Sherry's Story

Sherry was born to a farm family in Iowa who later moved to northern Minnesota where she spent her childhood on the shores of Woman Lake. After a few years at the University in New Mexico, she settled in  Colorado in 1983.  In 2005, she discovered the astounding beauty of the Columbia river gorge and now splits her time between Hood River, Oregon and Colorado Springs, Colorado.  When not working, she, her husband Dan, and their beloved dogs, Sally Jane and Jedd, can most often be found hiking through miracles of mother nature in their back yards, the Rocky Mountains and the Columbia Gorge. Her journey through the arts and sciences of natural healing began with her mother's cancer diagnosis in 1987.  After caring for her mother during her cancer treatments and subsequent death in 1988, she felt strongly that there must be a better way.  In the process of regaining her own health which had been lost in the strain of overwork, caregiving, and grief, she began in earnest to study alternative healing and holistic nutrition.  In the years since, she has had various occasions to practice what she has learned on herself during chronic fatigue syndrome, near-fatal food poisoning, and times of heartbreak, to name a sample.  Today, she proclaims herself healthy and happy and feels often as though these times of illness must have been in a previous lifetime. Her studies have taken her to South America, Mexico, Europe, China, New Zealand, Fiji, and less exotically, throughout the United States to study with  master herbalists, Native American shamans, nutritionists, wise women, scientific researchers, and many, many other healers.  She has truly benefited from the ancient tradition of passing on the healing wisdom from individual to individual.  She feels a great debt of gratitude to these many individuals who so generously shared their knowledge and experience with her.

Sherry received her CN (Licensed Certified Nutritionist) from the National Institute of Nutritional Education in 1995.   In the way of additional formal education, and beginning probably most importantly with graduating salutatorian of her high school class of 56 classmates from Walker, Minnesota in 1975, she also holds a PhD in Human Communication from the University of Denver, a Master's degree in Professional Writing and a Master's degree in Spanish Language and Literature from New Mexico State University, and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, Morris in Spanish and Latin American Studies.  In 2006 she completed a second doctoral program; this at Westbrook University in  Holistic Health Science and Nutrition.  Click here to read a brief Abstract and Introduction to her dissertation research for this degree. In addition to formal, traditional education, Sherry has studied continuously in the field of natural healing since she began in 1988.  She has trained and been certified in iridology, aromatherapy, several forms of herbalism, and free radical therapy (the holistic interpretation of biochemical markers for the purpose of balancing body pH) to name a few.  She has studied both medical intuition and dream healing in the Asklepian model extensively, and has incorporated both into her own clinical practice.  She has specialized in the development of holistic, natural health protocols for cancer, and other chronic illness such as fatigue, digestive impairment, and pain.  She has also delighted in working with those brave souls who eagerly seek out pro-active wellness care in the interest of vibrant longevity, sometimes called anti-aging protocols. Her primary interest areas of study in the field of holistic health have been in the many forms of medicine provided by the plant kingdom (herbalism, homeopathy, plant essences, aromatherapy, etc.), the development and integration of wellness-based optimal ranges for traditional scientific testing (blood, hormone, digestion, hair, etc.) into a holistic wellness practice, and the role of dream in healing.

In the practice of holistic health, Sherry has learned that non-physical matters impact health even more than physical matters.  Unconscious experiences in the emotional, spiritual, or relational realms, as well as the over-emphasis on the intellectual or ego aspects of personality, for example, can co-create negative effect on wellbeing.  Her studies have also included many kinds of religious, spiritual, and counseling practices.  In 2003 she completed her ordination as an Interfaith Minister through the Being There Foundation of Woodland Park, CO (she was re-ordained in 2009 through the Colorado Interfaith Seminary).  It is her own primary spiritual practice to be silent in nature as much as possible.  And to play with the dogs!  Listening to the call of her female lineage and of her own hormones, Sherry undertook her Croning Initiation (an ancient rite of passage for women who are ready to accept the role of elder in their family and community) in 2007.