Board of Directors
Leonard Gibson, Ph.D., graduated from Williams College and earned doctorates from Claremont Graduate School in philosophy and The University of Texas at Austin in psychology. Lenny has 50 years of experience working with non–ordinary states of consciousness. He has taught at The University of Tulsa and Lesley College and served his clinical psychology internship at the Boston, MA V.A. Hospital. He also taught transpersonal psychology for 20 years at Burlington College. Lenny serves on the board of the Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region in Vermont. A survivor of throat cancer, he facilitated for several years the head and neck cancer support group at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. He is a past president of the Association of Holotropic Breathwork International.
Elizabeth Gibson, M.S., has been facilitating Holotropic Breathwork workshops since 1994. She has also worked as an environmental consultant, editor, writer and teacher. Elizabeth is the editor of Stanislav Grof ’s The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death and a contributor to the teaching manual MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, both published by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. For several years she was responsible for local news for the Town of Pawlet, VT, where she also served on the Energy Group and Emergency Management Team. From 2007 – 2014 she was the editor of the weekly environment section for the Rutland Herald and Montpelier Times Argus newspapers in Vermont. Currently she serves on the Board of the Vermont Natural Resources Council.
Elizabeth and Lenny are Grof–certified Holotropic Breathwork® (HB) facilitators, and are also both certified in International Grof® Legacy Training by Stanislav and Brigitte Grof. They have been practicing and teaching breathwork for over 35 years, gradually incorporating this experience with the principles of process philosophy. In 2019 Lenny and Elizabeth formed the nonprofit Dreamshadow Group, Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational organization. They have raised their two sons on a hillside at their homestead in Pawlet, Vermont, where they built a retreat and began offering HB workshops in 1994.
Roger Cambor, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist with a practice of general adult psychiatry in Bryn Mawr, PA (Bryn Mawr Psychiatry LLC). Roger views the psyche as central to the practice of psychiatry and has a particular interest in trauma and processes of healing. He considers self-discovery as an inherently therapeutic and humanizing process which can serve as a basis for growth and psychological health of the individual, while also promoting healthy connections in a community as a cultural value. He sees Breathwork as an ideal vehicle for these purposes, and the holotropic community process as conducive to unity states of the psyche which promote healing. Roger is interested in studying holotropic breathwork in clinical populations involving anxiety, trauma, depression, personality disorders and substance use disorders.
Steven Foster trained and certified in Holotropic Breathwork® with Stanislav and Christina Grof. During the 1990s and early 2000s he also collaborated in a number of initiatives to develop the public-interest Internet. Between 1992 and 1995 he operated the first general-purpose internet search engine, which was the busiest service on the internet in 1994. Steve has a BA degree in philosophy and social psychology, an MS in computer science and cognitive psychology, and further graduate study at UC Berkeley and the University of Iowa in information management, natural language and text processing, and data mining. For 20 years Steve worked in semantic technology, medical device development, natural language processing, and information extraction from newswire and internet resources. A long-term practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism., Steve studied Buddhism and transpersonal psychology at Naropa Institute. Other interests include Jungian studies, chigong practice, hypnosis, and ecopsychology. Recently Steve has been teaching mindfulness meditation, a student of craniosacral therapy and human anatomy, and serving half-time as caregiver for his aging parents.
Kari Kovick graduated from Duke University in 1986 with a BS in Psychology, extensive vocal training and an interest in finding a natural biochemical pathway to inducing enlightening transpersonal states. She later combined her love of music and children to develop Heart of the Child Music Education, LLC, a program for teaching social emotional learning to preschool children through joyful interactive group music classes. She teaches many classrooms of children each week, and consults parents, early childhood educators and foster care providers on how they can use music as a tool for positive attachment and cultivating emotional intelligence. Her children’s album, It’s YOU I Like, was released in 2017. Kari lives in the one-stoplight town of Floyd, Virginia with her husband. They have two grown daughters and two lively and beautiful grandchildren, who share their homestead in the Blue Ridge mountains.
Wendy Leffel, MD, is board certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine. She currently works with people recovering from opioid use disorder. Over the years, she has trained in a variety of complementary and alternative approaches to wellness. Ever curious, she continues to seek out and study additional approaches to support health of the body, mind and spirit. Through Breathwork, she discovered her innate creative abilities which she continues to explore and expand. She enjoys hiking, vegetable and herb gardening, cooking and savoring fresh, organic food, meditating, creating art, reading, playing with dog companions and exploring deep conversations with friends.
Farzad Mahootian, Ph.D. Philosophy, M.S. Chemistry, is a Clinical Associate Professor of Global Liberal Studies at New York University where he has been teaching since 2010. He has taught philosophy, science, and humanities courses for over thirty years. He has also worked for over ten years outside of academia as a contractor with NASA’s education division during the transition to the world wide web.
Farzad’s research has centered on the relevance of myth and metaphor to interconnections between philosophy, science, technology and society. Recent projects include philosophy and psychedelics, and digital humanities approaches to the history of alchemy. Since 2020, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Kristine Mann Library of the C. G. Jung Institute of New York City.
Lindsey Owens, M.A. in Psychology in Education and M.A. in Psychology, is a PhD student in clinical psychology studying psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, a certified Spiritual Emergence Coach, and a Facilitator of Dreamshadow’s Supporting Exceptional Experience Network. She has held a variety of research positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, and Teachers College, Columbia University.
Alexandre Paré is a Canadian nurse who graduated from l’Université de Moncton and has been working with northern Indigenous communities for several years. He also graduated from Champlain Regional College in Liberal Arts and Special Care Counselling.
Alex has been studying Breathwork with Lenny and Elizabeth Gibson since 2009 and is a certified Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork facilitator. He is also certified in Grof ® Breathwork through Grof Legacy Training.
Johanna Hilla Sopanen is pursuing a PhD at the University of Exeter in Philosophy, Psychology, and Religious studies (past: University of Groningen). She wrote her Master’s dissertation with Dr Bernardo Nante on the Red Book during an internship at Fundacion
Vocacion Humana, a Jungian center in Buenos Aires. She has taught a course on the interlink between Depth Psychology and the psychedelic experience, offered by ‘Psychedelics Today’ forum. Her interests include Transpersonal Psychology, Ecopsychology, Holotropic Breathwork, Process philosophy, and Western Esotericism.
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a Philosopher of Mind and Metaphysics who specializes in the thought of Whitehead, Nietzsche, and Spinoza—and in fields pertaining to panpsychism and altered states of consciousness. He is a lecturer at The University of Exeter. Peter is the author of Noumenautics (2015), Modes of Sentience (2021), co-editor and contributor of Bloomsbury’s Philosophy and Psychedelics (2022), the TEDx Talker on ‘psychedelics and consciousness‘, and he is inspiration to the recreation of inhuman philosopher Marvel Superhero, Karnak.
Executive Director
Jace Langone, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over a decade of experience in pastoral counseling, specializing in spiritually-integrated adult psychotherapy. Jace is a certified Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork facilitator and serves as the Coordinator of Dreamshadow’s Supporting Exceptional Experience Network. He is also certified in Grof ® Breathwork through Grof Legacy Training.
Jace has completed the MDMA Therapy Training Program through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, several courses through the Spiritual Competency Academy, and a number of Advanced Workshops through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He participated as a Discussion Facilitator at the inaugural Philosophy of Psychedelics conference through the University of Exeter (United Kingdom), presented at the 50th Anniversary Association for Transpersonal Psychology International Conference, and served as a respondent at the New England Center for Existential Therapy. In June 2023 Jace earned certification in Process Thought and Practice through the Cobb Institute.
Jace graduated with his doctorate from William James College with a foundation in Humanistic Psychology, and earned an MEd in Special Education from the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a BA in Biology from Brandeis University.
Staff
Isobel Nimtz, a Vermont artist, writer, musician and nurse, graduated from Castleton University with a BA in English Literature, and subsequently from Western Carolina University with a BS in nursing. She holds a Master of Science degree from Walden University as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). Isobel is a mother, a planter of seeds and tender of gardens.
Isobel derives meaning and sustenance in her job as a board-certified surgical care nurse, caring for people going through a variety of tribulations and states of dis-ease. She discovered Dreamshadow in the summer of 2019, and has delved into the world of breathwork, transpersonal psychology, the works of Stanislav Grof, meditation, reiki, and mindfulness. Isobel remains a lifelong learner and seeker.
Ronit LeMon Deneen, MA, MCC, is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation and studied at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt and UCLA, earning a BA in Political Science and a double MA in Teaching Writing and in Literature. She has been appointed Justice of the Peace by Canton, CT and has studied Dream Work at the Animas institute. She works full time as a Coach and Consultant, helping people come back to their essential selves and runs various retreats and workshops on personal and spiritual development with her husband, Matt Deneen.
Ronit is deeply interested in ritual, ceremony, transformation, the transpersonal and, of course, the holotropic! Attending her first Dreamshadow workshop in 2022, she is a certified Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork Facilitator. She is also Editor-In-Chief of the Dreamshadow Journal, Drops & Buds.
Teresa Smith is Dreamshadow Group’s Workshop Development Coordinator and SEEN community co-host. She is certified as a facilitator in Dreamshadow™ Transpersonal Breathwork and Grof Legacy Breathwork™; certified teacher of Sufi Dancemeditation™.
Teresa holds a B.A., Dance and Anthropology, Bennington College. She has completed graduate-level studies at the European Dance Development Center, Nederlands.
“My facilitation of breathwork draws on my personal experience of healing through this modality, and from my background in dance, art, bodywork and transpersonal studies. As a dance teacher/choreographer I specialize in eco-somatic dance, authentic movement and contact improvisation. I also enjoy creating with clay, hiking, parenting, and participating in planetary healing and queer (and allied) community. I hope to bring to all my endeavors a warm appreciation of each person’s essence and a delight in awakening the creative spirit.”
