introvert, which has her both excited and concerned about her family’s recent new adventure: homeschooling! People say her superpower is that they immediately feel calmer in her presence and that she gives really good hugs. She loves to ask questions that invite people to discover new things in themselves and God. She also loves liturgy, coffee, and naps.

Contact: jamie@anamcara.com

Brandon completed the Anam Cara Apprenticeship in 2023 and resonates deeply with the Benedictine principle of hospitality: “to welcome everyone as Christ.” He loves to create spaces that are free of shame and open to possibility, and to witness the story of peoples’ lives with God. He is a father of five, an historical theology nerd, a ministry leadership veteran, a family trauma survivor, and a recovering anxiety addict. He currently resides in Cañon City, Colorado.

Devany (she/her) believes the greatest invitation of life is to come alive to our deepest and fullest expression. A mother to two inspiringly beautiful kids, the past few years of moving through the grief of the pandemic slowly awakened her to the intersection of our personal and collective pain. Turning towards her own embodied healing, while finding courage to ask her questions, and becoming a student of the decolonial movement, Devany has come to see the ways cultural forces actively repress our embodied spirituality. Passionate about trusting our questions and our bodies, Devany offers spiritual direction as a space to feel the heartbeat of Divine life that is ever-flowing within and around you, and invite sacred curiosity to what’s moving you.

Trained by Anam Cara, Devany is a somatic trauma informed spiritual director and yoga teacher who offers kind, embodied and inclusive space to witness your sacred, human experience. Rooted in the Christian contemplative stream, a lover of nature, good coffee, the mystics and singing in her car ~ Devany lives near the mountains of Colorado with her high school sweetheart husband, 2 kids and beloved poodle. You can schedule a time to connect here.

Or visit her web site: www.devanyanne.com

Contact: illumine.within@gmail.com

Ivy Clark, a trained spiritual director and peregrini of Anam Cara Ministries, guides individuals on their journey to encounter God in all aspects of their lives. Ivy’s life work is companioning others to restore the true identity and sanctity of souls. With cultural roots from a British colony in Asia and a life nurtured in Canada, Ivy considers the individual’s placedness and sacred story as integral parts of their cultural and spiritual biography. Ivy is deeply familiar with the complexity of thresholds, grief, endings and beginnings. May you taste rest, be witnessed, replenished, and illuminated by God in spiritual direction with Ivy Clark.

Contact: twigsandpinecones@gmail.com

Chad Conant is a spiritual director, trained by Anam Cara, who has 6 years of experience.  He delights in watching directees discover God’s “no matter whatness” as they come to see God’s presence in all parts of life, even the messy and painful.  Married and the father of 5, including an adopted son with special needs and severe trauma, Chad wrestles with the questions of “where is God?” and “why God?” when daily life is overwhelmingly difficult.  After serving on Young Life staff in Littleton, Colorado for 30 years, he is now a full-time spiritual director in Littleton where he resides with his wife and kids.

Contact: chadconant4@gmail.com

Kate (she/her) is a partner, parent, ordained minister, trained spiritual director (Anam Cara), public speaker, organizer, and your friendly next door rabble-rouser. She has 25 years of experience in group facilitation, leadership, and walking alongside folks as they sift through their faith. Overtime she has learned that, more often than not, the questions hold more information than answers. Kate firmly believes that dancing might just save the world and that our inner work is not merely for our own liberation, but for the liberation of all of God’s good creation.

Contact: revkatedguthrie@gmail.com

Sandy makes her home with her husband Lee and dog Lucy (who rescued
them) in the mountains of Colorado. She likes to say that she lives “closer to
heaven”!
Creation to Sandy is both an outdoor adventure and a balm to her soul, with
hiking and snowshoeing being some of her favorite activities.
Sandy spent her working years as a Labor and Delivery nurse, accompanying
families in both the miracle of birth and the heartbreak of infant loss.
With God alongside, she has held both a thick thread of grief, along with
God’s provision of joy, as she walked through the stillbirth of her second son,
and the death of her eldest adult son after his 10-year battle with cancer.
Sandy spent two years in transformation with Jesus, participating in The Soul
Care Institute before completing the two year Spiritual Direction
apprenticeship with Anam Cara Ministries.
Sandy thoroughly enjoys her spiritual direction practice which includes
individual (in-person or by zoom) and group direction.

Contact: nathrop@icloud.com

Will Forsythe was born and raised in Colorado. He currently serves as the Lead Pastor of All Souls Church of Boulder. He is deeply passionate about the interior journey we can take, in which we descend into the immense palace of our souls to experience the mystery of God within, as well as the beloved community we walk side by side with on this journey and how we are able to bring our whole selves—broken and beautiful—for the good of others.

Will is a graduate of the Spiritual Direction apprenticeship with Anam Cara Ministries. In his free time, he can be found fly fishing, reading Wendell Berry, listening to boring philosophy lectures, wrestling with his kids, and enjoying craft coffee way too much. 

Contact: will@allsoulsboulder.org

Emily P. Freeman is an author, podcast host, and trained spiritual director (Anam Cara). Her most important work is to help create soul space and offer holy listening for anyone standing at a threshold of change. After navigating her own nuanced questions about God, community, and long-held beliefs, Emily is honored to be a listening companion in the lives of others. She lives in North Carolina with her family.  Learn more here about Emily’s spiritual direction practice and availability.

Dale Gish believes that there is more of God’s love and presence offered to us than we know how to access or receive.  God does not stand far off, with a look of disappointment. Instead, God draws near to us with tender love and compassion, closer to us than we are to ourselves. Though hurt, disappointment, the busyness of life, fear, apathy, or distraction may hold us back, God is at work to comfort, heal and restore. Spiritual direction is a space where we intentionally open ourselves to this good work God is doing.

Dale offers spiritual direction and guides people through the life-transforming journey of the Ignatian Exercises. He is an empathic listener, deep thinker, Christ-centered, and sensitive to the work of the Spirit. Dale brings 30 years of experience as a pastor and ministry leader, work as a mental health counselor, and heart for those on the margins to his work. He has an MDiv and was trained as a spiritual director through SoulFormation. Dale and his wife Debbie live in San Francisco with their two teenage daughters, have been married for over 20 years, and lead a marriage ministry called Cana.

Contact: dalemgish@gmail.com

Jenny Gehman is a freelance writer, retreat facilitator, and mother to an adult son on the autism spectrum. She and her husband of 35 years spent nearly three decades in a ministry of hospitality to international college students. After a season in which their collective worlds crumbled, Jenny sought training as a spiritual director through Anam Cara Ministries. Passionate about the healing hospitality of God, she now finds deep joy in creating safe spaces for others to set their souls down and sift through what’s there.

Jenny makes her home in the Amish country of Pennsylvania with her husband, son, and well-loved visitors from around the world. She offers spiritual direction to women, both in person and on Zoom, and is also available for retreats, workshops, and speaking engagements. You can contact her through her website at jennygehman.com

Contact: letsconnect@jennygehman.com

Craig Hamlow  loves sitting with others and hearing where God is working in their lives to shape and mold them into His image. After serving 10 years in Alaska caring for pastors and missionaries in bush villages, Craig, his wife Karen, and their three children moved to Colorado to shepherd others through Potter’s Inn. Now, as a Member Care Specialist at Mission Aviation Fellowship, he has found a wonderful convergence of his journey.

Craig is a graduate of the apprenticeship with Anam Cara Ministries. He loves to worship in the beauty of creation through fly fishing, hiking, camping, and sitting in wonder of what has been made. He is currently taking new directees in person and at a distance.

Contact: craig@hamlow.com

Bryan’s driving passion is to see people grow deeper in Christ. He is captivated by the reality that there is more of Christ and His love than we have yet experienced. He specializes in walking alongside pastors and missionaries, helping them attend to their own life in Christ in the midst of caring for others. He also works with anyone who is interested in attending to their own spiritual journeys and longs to have someone accompany them. Alongside his wife Rachel, Bryan leads a spiritual formation and soul care ministry called CURATE Ministries (curateministries.org) and he oversees staff care and development for an international church planting ministry.

Bryan graduated from Fuller Seminary with a Masters in Theology in 2015 and received training as a spiritual director (2018) and as a supervisor (2020) from Sustainable Faith. He is currently working on his Doctorate in Ministry with an emphasis in Spiritual Formation at Denver Seminary.

Bryan has been serving in ministry, leading retreats, teaching formational practices for over a decade. He lives in Colorado Springs with Rachel and their daughter Eva.

Bryan is available for spiritual direction in person or online, leading retreats, teaching workshops or working with church leadership to integrate spiritual formation practices into their own lives as well as their congregations.

Contact: bryan@curateministries.org

Tyler Hill is a spiritual director and retreat leader trained by the Benedictine sisters at the Benet Hill Monastery. He loves helping people discover their inherent belovedness and see all the ways in which they belong. Three words that best describe his practice are Hospitality, Kindness, and Belovedness. A friend of grief and loss, Tyler knows well the journey of trying to find light in the darkness. While from New Mexico, he currently lives in Colorado with his wife, son, and daughter, where he practices spiritual direction and is writing his first book.

Contact: tylerhill22@gmail.com

Annalise Hume (she/her) is a passionate, creative, down-to-earth Spiritual Director who loves listening and asking questions to help others recognize the movement of God in their life.

After graduating with an MDiv and MA in Christian Education from Princeton Theological Seminary, she felt a deep pull toward training as a spiritual director. She completed her training with Oasis Ministries under Glenn Mitchell.

Now Annalise teaches, facilitates movement workshops, and offers spiritual direction to others with the hope of helping individuals and groups take steps toward wholeness and flourishing.

She lives in Ewing, New Jersey with her husband, son, and adorable whoodle. In her spare time, you will find her walking around outside barefoot, dancing, going to the theater, or dreaming up her next trip.

You can connect with Annalise by email or online through withannalise.com.

Contact: spiritualdirection@withannalise.com

Kate is a supportive listener who offers a safe, sacred space that welcomes honesty
and vulnerability. She longs to see God’s love meet people in the rough and tender
places. Her hope is that you will experience the love of God more deeply and delight in the gift of being yourself. Kate received a certificate in spiritual direction from Selah in 2020 and offers a contemplative approach. She brings a background in psychology, and a lens of attachment to relationship with God. Kate is passionate about building communities of spiritual friendship. She leads soul care retreats and spiritual formation groups to engage people in sharing their lives and steeping in God’s love together. Kate also works with Fuller Seminary, leading groups for students to explore their vocation and spiritual formation as pastors and leaders.
Kate lives in Citrus Heights, CA with her husband and two children, Jedidiah (10)
Adelyn (7). Motherhood has been the ground for much of her own wrestling, and a
place of receiving the surprising, no-strings-attached love of God. Learning to see God in everything, especially the mess and the mundane, is an ongoing process for her. Kate offers spiritual direction in person and on Zoom. She is also available for retreats, workshops, and speaking engagements.

Contact: kate@katelaymon.com

Niecy LoCricchio is founder of The Soul Care Place, which helps the community of Christ to experience greater wholeness, healing, and intimacy with the God who loves us. With nearly 20 years of ministry experience, Niecy is passionate about coming alongside others and attending to God’s voice in ordinary moments. In addition to her work in spiritual direction, Niecy creates and leads retreats and workshops where she loves to incorporate creative expression to help attendees discover new avenues for connecting with God. As a recovering perfectionist and overachiever, Niecy has found play and slowing down to be life-giving practices in her spiritual rhythm. She loves to spend time with her husband and family, especially her granddaughter—you might spot them paddleboarding, playing laser tag, or having fun with paint.

Niecy is available for spiritual direction, creating and leading workshops, and speaking on topics of soul care, spiritual formation, and spiritual practices.

Contact: info@thesoulcareplace.com

I am a lover of beauty, as experienced in the ongoing seasons of my life as an artist, musician, mother and grandmother, lover of good food and wine, spiritual director and all-around creative. I have a BA in Graphic Design and am a graduate of the SELAH two-year certificate program in spiritual direction.  I am trained to lead people through the Ignatian Exercises and to coach the Enneagram (i-Enneagram©, based on Ignatian spiritual discernment; Companioning Others With The Enneagram, LTI).

For more than half my life I’ve been married to a wonderful man whose employment and adventurous spirit has taken us all around the world. I have two grown children and six grandchildren. My husband and I love to practice hospitality in our home, and so the idea that there is a spacious hospitality offered to us in the presence of our Trinitarian God is near to my heart.  As such, I see spiritual direction as a holy invitation extended by God, inviting us to a spacious time and place in our hearts and souls.

Contact: aksylvia@gmail.com

Julie calls the mountains outside of Denver her home and soul care space. Conifers and aspen,
deer, hummingbirds, as well as her beloved rescue dogs and chickens fill the
canvas of a peaceful, inviting, life-filled space. Her joy is inviting people to
experience God and Spirit in nature, words, community, spiritual direction, and in
reality, all of life. Through meditative nature walks, hiking, and mountain biking,
Julie invites you into a more deeply loving, mystical, and active
encounter with God. You can join Julie in-person or online for spiritual direction. A lover of
poetry, Julie offers lectio divina (divine reading) with poetry as well as scripture, inviting you to
deeply encounter words, metaphor, story, and self. Julie helps people like you
move through grief and loss, deconstruction, unlearning white supremacy, and engage
creation care. Julie’s care and concern for the world and her fellow
humans inhabits all she does, as she works with others to co-create
loving, grateful, generous communities.
Julie is a graduate of The Living School with the Center for Action and Contemplation, as well
as Restoring Connection spiritual direction program with an emphasis serving people on the
margins. She has worked as a social worker for over 20 years in marginalized communities.

Contact: julie@mihevc.com

Jo is a spiritual director trained through the Anam Cara Apprenticeship. She loves the privilege of seeing others experience their Belovedness as they meet with God in spiritual direction. A widow, a cancer survivor, and a mom who has lost her only son, Jo knows God’s kindness and redemption in the midst of deep pain. She lives in Austin, TX, but gets to Colorado as often as she can!

Contact: gorzichi@sbcglobal.net

Contact: kim@transformingexperiences.org

Elizabeth Peterson is a spiritual director (Gonzaga University), spiritual direction supervisor (Companioning Center), and retreat facilitator (M.A. in Spiritual Formation, Portland Seminary), with fifteen years of experience in retreat ministry. She deeply values the sacred work of listening alongside individuals and groups for the tender ways God meets each unique person, marveling at the paradox of God’s intimacy and mystery. The disorientation of infertility and divorce revealed to her the time-worn truth: reorientation eventually emerges through the redemptive waters of grief. Elizabeth lives in the woods north of Spokane, WA with her husband Eric, their three teenagers and their yellow lab, Samson Rainier.

Contact: elizabeth@communesoulcare.com

Holly is a pastor and trained spiritual director (Anam Cara). She loves the slow pace of spiritual direction and the gift of walking alongside others, bearing witness to their lives. After years of wrestling with her place in the church and overthinking life with God, Holly has found new ways of encountering the Spirit through simply being. She currently serves as co-pastor at a small church in Austin, Texas, where she lives with her musician husband, their three kids, and a backyard full of birds.

Contact: hollyporterphillips@gmail.com

Suzie Richard’s passion is to create safe environments and opportunities for people to experience God. She specializes in guiding personal spiritual formation and soul care for ministry leaders, and she is trained in emotional healing prayer, which is an integration of psychology and spirituality. Suzie also uses the Enneagram to partner with the healing process and develop spiritual rhythms of the soul.

Suzie graduated from Westmont College with a degree in Interpersonal Communication. She studied spiritual formation with the Soul Care Institute and received her training in Spiritual Direction from Anam Cara Ministries. For the past 25 years, Suzie has served in a variety of roles for both small and large ministries. She has actively promoted the spiritual development and soul care for scores of Young Life staff and volunteers, and she has served as a retreat leader, soul formation group facilitator, and Sabbatical coach. She lives in Boulder with her husband Gill and two teenage children.

Contact: suzie@teamrichard.com

My name is Todd Spencer. I did my spiritual direction training with the long-standing Shalem Institute. I have over 17 years of experience with providing spiritual direction for others. What I absolutely love about providing spiritual direction is when my directees express how our time together gives them a sense of rest, encouragement and fresh hope for their day-to-day spiritual walk. I also have over 30 years of experience in full-time local church ministry and know what it’s like to try to walk alone in that kind of leadership and try to gin up success by my own creativity and production. I also know the wonderful difference it makes to have a compassionate spiritual director walk with me over many years on the path with Christ. I live in Colorado Springs with my beautiful wife, Debi, who is a teacher for Gifted and Talented students, and an accomplished dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. We have a sweet rescue dog who’s name is Shadow. Debi and I have two amazing adult sons, Lukas and Ethan. Debi, Lukas and Ethan — even Shadow — have uniquely helped me to grow into a more forgiving and real person of faith and hope. I am also a creative retreat leader and enjoy playing guitar, writing songs and leading others in song. I am an avid fly fisherman and hiker as well, and draw deep spiritual inspiration from our other-than-human siblings who are present with us on Earth.

Contact: Todd@anamcara.com

Heather Swanson is an educator, currently an associate principal in an urban high school, and a mother of two children. She completed training at the Soul Care Institute in 2018 and completed an apprenticeship in Spiritual Direction through Anam Cara Ministries in 2021. For nearly two decades, she was active in pastoral support and church ministry. During that time, she learned first hand the value of soul care and spiritual direction in our journey with God. Grateful for the hospitality she experienced and the soul friends who walk with her, Heather offers that holy hospitality to others on the spiritual journey.

Contact: swan1999@gmail.com

Keely is a spiritual director (trained by the Benedictine sisters at Benet Hill Monastery) and facilitates embodiment classes outside Boulder, CO. As her own faith continues to shift, and as she seeks to loosen all that binds her, spiritual direction and embodiment practice are places of belonging and returning to herself. She loves welcoming the feminine ways of knowing, as her experience of the Divine continues to grow more loving and expansive. Keely is a friend, partner, mother, adoptive parent, community activist, and lover books, bread, birds, and trees.

Contact: keelyloutaylor@gmail.com

Nish is an adventurer’s wife, a mother to two brilliant & hilarious kids, and a spiritual director. She did her undergraduate work in Religion & Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, completed spiritual direction training through Sustainable Faith and received continuing education at Loyola University Chicago. Because she has always struggled with feeling like she’s “too much,” she takes great care and joy in offering a safe, sacred space for others to bring their full selves without shame, and to ask the hard questions about God, themselves, and the world. Nish lives in McCall, Idaho with her husband, Erik, and their children, Rowan and Scout.

Contact: nish.weiseth@gmail.com

Janine appreciates the depth and individualization each person brings to this world. She is interested in walking with you, as your own individual, seeking the Trinity as our guide as we explore your relationship with Jesus. Janine is passionate about life and experiencing God through different lenses. She also loves sipping her morning cup ‘o joe, noticing every shade of orange in every single thing, and making a piece of art from scraps, paint, or cut-outs so she can have a symbolic piece to hold. This slow expansive heart is what Janine offers to you. As we sit together listening for the holy spirit’s invitations, to consider the paradoxes and contradictions of our lives (the both/and of life), we welcome transformation and a growing awareness of God.

After over 30 years in education with a focus on behavior management and social/emotional development plus living in Mozambique, Africa, Janine has found the heart of people to be calling and aching for care and love just like her own heart. This awareness brought her to take a deep look at the second half of her life and what God was calling her to do. She had to face her own pride and how it got in the way of ministry when she was single on the mission field. Taking this deep look and listening to her internal stirrings, led her to the Soul Care Institute. Janine was committed to doing the work for her own spiritual transformation and learning the tools to provide soul care for others. She then completed  training as a spiritual director at Denver Seminary. Janine’s deepest desire is for you to know that you are seen, chosen, and the beloved. She welcomes you on this journey with her. Peace be with you today.

Contact: both.and.janine@gmail.com