Peregrini and Apprentices

Anam Cara Peregrini
In the Celtic tradition, Peregrini were traveling missionary monks who were attached to an abbey or monastery but “wandered” or lived outside the abbey forever on Pilgrimage. At Anam Cara, our Peregrini community is made up of spiritual directors scattered across the country and the globe who share our heart and vision for spiritual friendship. Take a few minutes to get to know these lovely people!

Polly Baker
Polly Baker
Polly is a spiritual director trained through Anam Cara ministries. She loves witnessing magical moments where others learn to see and trust their own soul and the Divine. As one who has always been drawn to more wonders than certainties, she continues to wrestle with an ever expanding God and trust that every soul deserves to be seen, loved and trusted. She lives with her husband and 3 kids in the mountains above Boulder, CO.
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Michelle Bodle
Michelle Bodle
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
Jamie Bonilla
Jamie Bonilla is a spiritual director with about 7 years of experience. She was trained at the Institute for Spiritual Formation, receiving her Master’s degree in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care. She came to spiritual direction herself out of a season of deep doubt and darkness, and loves offering the same hospitality she was offered in that season: space to be fully, exactly where and who you are (with God), in all the mess and beauty. Creativity and spirituality have walked hand-in-hand with her in the second half of her life so far, and she enjoys bringing creative elements to direction sessions and retreats she offers. She lives in Southern California with her husband and two kids.
Contact: jamie@anamcara.com
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Brandon Booth
Brandon Booth
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.
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Devany Bourdo
Devany Bourdo
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
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Ivy Clark
Ivy Clark
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
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Chad Conant
Chad Conant
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
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Kate Davelaar Guthrie
Kate Davelaar Guthrie
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 Davis
Sandy Davis
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
Will Forsythe
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
Emily P. Freeman
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.
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Dale Gish
Dale Gish
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
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Jenny Gehman
Jenny Gehman
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
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Craig Hamlow
Craig Hamlow
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
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Bryan Hehr
Bryan Hehr
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
Tyler Hill
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
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Joy Hoot
Joy Hoot
Joy is a trained spiritual director through Anam Cara Ministries. She longs to invite
hurting hearts to discover the beauty hidden in the sacredness of sorrow. She
welcomes the weary traveler into belonging, cultivating the belief they are
beloved. Her heart’s desire is to facilitate safe spaces for being known and
awakening hope. Jesus has invited her to unlock the door of hope through her
journey of lament as she navigates her son’s life-altering, physical disability. She
recently co-founded Awakening Hope (www.awakeninghope.org), a ministry that
provides soul care for people with disability in their story. She lives in Colorado
with her husband and is mother to an adult daughter in college and two
teenagers at home.
Contact: joy@awakeninghope.org
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Annalise Hume
Annalise Hume
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 flourishi
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
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Kate Laymon
Kate Laymon
Kate offers compassionate space to explore the messy, mysterious, sometimes frustrating, andprofoundly beautiful stories of life with God. As one who has wrestled with God throughrelational and religious trauma, depression and anxiety, loneliness and disillusionment, sheunderstands and welcomes the questions, doubts, and struggles as an inherent part of spiritual growth. Kate particularly enjoys walking with people through vocational discernment as well as life and faith transitions. No matter who or where you are on your spiritual journey, her desire is for you to experience your belovedness more deeply and delight in the gift of being yourself.
Kate completed her spiritual direction training in Selah’s contemplative approach in 2020. Anam Cara plays a large role in her continuing personal and professional formation.
Kate lives in the suburbs of Sacramento, CA with her partner of over 15 years, herneurodivergent teenage son, and sassy tween daughter. She loves getting her hands in the dirt,pulling weeds, and watching things grow. Other favorite indulgences are basking in the sun,floating down a river, or getting lost in a good historical-fiction novel.
Kate is available for individual spiritual direction as well as facilitating spiritual direction groups, retreats, and workshops.
Contact: kate@katelaymon.com
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Niecy LoCricchio
Niecy LoCricchio
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
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Julie Mihevc
Julie Mihevc
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 Newell
Jo Newell
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

Kim Nielsen Van Natta
Kim Nielsen Van Natta
Contact: kim@transformingexperiences.org

Elizabeth Peterson
Elizabeth Peterson
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
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Holly Phillips
Holly Phillips
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
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Suzie Richard
Suzie Richard
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
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Nicole Soraich
Nicole Soraich
Nicole is a spiritual director trained through Anam Cara and loves meeting with
people in a variety of spaces. Along with one-on-one direction she also offers
fusion of contemplative embodiment and group direction. She realizes that,
depending on the season you’re in, you may need a space of holy listening but at
times crave something outside the box. Being a trained Yoga teacher, she carries
an awareness of the gift that integration can bring. We are mind, body,
emotions, and a soul, all of it, equally important and deserving of tending to.
She is no stranger to caring for those with neurodivergence and long term
health issues. This continued lived experience has deeply shaped how she views
the spiritual journey. Knowing that life can be drastically different then we had
envisioned, she brings a gentle & compassionate presence into the direction
space. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband, 3 kids, and their anxious
dog, Mando. She can be reached for local yoga classes, group direction, as well
as one-on-one direction in person or virtually.
Contact: nsoraich@gmail.com
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Todd Spencer
Todd Spencer
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
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Heather Swanson
Heather Swanson
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 Taylor
Keely Taylor
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.
Find out more at: keelytaylor.com
Contact: keelyloutaylor@gmail.com
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Sarah Trank
Sarah Trank
Sarah is a spiritual director trained through the Institute of Spiritual Formation with nine years of experience. Spiritual direction met her during a time of profound loss, leaving her feeling that life and faith as she knew it did not make sense anymore. Through spiritual direction she found a spacious, inviting place to encounter God and herself in new ways. It is a deep joy for her now to offer this same type of space for others: a place to encounter God and yourself, in exactly the place you find yourself (perhaps instead of where we think we should be). Identifying as both Christian and Jewish, Sarah understands the complexities our identities hold and seeks to accompany others in becoming more fully who we truly are. Sarah lives in Long Beach, CA with her husband and two cats, offering spiritual direction and working as an Associate Marriage & Family Therapist in her community.

Nish Weiseth
Nish Weiseth
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 Westlund
Janine Westlund
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

Janine Young
Janine Young
Janine Young is a compassionate spiritual director, trained through the Anam Cara Apprenticeship. She finds deep joy in witnessing the unfolding stories of others, helping them discern the movements of God within their souls, and guiding them toward greater awareness and connection. A lover of the outdoors, Janine often seeks solace and inspiration in nature—you might find her casting a line in a nearby trout stream. Her journey has been shaped by profound experiences, including surviving breast cancer and childhood trauma, navigating seasons of lost hope, and ultimately rediscovering the light of healing and renewal. She lives in the mountains of Colorado with her husband and their beloved Labrador, Whiskey, embracing the beauty and peace of her surroundings. Janine offers a gentle, listening presence to those seeking spiritual direction, walking alongside them as they explore faith, healing, and transformation.
Contact: janine.young2021@outlook.com
Current Anam Cara Apprentices
We’re excited to introduce you to our incredible community of apprentices at Anam Cara Ministries. These delightful folks are all in various places in their journey of apprenticeship, but we believe in their hearts for God and those whom He loves. Each one carries a God-story that will enrich and bless your own walk with the Trinity.

Joshua Barrett Tracey
Joshua Barrett Tracey
Joshua Tracey comes to the Apprenticeship as a suburban parish priest in the Episcopal Church who thinks summer camp and heaven are closely related. He is privileged to bear witness to the strange (and beautiful!) ways God shows up in all the mess and joy of our stories. Josh wrestles with representing an institution that has repeatedly let him down while also experiencing it as a place of abundant life. He lives outside Philadelphia with his husband, and beloved orange cat, Pecan.

Amy Brown
Amy Brown
Amy J Brown comes to the Apprenticeship as an author and mentor to parents of kids with disabilities (visible and invisible) by sharing her journey of grief and parenting kids from trauma. She loves to see God’s presence and tender care in the quiet space of spiritual direction. She lives in Michigan with her husband, David, and is finally an empty nester after 31 years of parenting six kids.

Rawee Bunupurada
Rawee Bunupurada
Rawee comes to the Apprenticeship with an eclectic background in culinary arts, hospitality, tech, theological education, urban & cross-cultural ministry, and spiritual formation. Rawee has loved creating a safe space for people with doubts, questions, and dreams to process where they are and where Christ is amidst their journey. He wrestles with the ideas of home and belonging, identifying that our whole family is a third culture family. Formerly from New York City, Rawee currently lives and serves in Bangkok, Thailand alongside his wife, Nui, and three sons.

Shannon Campbell
Shannon Campbell
Shannon comes to the Apprenticeship with a love for sitting with others, bearing witness to the movement of God in their lives. She is full of awe at the ways the Trinity nudges us all to nestle into our belovedness, as we realize we have always been seen and companioned by God. Through a journey with the Soul Care Institute, Shannon launched into the care of her own soul, addressing fears, grief, and hard questions of life, while experiencing the (sometimes unexpected) transforming presence of Jesus. She found herself in a wide, welcoming, healing space for her soul. With a background in elementary education, and a mother to three children spanning from the teen to young adult years, she and her husband make their home near the foothills of Colorado. You might find her walking a mountain trail, and stopping for a spell to sit in her hammock. She would love to hear your story, journeying together deeper into God’s wide, welcoming presence. She can be reached by email.

Shelly DeRuiter
Shelly DeRuiter
Shelly comes to the apprenticeship from the healing work of Physical Therapy and movement. Her life path has held frequent moves alongside an insatiable pursuit of the “moreness” of God that challenged the traditional church language and teachings that she lived by in the first half of life. As she has journeyed through these liminal spaces, spiritual direction has been a guide, encouraging her to stay in, learn from, and trust more wholly. Shelly longs for others to feel safe, encouraged, and supported in their questions and seeking of God. She currently lives in Visalia, CA, enjoying the imagery of the Divine in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean and the realignment of the giant Sequoias.

Patti Gullahorn
Patti Gullahorn
Patti Gullahorn has spent the last 50+ years following her vocational call to “Motherhood” while attempting to go down every rabbit hole of growth and learning life has presented to her. Her attraction to Spiritual Direction and Companionship has been a constant through the years and stems from the joy she experiences in entering into the stories and lives of people God has placed in her life and the discovery of “treasure” there. Deep love has also brought deep suffering, trauma and grief which she attempts to embrace fully as she lives a blessed life with her husband of 53 years on a farm outside of Austin TX, surrounded by family, nature and very dear soul friends old and new.

Helen Hey
Helen Hey
Helen Hey comes to the Apprenticeship with a background in a challenging family life, church life, prayer ministry, pottery, and hospitality. By prayer and listening with friends and mentors while processing the ambiguous loss of not having a career, she discerned her calling to Spiritual Direction as she loves listening and noticing the ways God expresses His enduring and gentle love for all people. Her friends describe her as a person of peace with a gift of mercy to share as a companion to those seeking to wrestle with God in a safe space. Helen is passionate about nurturing her relationships with her husband, adult children, grandchildren and pets while creatively developing further intimacy with Jesus where she lives near Asheville, North Carolina
Contact: helenheypottery@gmail.com

Peter Ivey
Peter Ivey
Peter comes to the Apprenticeship with a background in outdoor ministry and soul care. He finds joy in creating space for others to slow down and rest in the love of God, to take notice of the beauty all around and within, and to listen for the still small voice that calls us the beloved. He has been on an arduous journey through anxiety, fear of rejection, and self-doubt, a journey that has led him to embrace his role as poet, retreat facilitator, gardener, and spiritual friend. Peter lives in Asheville, NC, with his wife, Becca, and their three kids, Londyn, Owen, and Miles.

Seth Leach
Seth Leach
Seth comes to the Apprenticeship from seven years in church ministry and the complex legacy of transformation, loss, hurt, and healing left in its wake. He is grateful for each opportunity to witness the presence and love of God in the lives of those who entrust him with their stories, and to sit with them in the darkness, when that presence and love are not seen or felt. As one who experiences doubt and the tension of living in questions without answers, he has found that when we are present to them, these doubts and questions often guide us into a deeper relationship with ourselves and God who is present in both our knowing and unknowing. Seth lives in southwest Missouri with his wife, Kristen and three boys, Asher, Zimrie, and Jonah.

Janet Lee
Janet Lee
Janet Lee comes to the Apprenticeship with a background in Education (BA) and Spiritual
Formation (MA). She worked in publishing before finding her sweet spot serving the marginalized
community of single mothers experiencing homelessness. Learning to let God love her has been
key to her spiritual journey and she continues to find healing and wholeness there. Janet lives in
Colorado Springs with her furry doodle friends Selah and Sophie. She is passionate about her
family and loves being Nana to her 3 young grandsons.

Jess Lyons
Jess Lyons
Jess Lyons comes to the Apprenticeship with a decade in the world of higher education, living in the dorms, teaching in classrooms, and walking with students as they ask big questions. She is passionate in her pursuit of the Shepherd’s voice and care and loves inviting others to do the same, offering a steady presence along the way. A driven achiever who is ever-wrestling out where true significance lies, she lives in South Bend, Indiana with her incredibly likable husband and most favorite, spirited young boys.
Jess can be reached via email.

Andrew Phillips
Andrew Phillips
Andrew (he/him) comes to the Apprenticeship as a priest of the Episcopal Church who has served as a pastor of congregations large and small and worked as a hospital chaplain. He delights in co-creating spaces where people can ask questions, explore desires, and earnestly seek after the God who is always seeking after us. A part-time stay-at-home dad, Andrew is constantly trying to slow down to catch up with the Three Mile an Hour God, and integrate his vocations of partner, parent, and priest. He lives in Durham, NC with his spouse Sarah, toddler Amos, and Maltipoos Jed and CJ.
Contact: andrewrphillips@gmail.com

Ana Sanchez
Ana Sanchez
Ana Sanchez brings a rich background in theatre to the Apprenticeship, where her gift for empathetic storytelling allows her to accompany others through the layered realities of grief, joy, and grace. A survivor and witness of deep trauma and loss, Ana continues to be sustained by a fierce hope in a God who lovingly pursues her. She is continually challenged to bring all of her story into the presence of the Beloved, and invites others to do the same in their own journeys. Ana lives in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, though the spirit of her Southern California roots still shapes her heart and presence.

Beth Sikora
Beth Sikora
Beth Sikora comes to the Apprenticeship with a background in professional counseling, where she has worked with abuse and trauma survivors for the last 30 years. Hope is the key for much of that work, and she learned early to hold it lightly until others could hold it for themselves. She has long been an advocate of spiritual direction and has had multiple spiritual directors. From her first spiritual director, a wonderfully confrontive Franciscan friar through whom she learned more deeply God’s love was not requirement-filled; to a sister of Mercy who helped her learn the value of silence in prayer; to her current spiritual director who continues to accompany her in her faith journey through grief; Beth has learned the deep value of faith and hope that can be given and received through spiritual companionship and direction. Friar Peter, her first director, walked the road with her and lovingly challenged Beth’s beliefs and supported her in companionship and faith as Beth began to define her ministry and learn how to set better self-care boundaries. Beth learned through that time that sometimes church can be more about attending for healing and refueling while ministering elsewhere. Beth lives in Phoenix, AZ with Finley, her 4-year-old Australian Shepherd, and enjoys time nearby family including siblings, nieces, nephews, and great-nieces.

Nina Walch
Nina Walch
Nina comes to the Apprentice program from her years of ministry with her husband who is a pastor, raising two sons who are now young adults and 7 years in social work. She is a seminary graduate in Christian Education eager to further her learning in the art of spiritual companionship while deepening her own walk with Jesus. She delights in learning the details of people’s stories and mining the goodness of God in the joys and sorrows of everyday life. A survivor of ministry pain and a spinal reconstruction in her 40s, she loves middle-aged exercise pursuits and spending time in conversations that are a mixture of deep sharing and lighthearted humor- hopefully while on a hike or around a fire pit and fueled by good food and drink. She lives in Denver Colorado with her husband and is currently day-dreaming about her next pup after recently saying goodbye to her family’s 14 year old beloved toy poodle.
