Below is biographical information on the Day Program Facilitators you will meet at Sunstone.

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Marcia Breitenbach

Marcia is a Transformation Specialist affectionately known as “The Songletter Lady.” She is an author, coach, songwriter, psychotherapist and devoted mother. Marcia is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and has been a leading therapist for more than twenty years in the fields of change, transformation, and loss.

Personal life challenges initiated Marcia’s creation of unique healing music, and also informed the development of powerful strategies that go beyond talk therapy to empower her clients to step into the fullest expression of themselves and to live a magnificent life.

Along with her four self-help books, numerous empowering CDs, and DVD, Marcia’s original intentional music has motivated and inspired thousands around the world. For further information, visit: www.themagnificentyou; www.thesongletter.com and www.griefandlosshelp.com
Marcia Breitenbach, MA, LPC, CCH, 520-975-5376, marcia@themagnificentyou.com.

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Patricia Harmon, MSW

Patricia Harmon is the President and CEO of the Sunstone Cancer Support Centers in Tucson, Arizona. Opened in January 2002, Sunstone provides cancer support services in the form of life-enhancing experiences and opportunities for cancer survivors, their families, and the healthcare professionals who care for them.

Patricia has a Master’s Degree in Social Work and over nineteen years experience in not-for-profit management. Prior to coming to Sunstone, she was the CEO of Growing Home, a child and family service agency caring for emotionally disturbed children and youth.

Under Patricia’s leadership, Sunstone has developed a reputation for both exceptional retreat experiences and expanding community outreach programs––and all in less than five years.

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Pasha Hogan

Pasha is a psychotherapist, workshop facilitator, speaker, and Reiki Master from Ireland now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is also a certified yoga teacher and meditation instructor.

Pasha holds a degree in Business Studies from Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and worked in the corporate insurance sector in New York, London and Dublin for ten years. After much soul searching Pasha decided to leave the corporate world behind and enrolled in a Psychotherapy and Counseling program at the Tivoli Institute Dublin, Ireland which would serve as a foundation for her life’s work. She went on to Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork, Ireland and completed training in Arts & Empowerment Facilitation. Pasha had a private psychotherapy practice in Ireland before moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico where she now lives, works and travels from. Pasha has always been interested in the integration of body, mind and spirit and is a practicing Reiki Master/Teacher and disciple of yoga. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, India and Asia honoring and celebrating diversity in all its forms.

Through her workshops, speaking engagements and private practice, Pasha’s mission is to empower individuals to live passionately and transform life challenges into profound learning and healing experiences.
Pasha is a three-time breast cancer survivor and founder/ facilitator of Creative Recovery, a cancer support program for women and men in the community, focusing on the creative process to empower participants. Please visit www.pashahogan.com for more information.

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Mary Marian

Mary has been practicing as a clinical dietitian for over 20 years. She is currently employed at the University of Arizona as a clinical lecturer at the College of Medicine, a faculty member for the Program in Integrative Medicine, and a clinical nutritionist for the Sunstone Cancer Resource Centers. Her current practice focuses on preventive medicine, cancer, and specialized nutrition support. Mary is also a faculty member at the University of Phoenix in Tucson. She has extensively published and given numerous nutrition lectures locally, and both nationally and internationally. Additionally, she is involved in several professional organizations including the American Dietetic Association and the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.)

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Lucy Ann McWilliams

Lucy Ann is certified through the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, California. She has been practicing Acupressure for over 12 years.

Lucy Ann's first experience with Acupressure was so profound, she made it her life’s calling to share it with others. She was in the hospital after having major surgery and was not doing well. A friend who had never done Acupressure before, bought a book on Acupressure and did some Acupressure Point Therapy on Lucy Ann. The results were immediate. Lucy Ann’s body responded and she was on the mend. From those “Acupressure Points” on she has been sharing Acupressure with family, friends and clients, as well as doing self-treatments. Lucy Ann found Energy Medicine (Acupressure) to be her most profound avenue of healing as she is very chemically and food sensitive. Over the counter drugs or medications are not options for her. Energy Medicine changed her course of direction in life. She began listening to spirit and found herself developing as a Healing Arts Practitioner. She began teaching others how to listen and heal from within, so they could share their peacefulness with others, and the journey begins again and again. Lucy Ann is very excited to be learning and teaching the latest techniques and to be sharing these healing modalities with you.

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Shirley Dunn Perry

Shirley is a registered nurse, workshop leader, writer, poet, author, and publisher of Ten Five-Minute Miracles: How to Relax, which sold 2, 500 copies She teaches poetry and writing as a way of healing in the community. Her work has appeared in, among others, ByLine Magazine, The Write Word, Erete's Bloom, Mutant Mule Review, The Laughing Dog, A Gathering of Grandmothers, and Brush the Mind Gently.

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Steve Ross, MA

Steve earned his undergraduate degree in English Literature from Stanford University and a teaching credential through the University of California, Berkeley. After teaching high school English for a few years, he began to study Yoga and different kinds of meditation. He was especially impressed with the practicality and effectiveness of breath-related techniques such as Pranayama and Vipassana. Some years later, Steve trained and volunteered on the crisis line at San Francisco Suicide Prevention. This experience inspired him to integrate his own life lessons with a counseling career. He returned to school for an MA in Psychology from Antioch University West in San Francisco, and in 1990 began private practice as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. During this time, Steve and a colleague integrated breathwork and counseling into the Relax & Breathe® stress reduction training.

In Arizona, Steve's relaxation and oxygenation techniques quickly lower stress levels, control high blood pressure, relieve chronic pain, strengthen the immune system, improve circulation, and enhance overall health and well-being. Sessions last about an hour. You will leave the session feeling profoundly relaxed yet alert, vibrant, energetic, and grounded. sross1@earthlink.net; www.relaxandbreathe.net.

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Marianne Schloss, RN, MA, MDiv, RYT-500

Marianne is an RN with over 30 years of experience, an ordained interfaith minister with Master's degrees in Divinity and Theology, and has been a hospice chaplain for the last seven years. She is currently the community educator for Casa de la Luz Hospice.

Marianne’s yoga teacher training includes the basic, intermediate, and Dean Ornish cardiac rehabilitation programs from the school of Integral Yoga (RYT 200). Marianne also trained under Rama Vernon and received her 500-hour RYT through the American Yoga College. She has been a yoga teacher in the community for the past ten years. Marianne has combined her nursing background with her yoga training, to provide chair and floor yoga programs for mentally and physically challenged and aging populations.

Marianne also teaches yoga in the Integrative Medicine fellowship program and for Mind-Body groups at the University of Arizona. Her area of specialization is pranayama. Her Master's thesis was on the healing powers of the breath, viewed from Western and Eastern scientific and spiritual traditions.

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Dan Shapiro, PhD

Dan Shapiro, PhD, is an associate professor in the college of medicine at the University of Arizona. He holds joint appointments in psychiatry, psychology, and internal medicine.

His research focuses on coping with medical crises and physician-patient communication. He has received research awards from the American Psychological Association and clinical teaching awards from the senior residents at the University of Arizona.

His book, Moms Marijuana, was published in October 2000 by Harmony Books (a Random House imprint) details his own journey through cancer.

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Pam Hale Trachta, MA

Pam facilitates transformation and healing for individuals and organizations through life coaching, shamanic practices, workshops and consultations. Her creative tools and practices--including therapeutic photography, writing and ritual--enhance consciousness, creativity, learning, communication and wellbeing.

Pam is a certified shamanic practitioner, a life coach, and a designer of popular workshops. Also a photographic artist and writer, she is creator of the Sand Spirits™, a deck of photographic wisdom and divination cards. An educator and pioneer in the field of therapeutic photography, Pam has written and spoken widely on personal growth and healing. She uses her experience as a cancer survivor to work with people encountering illness, loss or death. A private pilot since age 57, Pam works with people of all ages to overcome their fears and to "fly," or lift their personal and organizational lives up to a level of vitality, purpose and passion. As an educator, Pam writes and speaks about "seeing through a different lens," where everything is alive and where ecstatic experiences are waiting in the ordinary world for us to discover them.

After earning a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. in Education from Columbia University, Pam worked as a photographic artist and teacher with learning disabled, physically challenged and gifted students from the elementary to graduate level. She went on to become a professional fundraiser for the arts, higher education and the health sciences, and has been trained as a mediator and an interfaith spiritual counselor.

Pam is a consultant who brings spirituality and creativity into the business world with a style that is warm, humorous and sensitive. After graduating from the Healing School of the Four Winds Society and working with Q'ero shamans in Peru, today Pam enjoys a practice with clients facing a variety of challenges, helping them "bring the soul back to life" and to live out their possibilities. She presents internationally and has some fluency in French and an excellent command of Spanish.

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Patti Wheatley

ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher; Owner, Tucson Curves North Fitness Studio

Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher Patti Wheatley will present to you the finer points of laughter. Besides being a lot of fun, laughter has many health benefits. Patti, a native Tucsonan and ACE Certified Personal Trainer, teaches about the many healing benefits of laughter.

After a drunk driver left Patti unable to continue her personal training career, she learned Laughter Yoga as a pain and stress management tool. She has experienced first hand the healing power of laughter. Patti has trained with the founder of the Laughter Yoga movement, Dr. Madan Kataria. Now Patti, owner of a Curves Fitness Studio, teaches laughter classes, lectures about using laughter as an innovative stress management tool, certifies Laughter Leaders and presents laughter as a creative, fun and proven health & fitness option. What makes laughter so great is it is free, anyone can do it and it won't interact with other medications. No dry mouth, no weight gain, no ill side effects. Patti will lead you on a journey of exploration into your "Inner Spirit of Laughter.” She combines her past health and fitness experience with the latest science and information on the benefits of laughter. You will learn how to incorporate laughter into your everyday life to optimize your health & wellbeing. Have fun practicing laughter exercises that are designed to cultivate ones childlike playfulness. It is fun for the brain, great for the body and you are guaranteed to take a break from the stress of life. Patti will have you on your feet roaring with laughter and you will leave full of information (and endorphins) about how laughter works, even if we don’t feel like laughing.

Patti is the founder of the Tucson Laughter Yoga Learning Center (www.tucsonlaughteryoga.com). She also teaches aquatic conditioning in her state of the art “sport pool.” She has a sixteen-year-old daughter, has worked in the health and fitness field for over fifteen years, and has a profound love of horses. When asked why she has never left Tucson she simply says, “look around; why would anyone leave?”

You may reach Patti at 520) 272-6782 or visit her website at www.tucsonlaughteryoga.com.

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Jason Zontanos, MA, LAC

Jason has been working with seriously ill children and their families for the past three years as a support counselor and Director of Support Services for Tu Nidito Children and Family Services. He also works as an on-call Social Worker for Tucson Medical Center’s Hospice program, and has been lead to working in the delicate yet sacred space around death. Jason holds a Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Arizona State University. He has also studied extensively in the body centered therapy modality known as Hakomi and hopes to someday become certified in that method. Jason’s future plans also include development of a private therapy practice specializing in grief and loss, and teaching meditation to inmates in the Southern Arizona prison system.

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