Faculty
Lionheart instructors join us from all parts of the country to offer their particular area of expertise in body mind healing techniques. Our teachers set the tone for trust with appropriate self-disclosure, honesty and a policy of confidentiality, thus creating a safe “space” for exploration, intimacy and bonding with the self and the group. Many instructors teach at other schools as well as Lionheart Institute. All senior instructors have a thriving personal practice and have over 15 years professional experience in the field.
Deborah Allen
Teaches: The Gift in the Wound: Taking the Past our of the Present, Embodying your Authenticity: Transpersonal Spiritual Counseling, Energy and Sexuality, Teacher Training, Women’s Circle.
Deborah is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. In 1996 and 1997, she taught Sexuality as a Healing Tool to over 800 people in the program. Since 1990, she has been teaching workshops on Women’s Sexuality and Sexuality and Spirituality in the U.S. and Europe.
Between 1998-2003, she served as Senior faculty at the Snowlion School of Healing in Trimurti, France (along with other Lionheart faculty Dan Buffo and Scott Bader).
Currently, she has a private practice (Healer’s Forum) in Santa Cruz, California.
She is the facilitator of a series of women’s workshops (offered as electives at Lionheart) and beginning a leadership training for women in both the U.S. and Europe.
Deborah’s passion is most alive in the area of relationship and group work, including family and community systems, intimacy and transitions, creativity and leadership.
Dani Antman
Teaches: Seven Steps to Health through Energy Healing: Kundalini Awakening.
Dani was born in Queens, New York in 1956.
She received her B.F.A. from the New York School of Interior Design in 1979.
She is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, 1992 and former assistant teacher, 1992-94.
She graduated A Society of Souls, a three year training in Kabbalistic healing, in 1996.
She taught with Jason Shulman, the founder of A Society of Souls for 8 years, leading introductory workshops around the country and in Europe.
Dani also graduated in 2000, from the Center of Intentional Living a three year course of study which covers object relations psychology, trauma and early childhood development theories.
For the past 7 years she has been receiving individualized spiritual direction from Patanjali Kundalini Yoga Care, which has greatly deepened her knowledge of the chakra system, kundalini science and spiritual process.
She is also an ordained Interfaith minister through the All Faiths Seminary International in New York City, and officiates at weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies.
In 2007 she created a line of Kabbalistic prayer shawls that were inspired by Hebrew prayers and names of God. They can be viewed at: www.divinewrapsody.com
She has had a private healing practice for over 17 years, and is currently located in Sebastopol, California. Sessions are available in person or long distance, by appointment. She currently supervises other healers and teaches Kabbalistic meditation in the U.S. and in Europe.
For more information, please visit: www.kabbalev.com
Rinat Amir
Teaches: Inner Transformation Through Expressive Arts
Rinat holds a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology and a California State License in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has Certifications in Art Therapy and Naturalistic Hypnotherapy. Rinat has been in private practice since 1982, working with individuals, couples, families, and groups in Israel and the U.S. Her approach is eclectic, integrating West and East psychologies and philosophies.Modalities are taken from Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Virginia Satire, Assagioli, Patanjali, and more. Rinat’s passion and focus is on “here and now”, meditation, interactive communication, expressive arts, and balancing of body-mind-spirit.
Scott Bader D.C.
Teaches: Family Constellations.
Scott is a chiropractor, healer and certified hypnotherapist. He comes to us from a senior faculty position at the Snowlion Center School, a 4- year healing training center in the South of France. With the express intent of exploring the bodymind, he has developed the Living Body and Soul Series and the Biology of Love, Consciousness, and Healing. Scott is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and taught for four years on the faculty of the School for Enlightenment and Healing in San Diego. He has completed the Center for Intentional Living’s three-year clinical psychology program to deepen his understanding of psyche and soma. After completing a phenomenological family constellation training based on the pioneering work of Bert Hellinger, Scott now facilitates Family Constellations weekends around the country. For the past 12 years, Scott has remained active with Hospice, working individually and with groups. Scott maintains a healing practice and teachers with The Healers’ Forum.
Ann Boroch
Teaches: The Power of Health in Food
Ann is a Naturopath, Certified Nutritional Consultant, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Certified Iridologist, educator, author, and inspirational speaker. She has been in private practice for nine years in Studio City, California and specializes in allergies, digestive disorders, hormonal imbalances, blood sugar disorders, autoimmune diseases, and is an expert on the silent epidemic, Candida. Ann believes that perfect health, on every level, lies within one’s own power. She was diagnosed with the debilitating disease Multiple Sclerosis and cured herself twelve years ago. Her book entitled, “Healing Multiple Sclerosis: Diet, Detox & Nutritional Makeover for Total Recovery” came out April 2007.
Dan Buffo, M.B.A., C.M.T.
Teaches: The Seven Steps to Health through Energy Healing, Staying the Course: Sexuality and Relationships, Manifest Your Destiny: Professional Practice Development.
Dan teaches our Advanced Practice courses for graduates and advanced students. He practices, coaches and supervises energy healing in Santa Cruz, California and is a founding member of The Healers’ Forum, where he has been teaching healership, high sense perception, guidance, and energy work techniques since 1989. His passion is to teach these subjects to other healers in clear, useful, practical ways. He has served as Senior class Dean, and Teacher Training Mentor at Snowlion Center School in Southern France. Dan has completed a masters degree equivalent in depth Psychology with the Center for Intentional Living of New York and taught with the Barbara Brennan School of Healing for three years after graduating from this school in 1994. Dan has written articles on energy medicine, and operating room procedures for energy healers working with medical surgeons in hospitals. He studied clinical psychology for two years as doctorial candidate at the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. His doctoral studies were interrupted by chronic fatigue syndrome in 1987, which resulted in a year in bed and a personal introduction to the value and efficacy of energy healing, changing his focus from business and psychology to hands on energy healing.
dan@healersforum.com
Kathryn Cameron, LCS
Teaches: Embodying Your Authenticity: Transpersonal Spiritual Counseling.
Kathryn Cameron is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and recieved her MSW from Forham University in New York. Her clinical experience includes psychiatric social work and she has been in private practice as a psychtherapist for 13 years. Kathryn is also a graduate of A Society of Souls and is an Integrated Kabbalistic Healer with many years experience as a faculty member of that school and as a supervisor of teachers and students.Kathryn has an undergraduate degree in fine arts and is a painter and photographer and brings an appreciation of the creative process to her work as a healer, psychotherapist and teacher.
Susan Crimmins, Ph.D.
Teaches: The Gift in the Wound: Taking the Past out of the Present.
Susan Crimmins has studied and practiced the healing arts for over 20 years. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of New York and holds a doctorate in criminal justice from City University of New York. Both her NIH-funded research endeavors in homicide, substance abuse and maltreatment and the death of her niece influenced her to shift from epidemiologically based work to clinical interventions in the healing of trauma. Dr. Crimmins has been trained extensively in several healing modalities including: Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD), medical qi gong, somatic bodywork, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Healing Touch, Energy Healing and she is certified as an Energy Healer Technician (EHT) in the State of California. Currently, Dr. Crimmins is a Professor in the School of Social Work at California State University at Los Angeles. In addition, she serves as a consultant to educators, therapists and criminal justice practitioners in the healing of trauma, conducts trainings and workshops with multi-disciplinary professionals and has a somatic energy healing practice in Santa Monica. She is completing a three year certificate program in Somatic Experiencing with The Foundation for Human Enrichment, in Colorado. Most importantly, she lives and loves her life fully.
Ray Doktor, Psy. D.
Teaches: Energy and Sexuality.
Ray Doktor is a counselor, sex educator, and international speaker. He has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology. He combines the Western model with Eastern philosophy providing a bridge between metaphysics and science. Other training includes hypnotherapy, NLP, EMDR, gestalt and regression therapy, somatic experience, meditation, qi gong, and tantra. He has conducted workshops and lectures in the United States, Netherlands, Brazil, and England, including speaking engagements at UCLA and UC Berkley. He has shared the same stages with Marianne Williamson, Bruce Lipton, and Eckhart Tolle.
Laura Fannon, Psy.
Teaches: Manifest Your Destiny: Professional Practice Development.
Laura Fannon is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in private practice in San Francisco. While also maintaining an active law and mediation practice of many years, she earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Transformative Psychotherapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California, in 2007. Laura has worked with individuals and groups in a variety of contexts, using an integrative approach that holds psychotherapy in a spiritual framework informed by nondual Eastern traditions. Laura has long had an interest in energy healing and the bodymind connection, having graduated in the late 1990s from both Alive & Well Institute of Conscious Bodywork in San Anselmo, California, and the School for Enlightenment and Healing in San Diego, California. Laura previously has served as a Teaching Assistant for Lionheart’s Transpersonal Spiritual Counseling class and is honored to be a member of the Lionheart faculty. She lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Laura Fine, M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy, H.H.P., M.A., Co-Founder, Director, Faculty.
Teaches: A Doorway to Transformation: the Energy System of Healing, The Fearless Heart: Making the Sub-Conscious, Conscious (The Psychodynamics of Energy Healing), The Gift in the Wound: Taking the Past Out of the Present (Characterology), Embodying Your Authenticity: Transpersonal Spiritual Counseling, Energy System of Acting, Meeting Your Inner Wise Man/Woman: Meditation and Stress Management.
Laura has a Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from San Diego University of Integrative Studies and a Masters of Arts Degree from University of Miami. She has practiced as a licensed Holistic Health Practitioner for 25 years in the field of body/mind therapies and is co-founder of Lionheart Institute. Laura originated The Energy System of Acting (ESA), and is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing as well as two years of Kabalistic Healing with The Society of Souls. She has taught at several alternative healing schools and developed a research project in wholistic healing for post-surgery heart transplant patients at U.C.L.A Hospital. Laura’s career has bridged the creative and healing arts having worked for twenty years professionally in the theater as a director and acting teacher such institutions as Manhattan Class Company, Barnard College and Riverside Shakespeare Company in New York. Having faced, survived and healed from a life-threatening illness, Laura has a recognition and value of each moment of life and compassion for the struggles of the mind and heart. She shares her experiences in her book, “Laura’s New Heart, A Healer’s Spiritual Journey through a Heart Transplant”, available on this website.
Payam Hakimi, D.O.American Board of Family PhysiciansOsteopathy, Homeopathy, Counseling
Teaches: ChakraOlogy, Grounding Your Power, The Seven Steps to Health through Energy Healing.
A Board Certified Family Physician, Dr. Hakimi has had diverse medical training and has combined his knowledge of medicine with specialized alternative medical modalities to create an integrative and comprehensive medical practice. Dr. Hakimi’s philosophy has at its core the natural healing process of a living organism. He believes “Health” is a dynamic process in which energetic, hormono-chemical, structural, physical, emotional-mental, and spiritual aspects converge to produce balance and harmony. He is the medical director of Body of Harmony in Beverly Hills, CA.
While finishing his residency at USC with the Department of Family Medicine, he was elected Chief Resident and Assistant Clinical Professor at USC Keck School of Medicine. Educating the public is a priority for Dr. Hakimi; He holds lectures in different venues and on two different T.V. channels on a regular basis. Dr. Hakimi’s list of lectures: Homeopathy for clinicians, Chakras & Energy Healing, Success, Shame the master emotion, Secrets of Mind & Body, Evolution of Psychiatry from Mesmer to Classical Psychiatry,…
Dr. Hakimi offers a Western-Eastern medical practice, which encompasses Osteopathic structural fitness, hormonal and chemical balance through natural medications and detoxification, adjunctive clinical Homeopathy, coaching and counseling.
Dahlyn Herold, Co-Director of Lionheart Texas
Dahlyn Herold, committed to wholistic healing, supports the spirit and growth of Lionheart and its students with her incredible gifts of creativity, love, and compassion. She is truly the “mother of Lionheart Texas” and her home is “Lionheart’s home.” Having a BA in Education, Dahlyn taught art for many years until her retirement, when she chose Energy Healing as her next career and graduated from the Lionheart Institute. She maintains a practice in transpersonal energy healing where she offers her clients a wholistic approach to healing, including body-based spiritual counseling, energy work, and crystal therapy. In addition to her responsibilities as Co-Director, Dahlyn is on the Lionheart teaching team, and teaches classes in Crystals and Color Therapy. She can be reached at: dahlyn@lionheartinstitute.com
Robert Jokel, Clinical Symposium
Teaches: Guest Instructor: Advanced Training.
Rob has been helping individuals overcome a variety of “incurable” illnesses in his private practice for over 20 years. Integrating his knowledge of Craniosacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation, Joint Manipulation and Biomechanics with his ability to perceive subtle energies, Rob has developed unique healing methods that facilitate the integration, alignment and coherency of the macro (human energy field), micro (cellular, molecular and atomic) and sensory (physical systems) levels of consciousness. He is the developer and teacher of various training programs, including “Perceive and Heal the Human Energy Field”, “Healing the Respiratory Mechanisms of the Body”, and “Qigong Plus”. Rob is a graduate of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, and is currently interested in raising funds for research to explore what effect if any; intensive and integrative natural healing will have with kidney disease, liver disease, and cancer. He plans to make the research project into a documentary film.
Sandra Pribanic, PhD.
Teaches: Characterology, the Five Developmental Life Stages.
Sandra teaches Developmental Life Stages and an elective course on Relationship Dynamics. Sandra comes to us form Croatia, via Switzerland and Canada. In her work she combines two of her passions: body-centered psychotherapy and scientific research. Her training is in psychodynamic counseling, craniosacral therapy and energy work (Snowlion Center School in Switzerland). In addition, she is a certified Imago Relationship Therapist, and practices with Maureen Brine and Associates Ltd. at the Canadian Institute for Imago Relationship Therapy, in Toronto. Sandra has received her PhD in Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich (Switzerland), and has done extensive research on the mechanisms of communication and interactions at the molecular level of cells. Bridging her scientific and psychotherapy backgrounds, she is committed to exploring human communication and contact – on both molecular and inter-personal levels. Currently, she is attending a three-year clinical psychology program at the Center for Intentional Living. Her intention is to encourage and embrace moments of re-membering deeper aspects of ourselves, experiencing the larger force that supports our lives, and creating more fulfilling and joyful relationships. ribapriba@hotmail.com
Nino Sekopet, BA
Teaches: Characterology: the Developmental Life Stages, Relationship Dynamics
Nino is a graduate of Snowlion Center School in Switzerland, a four year training in psychodynamic counseling, craniosacral therapy and energy work. He has also completed Clinical Training at the Canadian Institute for Imago Relationship Therapy in Toronto, and is Certified Imago Relationship Therapist. Currently, he is attending a three-year clinical psychology program at the Center for Intentional Living. He has a private practice in Toronto and can be reached at ninos5@sympatico.ca.
Michele Shay
Teaches: Energy System of Acting
Michele Shay is a Tony nominated and award-winning actress, director, Transpersonal energy healer and certified coach. She has performed on and off Broadway, in Regional Theaters around the country,on television and film. Clients include prominent actors, scientists, engineers and professionals from many walks of life. In 1999, through a grant from the Fox Foundation to study the connection between acting and the healing arts, Michele was introduced to the Energy System of Acting and Laura Fine whose exercises and wisdom about he human energy system and performance Michele incorporates in all of her work as an actress andteaches at intstitutions around the country. She was also trained as a Coach by world-renowned Master Coach Julio Ollala of the Newfield Network, studied NLP with Fortune 500 Coach Linda Sommer, Mask work with Pierre Le Favre; Dreamwork for Character Development with Alvaroand Gabrielle Lopez-Waterman; Acting with William Esper, Hank Berrings,Sandra Seacat,Harold Guskin, Corey Allen and Margie Haber; voice with Kristin Linkletter and Fran Bennett.
Cathy Stander, L.M.T., E.H.T.
Teaches: Grounding Your Power: Baasic Tools of Energy Healing, Seven Steps to Health through Energy Healing: Applied Energy Dynamics
Cathy Stander is a licensed massage therapist, energy healer and bodyworker with over 12 years of experience in the field of healing arts. Cathy has worked in numerous medical settings. She is a graduate of Lionheart Institute of Transpersonal Energy Healing where she is now a part time faculty member. Cathy has a private practice in Studio City doing energy healing and massage therapy.
Sheryl Grant Thompson, LPC, Co-Director of Lionheart Texas
Sheryl Grant Thompson, is a somatic psychotherapist with a private practice in San Antonio. She is committed to living authentically and assisting her clients in uncovering their true essence, while seeking to find the ease that underlies transformation. She has worked with diverse populations, from abused and neglected children to the elderly. She brings a wide range of knowledge and training including the Enneagram, Death & Dying, the Relational Cultural Model, death and dying, trauma resolution, emotional release, addictions, eating disorders, and women’s studies. She is trained in Hakomi, which is a body-centered psychotherapy based on the Buddhist and Taoist principles of mindfulness, nonviolence, and the unity of mind and body. She currently serves as Co-Director of Lionheart Texas and can be reached at: sheryl@lionheartinstitute.com
Miyuki YamamotoMiyuki
is a former Regional Director of Lionheart Texas, who currently resides in Melbourne, Australia. She is a native of Japan and spent 12 years in San Antonio, Texas working as a palliative care nurse, educator, and healer. She has a Master’s degree in Nursing and worked as a registered nurse with dying patients and their families in both Japan and the United States for 13 years before she became a transpersonal energy healer. After the graduation of Lionheart Institute, she served the Lionheart Community as Regional Director of Lionheart Institute Texas for 2 years. She has had experience in working with various populations as an energy healer in Japan, Spain, France and Italy. She combines her scientific knowledge as a nurse with her intuitive skills and her heart in energy healing and spiritual counseling. She is now offering teaching programs on energy healing, Spirituality in Palliative Care, Characterology and Death Awareness work in Kumamoto, Japan. miyuki@senritsu-healing.com, (+61) 3 9888 7323.
Gabriel Orshan
Jim Allen
Teaches: Qi Gong.
Jim has been working with children and adults in the field of health, wellness and self mastery for over 30 years including 15 years as a top martial arts instructor. He has apprenticed alongside naturopathic doctors, Chinese medical doctors, and energy healing experts in Europe, New Zealand, USA and was introduced to Happy Sun Qigong in 1997 through Qigong Master Wang. He continues to study and apprentice with some of the top healers, coaches and spiritual mentors in the world.
Jim Allen works with individuals, parents and children to resolve underlying issues that contribute to the client’s current dissatisfaction and life circumstances. This includes resolving factors or traumas that block clients from reaching their desires on many levels. Jim coaches, spiritually counsels, intuits, diagnostically identifies and resolves factors that are outside the client’s conscious perception. He does not diagnose or treat disease. Rather, he helps to
identify patterns of imbalance in the body to help remove the deeper root cause of dysfunction on whatever level it may manifest (physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual). His healing process is one of self discovery leading to self mastery and true prosperity.
Jim Allen 818-400-1791