Meet Our Teachers

Constance engages life from the role of mother, partner, mystic, priest, counselor, holder of stories, caretaker of chickens and cleaner of kitchens.  She’s fascinated by the intertwining realms of functional health, depth psychology, humanistic mystical spirituality and the natural world. She holds dual Masters in Counseling Psychology and Nursing that have woven into her narrative a deep understanding of the human spirit and the intricate pathways to healing. Within Theama Institute she serves as an Adept Teacher, Director of Operations as well as the Regional Director of the Fort Collins Center.  

For the past two decades she's engaged in heartfelt spiritual growth and service while raising a family.  Constance seeks to embody the values she holds dear – inner knowing, healing as an orientation, emerging wholeness, trusted intuition, communal growth and cultivated devotion. From the abundance of offerings within Theama Institute she values the access to transformative healing practices, the invitation to compassionate self-responsibility, the regular connection with a healthy community, and the emergent wisdom born from embracing wholeness. She lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband, 3 (almost) teens and many animals on a little farm with big dreams to cultivate rich soil, engaged lives and expansive hearts.

There’s so much to attend to out there…and in here.  So many suggestions and advices-given and ‘5-steps to this and that’--many, many paths to follow.  As helpful as these can be in certain spots of life, I find that they are disorienting and unsettling when not anchored within the container of soul connection and it’s deep permission for inner reflection:

• “What do my insides say about this?”
• “Where am I in relationship to this?”
• “How is Wisdom speaking to me?”
• “How is Love unfolding within me and around me?”
• “What’s the voice of my Soul saying?”

This kind of work to hear the voice of your own soul, intimately intertwined with God inside, takes spaciousness, presence, patience, slowing down to listen and lots of practice. You are a unique, radiant opportunity for the Divine to make residence within the earth itself and within the earth of your body.  The work I’m called to be about in this life is helping you cultivate a warm connection and relationship with the wisdom of your own soul and the heart of Love Itself within your very being.

This deeper calling within you, something you hunger to hear and be heard by, to know and be known in, something to love and be loved by is completely worth your devotion. Pursuing this breadth and depth of becoming has invited me to both defuse and integrate various parts of myself; thus, I’ve found that having a wholesome, healthy spiritual community and powerful teachings to assist me in finding and continually re-discovering this resource within me is beyond priceless.  
 

I want for your inner experience of Spirit to be juicy, rich, vast, close, embodied, relational, captivating, and practiced in endless creative ways.  Building and sustaining contact with the Love which is, has been and ever shall be is a lives’ long process worthy of our presence, time, resource, energy, focus, and connection together. Our world depends on it so what better time to intentionally practice deepening it now, regardless of how close or far you feel to Love's presence inside of yourself.

Aila Willowbrook is a Priest with the Theama Institute. Aila began deep spiritual seeking in 2008 with a strong longing for internal healing and a desire to grow her relationship with God within. Through spiritual guidance, her willingness to do the work, and the loving relationships created in the spiritual community, she was guided into a life of serving and empowering others to know God directly. Aila is passionate about guiding people into direct experiences of God inside of themselves through meditation, teaching, conversations, and prayer. Aila works as a Registered Nurse and lives with her husband and cat across the Puget Sound from Seattle.

As a mystic and a minister, I value diversity and therefore I don’t believe one has to identify as any specific religion in order to receive the Love of God, the teachings of mysticism, or even Communion. All are welcome to receive spiritual support and/or direction if that is what you want. That said, I also value choice therefore I will not try to convince you of anything. Instead, I invite you to contemplate mystical ideas for yourself, answer questions to the best of my knowledge, and help set you up to have your own direct experience. The whole point is empowerment, never dependency. I value freedom, both mine and yours. 

My approach to teaching is collaborative. I love to share spiritual truths and to hear if they resonate as reality or as a possibility. There is something expansive about discussing spiritual concepts together with curiosity and awe. I value open communication, honesty, and vulnerability.  I am continually working on myself so that I can help facilitate a safe space for us to explore spirituality and mysticism together. 

I am drawn to the deep spiritual teachings of the Seed of Life classes, direct experience opportunities such as guided meditations, action through prayer, and fostering healing and wellbeing with compassionate presence. I hope you will join me for a class or a service! 

That said, I have learned and grown through the wide variety of offerings by the Theama Institute. I recommend you try anything you are drawn to. My minister colleagues are all beautiful souls and powerful servants of the Love so you will be in good company though anything you attend that is offered whether it is with me or with others. Blessings on your journey! I hope to see you soon!!

Christi has been a spiritual advisor and teacher since 2006. She is on the Executive Board of the Theama Institute and is the Regional Director of the Massachusetts Center.

Through her work with families, first as a nurse-midwife in France, and as an Infant and Family Support Specialist for 22 years, Christi has cultivated a deep sense of compassion. She started early in her life to be interested in spirituality and healing through the mystical teachings of the West and the East.

She is passionate about helping people transform their lives, understanding how each event can be a catalyst for healing and love through a deep connection with the Divine and self compassion. She brings a warm, grounded presence to her work.

Christi is now living in Cambridge, MA with her husband, enjoying nature wherever she can and spending time with her adult son, family, friends and communities here and in France.

I see spirituality in every aspect of my life. It could be in the beauty of a tree that catches my eye on an afternoon walk, in the business of an ant, carrying what seems enormous for its size, in the smile on someone’s face, whether familiar to me, or a total stranger, and also in the life challenges that push me forward to love and compassion….the list goes on and on. 

Very young, I was attracted to the mystical approach of religion and spirituality. I always felt something was more than I could perceive, or was told to me. I wanted to understand the “mysteries,” not because I wanted to be more powerful, but because I felt that these mysteries were holding the keys to ease the suffering of people I loved and of the world around me. When I was young, the stories of the great mystics fascinated and frightened me at the same time. It took me some time to reconcile my religious upbringing with my present spiritual self. 

Now, I can say that through studies, devotional practices, intentional community and being a student on the path of inner transformation with the help of devoted teachers in bodies and not in bodies like Jesus Christ and Mary Sophia, I am connected with the great love of God. This is what I want to offer to others: to find their own connection to the great Love. For me, it is through this form of christianity that we teach at Theama. For others, it might be another one. I like the story of the parable of the blind men figuring out what an elephant is. They all touched the elephant at different places, and from their observations made conclusions about what an elephant is. However, they got only a partial idea. It is only through the attempt to consider all of them that the image of the elephant could start to take form. There are many teachings in this parable, and one of them is to consider the elephant as God, that we cannot fully comprehend with our human limitations. Not that these limitations are “bad.” They are, in fact, gifts that help us to continue to be curious and open. It shows that it is important to cultivate “spiritual humility.” It is through that humility and curiosity that we can discover God - God in the creation, God in ourselves and in people. Each generation brings its own flavor to the evolution of humanity. I believe the time we are living in gives us so many opportunities to discover who we are. This is my passion and honor, to be part of your journey in whatever way I can be a helpful friend, guide, or fellow traveller.