Paul Ryder PhD holds degrees from Harvard (AB physics), Rutgers (MS Developmental and Social Psychology) and Pacifica Graduate Institute (MA and PhD Mythology and Depth Psychology). Before embarking on a healing practice he worked both in corporate settings (Andersen Consulting, Xerox Learning Systems) and universities (Rutgers University, University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University). His approach to deep pattern recognition, principle discovery, learning design, and strategy development has been employed by a wide range of clients, for the federal government (DoD, FBI, CIA, NSA) to New Economy icons such as Tom Peters and Fast Company. A startup veteran and member of the executive team at Ninth House Network, Ryder went on to found three businesses, RevoMetrix, LLC, RNM Global, and Kenneson, LLC.

In 2012, Paul turned his attention to bringing his business and leadership experience into a private coaching and healing practice. Has worked with clients all over the globe employing the deep pattern recognition and principle discovery skills he learned in his corporate and academic work and adding the healing skills of somatic psychotherapy, plant medicine work, and executive coaching.

Dr. Paul Ryder continues to teach Leadership and Organizational Behavior in the Executive MBA program at San Francisco State University.

Channing McBride is a founding Minister in the Congregation for Sacred Practices and practiced medicine guiding for the last four years. He has assisted the Training for Ministers: Basics in both San Francisco and Washington, DC. He now offers medicine sacraments for Congregational members. In addition to his sacramental work,Channing has practiced professional bodywork for the last decade. He is an autodidact with a highly intuitive approach and combines several different modalities, tailoring each session to the individual needs of the client. This adds a special dimension to his sacramental work. Many clients experience his bodywork sessions asa journey through their own somatic emotional world emerging with both healing and a new perspective. He has studied with many great massage therapists such as Rick Gray, Adam Kahn, David Penner, and Trevor Getsla. Most recently he graduated from a training on the Tamura Method conducted by Wynn Tamura.

Makenzie has been building global movements that help connect humanity for the past decade. Working for a documentary film studio, she began her career promoting films (based on the positive psychology movement) that helped spark conversations around building more empathy, kindness, justice, and spirituality in the world. Makenzie became deeply steeped in this work, building these global film premieres to over 5 million people in 128 countries worldwide.

She went on to work with organizations such as ESPN, Major League Baseball, and Burger King helping to develop anti-bullying campaigns and building global ambassador programs.

Starting her own Marketing agency called Movement Maker, Makenzie worked with nonprofits and social entrepreneurs who were looking to raise consciousness and make a real difference in the world. She also became a part of the Advisory Boards at Thank You Plant Medicine and the World Happiness Foundation, where she worked on their annual World Happiness Festival that hosted over 10M participants in 80+ countries.

Makenzie is currently The Head of Operations and Community Development at The Congregation for Sacred Practices and is a licensed Minister and Enneagram Certified Coach. You may learn more about her work at rowandrelease.com and follow her on Instagram @rowandrelease.

Catherine hosts Integration Circles at Sacred Practices and first began bringing a new level of consciousness to transformational work 23 years ago when her own life shifted due to an educational program called Landmark Education. For the next several years, she led courses as a Seminar Leader at Landmark. Due to her previous career as a professional ballet dancer, bringing consciousness into the realm of the ballet culture extended to a new level of coaching ballet students and professionals.

After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Sciences, she joined Lisa Marini in creating an original transformational workshop alongside neuroscience to give every person a more profound sense of freedom. She was honored to travel and work as part of the team leadership program with Joe Dispenza’s Weeklong Advanced Workshops. Her role as a Team Leader and Meditation Assist was to coach and guide large groups of people through a deeply transformational process including powerful meditation experiences and healing processes. Additionally, she has traveled around the world as part of the core team for the course “Being A Leader,” led by Werner Erhard and designed to implement leadership skills in universities worldwide.

Catherine is now a full-time life coach having created her own Greater Levels Of Love 10 Session Series. (greaterlevelsoflove.com) This series provides one-on-one coaching taking individuals through their own personal transformational processes. She also provides a transformational Coaching Program to launch others in their desires of becoming a life coaches. Catherine is thrilled to join Sacred Practices to hold Integration Circles in the plant medicine community. She believes in the power and potential of this medicine to bring change to people’s lives.

Love Mercury is one of the Lead Facilitators and Trainers for Sacred Practice’s Minister in Training program. Her journey to self discovery began at an early age. She took her healing into her own hands and traveled around the world to study the ancient wisdom of folklore, prayers, Thai massage, and natural ways to heal the body. Her path organically grew into becoming a Holistic Health Practitioner where she launched four healing centers that she managed for over a decade. These healing centers specialized in women’s health and included offerings such as massage, meditation, spiritual counseling, ritual teaching, and empowering women to build better relationships with their bodies.

Feeling called to her Mexican ancestral heritage, Love’s life would be forever changed when she answered the call from Spirit and went on a spiritual pilgrimage to connect with her roots through visiting the lands of her Grandmothers. She travelled to France, Spain, and Mexico which eventually led her to to Peru and Columbia where she was introduced to the sacred plant medicines that helped heal her not only on a physical realm, but mentally, energetically, and spiritually.

When she returned from her travels, it was clear that she must continue on her healing journey and enrolled in the Hakomi Institute. After graduation, Love started her own coaching and counseling practice. She also began training at The Center for Consciousness Medicine and became a Psychedelic Guide to help accelerate her clients healing.

She is very excited to come on board at the Congregation for Sacred Practices as a lead Facilitator to help train new Ministers. She is impressed with the integrity and open hearted space that the Sacred Practices Founders have built and feels very mission aligned. She trusts that the right support is here for us all and that we are all being taken care of. She is very thankful for the sacred plant medicines who are our allies here to help support our reawakening.

Pierre Bouchard is one of our Lead Facilitators and Trainers at Sacred Practices and is a Licensed Professional Counselor with a private practice in Boulder. He is also a professional vinyl DJ! He specializes in blending somatics, embodiment, attachment theory, and trauma therapy. A graduate of Naropa University’s Contemplative Psychotherapy program in 2013 Pierre began his journey with expanded states 7 years ago and has been leading individual sessions for 5 years, as well as maintaining a ketamine assisted psychotherapy practice for the last 5 years. Expanded states became an interest of his when he started a meditation practice at 16. He went on to double major in Psychology and Buddhist Studies at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, ’07. In more recent years Pierre has been a guest lecturer at numerous psychedelic training programs including Naropa University’s Psychedelic Assisted Therapy certificate program, The Psychedelic Research and Training Institute in Ft Collins, and SoundMind in Philadelphia. He has also spoken about treating depression as a developmental trauma with somatic therapy and ketamine on several podcasts including Psychedelics Today and Adventures Through the Mind with James Jesso. Pierre remains committed to the pleasure and mystery of his healing and unfolding as a basis from which to serve others on their journey. Website PierreBouchardCounseling.com Instagram Pierre.Bouchard.LPC

Laurie Cameron is the Lead Meditation Facilitator at CSP. She leads her practice in an integrative, embodied, spiritual way and is dedicated to human flourishing and individual and collective awakening. As a student of Thich Nhat Hanh for 28 years, she incorporates meditation, IFS, somatics, nature, ritual, ancestral healing, and coaching into sacred medicine journeys, workshops, and retreats.

Laurie loves to translate contemplative science and wisdom into clear practice and is the National Geographic author of The Mindful Day and Everyday Mindfulness, and the author of Audible’s The Power of Self-Compassion. She is a certified master-level meditation teacher, an IFC-certified coach, and a certified minister of sacred practices using plant medicines.

A former Accenture Change Leader, and the founder of PurposeBlue, she has been working with clients for 30 years in the areas of transformational healing, change, and conscious awakening. Laurie also guides in her dedicated meditation and art-filled ceremony space in Chevy Chase, MD, where her golden retriever gently accompanies members on their journeys.