Jim Schofield, (advisor) Jim took the first Grof Transpersonal Training in the USA with Christina and Stan Grof which completed in 1990. With Kylea Taylor he facilitated Holotropic Breathwork® in their home from 1990-2007. He assisted at nine of the “Insight and Opening” Intensives with Jack Kornfield and Stan Grof. Jim is CFO of SoulCollage Inc. and brings his experience in finance, marketing and management as a Silicon Valley executive to the further flourishing of both world-wide self-discovery methods — Holotropic Breathwork® and SoulCollage®.
Juanjo Segura
Juanjo Segura (module facilitator; advisor) Madrid 1961. Therapist. Master in Integrative Clinical Psychology. Holotropic Holotropic Breathwork Trainer | Senior Member, Grof Transpersonal Training International Faculty. Juanjo organized in Spain Grof Transpersonal Training. Trained in the SAT program by Claudio Naranjo. Zen Practitioner. Mindfulness Monitor by EAP (School of Full Attention)
Juanjo facilitates Holotropic Breathwork workshops and training both inside and outside Spain.
He works as a therapist in Alicante and conducts online therapies in English and Spanish.
Kylea Taylor
Kylea Taylor, M.S., (senior teacher; advisor) is a California licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT# 34901). She has been a part of Grof Transpersonal Training since 1993. She served on the Board of the Association for Holotropic Breathwork and edited its newsletter for 16 years.
Kylea says, “I have been studying with the Grofs since 1984. That was the beginning of a period of intense personal spiritual emergence which lasted for the next five years, during which I completed the Grof’s first three-year training program. For me, the most important thing about the GTT training was (and is) that it contains an international community of people who are undergoing deep personal change, and who can understand and support one another.”
Kylea is the author of The Ethics of Caring: Finding Right Relationship with Clients (2017, 1995), The Breathwork Experience: Exploration and Healing in Nonordinary States of Consciousness (1994), and The Holotropic Breathwork Facilitators’ Manual (2007). She is the editor of Exploring Holotropic Breathwork (2003).
Kylea lives in central California, where she has a private ethics consulting practice and manages Hanford Mead Publishers, Inc. and SoulCollage Inc.
Kate Silver
Kate Silver (advisor) is an artist and author. She is the co-creator of The New Earth Tarot Deck and author of The New Earth Tarot Handbook. Kate has been a certified Holotropic Breathwork™ facilitator since 1998.
Jack Silver
Jack Silver (advisor) has been a certified Holotropic Breathwork™ facilitator since 1998. Jack is an attorney who specializes in environmental law.
Silvia Chiemi Yamamoto
Silvia Chiemi Yamamoto (organizer GTT Mexico; module facilitator) lives in Mexico City. Chiemi is a psychologist who has been certified as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator since 2005. Her degrees and studies are: humanistic psychology MA, MBA, studies in thanatology, NLP and EMDR. Chiemi has worked with HIV organizations, Diversity & Inclusion, Gender and Organizational Culture for 10 years.
Geoff Fitzpatrick
Geoff Fitzpatrick B.A. (guest teacher) is a certified Holotropic Breathwork practitioner, who has studied psychology in Trinity College Dublin, and is a Graduate of the Milltown Institute of Theology where he studied spiritual enrichment. He has an active interest in modern consciousness research. He has been constructing mandalas for 10 years and is driven to promote the transformative potential of these sacred circles.
“I have two great passions, one is the exploration of consciousness the other is the construction of mandalas. In effect these are two sides of the same coin. The first time I saw a mandala was about 25 years ago. A group of Tibetan Monks came to Trinity College Dublin. They spent a week creating a magnificent Kalachakra sand mandala. I was mesmerised by the experience, the colours, the shapes and the sound of the chak purs are as vivid in my memory today as they were all that time ago. It was eight years later in that very same university whilst studying psychology I came across mandalas for a second time. I studied the work of Carl Jung and Stanislav Grof both of whom saw the mandala as a powerful psychotherapeutic tool. The depths of the psyche that I touch when constructing mandalas are similar in tonality to those from breathwork. I have borrowed heavily from the map of consciousness drafted by Stan Grof to navigate my way through the experiences activated whilst constructing mandalas.
But the greatest teachers for me have been the shapes themselves – The geometric symbols that date back into our prehistory and their origins dwell in the very fabric of what creates the universe itself. Nothing has exposed me to more mystery or opened me to greater depths of inner experience than working with these symbols. The sum total of my seeking, the knowledge gleaned from the courses, workshops of all kinds, powerful peak experiences and exposure to enlightened teachers can be distilled down to one very simple thing…….I believe there is a greater wisdom available to us at all times. The thing is, this higher wisdom is easier to experience than it is to explain.”
Jai Uttal
Jai Uttal, Grammy nominated sacred music composer, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist, combines influences from India with influences from American rock and jazz, creating a stimulating and exotic multi-cultural fusion that is truly world spirit music.
Having travelled extensively in India, where he met many great saints and singers, Bhakti Yoga became his personal path. Jai has been leading, teaching and performing kirtan around the world for close to 50 years, creating a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.
Cary Sparks
Cary Sparks (director, teacher) For nearly forty years, Cary has supported people on their inner journeys, holding compassionate space for personal growth and transformation.
Cary and Tav Sparks co-directed Grof Transpersonal Training until Tav’s death in August, 2020. For two years prior to that time, Cary and a circle of advisors had already begun shepherding GTT and Holotropic Breathwork® forward following Tav’s retirement.
Cary began administrating GTT in 1990, working at that time with Stanislav and Christina Grof. In 1998, the Grofs sold the training organization to Tav and Cary. Over the decades, she has organized and facilitated countless Holotropic Breathwork® workshops and transpersonal trainings worldwide.
Cary began facilitating seekers on their inner journeys in 1986. She was certified in Holotropic Breathwork® in 1988, and has worked as a facilitator, workshop leader, and at training events. In 2019, Cary trained to be a SoulCollage® facilitator, a practice for accessing one’s intuition and creating a deeply meaningful personal deck of cards. Both practices rest upon and uphold the healing impulse and empowerment of the individual.
Cary’s book Incensed: The Novel, is a humorous take on the world of transformational workshops. Her passions include birding, horses, music, nature, writing, and time with her family and cats.
In 1988, Cary founded the Association for Holotropic Breathwork International (with support from Carlin Scherer and John Scherer). She founded and edited its newsletter, The Inner Door, later joined by Tav, for the first few years of its publication. More recently, Cary and Tav founded The Institute for Holotropics, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation with the mission of education and promotion of Holotropic Breathwork® and the holotropic perspective. In addition to the Institute for Holotropics, she serves on the Board of Directors for California River Watch, the Marin Audubon Society, and the SoulCollage Institute.
Cary was Co-Program Director (with Tav Sparks) for the 1995 International Transpersonal Association (ITA) conference in Santa Clara, California (US), Spirit in Action: Awakening to the Sacred in Everyday Life. She was Co-Assistant Program Coordinator, working closely with Stan and Christina Grof, for ITA conferences in Eugene, Oregon (US) in 1991; Atlanta, Georgia (US) in 1992; Prague, Czech Republic in 1998; and Palm Springs, California (US) in 2004. She also has served on the ITA Board of Directors.
Cary is passionate about sharing the “experience, strength, and hope” she gained in supporting her beloved husband through his memory loss and his end-of-life journey. She welcomes the opportunity to connect with anyone facing their own or loved ones’ illness or dementia, and to share her experience with a partner who courageously chose a death with dignity.
Schedule a personal consultation with Cary Sparks here.