Midwinter Gathering (2026)
January 16, 2026
6:45 – 9:00 PM
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
2 hours CE credit
Sacred Journeys: Pilgrimage As Practice
Rev. Keller Hawkins, M.A., M.Div.
1 CE Credit Hour
Abstract:
A pilgrimage is more than a physical walk; it’s an inner emotional, mental, and spiritual journey. Keller will explore the concept of pilgrimage in its many forms, sharing insights about her own experiences of pilgrimage in Scotland, France, Italy, and South Africa. She will explore ancient symbols like the labyrinth as a metaphor for honoring sacred journeys and tool for practicing pilgrimage. Participants will explore together how pilgrimage and its symbols might be used both for therapists’ personal and professional growth as well as clinical resources with clients.
Keller (she/her) is an ordained deacon in the United Methodist Church and sees clients under supervision while seeking licensure as a Marriage & Family Therapist.
Learning Objectives:
A) Attendees will gain an understanding of the concept of pilgrimage.
B) Attendees will examine the concept of pilgrimage as a practice and reflect on examples of this offered by the presenter.
C) Attendees will consider how to apply the practice of pilgrimage to their daily life as a tool for person and professional growth.
D) Attendees will explore how to use the concept of practicing pilgrimage as a clinical tool with clients.
Pilgrimages To Places Within
Sister Mary Rachel Capets, OP
1 CE Credit Hour
Sister Mary Rachel Capets, of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, earned her PhD from the University of Notre Dame Australia. Her dissertation was titled: The Impact of Pilgramage upon the Faith and Faith-based Practice of Catholic Educators.
Presentation Abstract
A physical pilgrimage to a sacred site has the capacity to mirror an interior journey of discovery, healing, learning, conversion, and transformation. During this presentation various types of pilgrimages will be discussed, physical pilgrimages as well as the daily pilgrimage of life. Sister Mary Rachel will explore some of the dispositions that pilgrimage can foster within the life of the individual as well as exploring what aspects of pilgrimage may facilitate transformation, change, new insight. Sister Mary Rachel will draw upon the writings of the anthropologist Victor Turner as he looks at the ritual structure of pilgrimage.
Three learning Objectives
A) Attendees will explore the various types of pilgrimage (physical and metaphorical) which one may embark upon in life.
B) Attendees will appreciate the interior and exterior dispositions that may confront one on a pilgrimage experience.
C) Attendees will consider how to apply these dispositions to one’s current circumstances.
D) Attendees will analyze Victor Turner’s ritual structure of separation, liminality and reincorporation as it applies to pilgrimage.
Past Midwinter Gatherings
January, 2025
Duane R. Bidwell, PhD
Buddhist + Christian: Insights for Clinical Work with Spiritually Multiple People
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
An award-winning teacher and mentor, Duane has thirty years of experience as a faculty member, psychotherapist, nonprofit director, clinical supervisor, and accreditation specialist. He has published six books and more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and his work has been featured by NPR, CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Spirituality & Practice, and The Utne Reader.
At USU, Duane directs the DEO Development Program in collaboration with the VA Office of Academic Affiliations, offering a leadership curriculum for educational executives who oversee clinical training at each VA medical center.
His research in leadership competencies, spirituality, and mental health uses qualitative data to explore how identity, agency, and possibility contribute to behavioral change and effective leadership. He works from a relational, strengths-based perspective, drawing from expertise in solution-focused, narrative, and appreciative practices. His next project examines interbeing and existential experience in the treatment of cancer.
January, 2025
Dr. Sarah Criss
Building Resilience as a Wounded Healer: Novice counselor development, childhood trauma, and self-compassion.
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
January, 2024
Dr. Preston Hill:
Meaning and Mental Health with Religious “Dones”
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
Dr. Sarah Criss is a licensed marital and family therapist in the state of Tennessee and an Assistant Professor on faculty at Bradley University where she specializes in clinical supervision and the infusion of neuroscience within clinical approaches. Dr. Criss’s clinical career has spanned a diversity of settings and populations including private practice, a university counseling center, IOP/PHP for women with eating disorders, relapse prevention group work with suboxone patients, community mental health, and school-based therapy at the high school level. She is currently finishing work for her designation as an AAMFT approved supervisor for license supervision of post-master’s clinicians. Her research interests include novice counselor development within counselor education, neurocounseling and promoting wellbeing among mental health clinicians.
Preston Hill (PhD, MLitt, University of St Andrews) is Assistant Professor of Integrative Theology at Richmont Graduate University, where he serves as the Co-Chair of Integration and the Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program. His doctoral research offers the first book-length study of Christ’s descent into hell in the theology of John Calvin. His current research focuses on reformation theology, science, and mental health. His latest publications include Dawn of Sunday: The Trinity and Trauma-Safe Church (Cascade, 2021), and a forthcoming volume entitled Christ and Trauma: Theology East of Eden (Cascade). Preston is a clinical pastoral therapist under supervision and ordinand in the Anglican tradition.
Among those who leave religion, there are some who persist with spiritual desires for meaning and transcendent connection. Many of these “spiritually practicing” religious “dones” experience unique mental health challenges likely related to the religious trauma and social adversity they cite as top reasons for dissaffiliating from religion. In this talk, I’ll discuss the challenges and possibilities for “remixed” spiritual experience among this population by setting faith deconstruction and reconstruction in theological context and drawing implications for mental health care among this group.
January, 2024
Dr. Emily Oliver
Evangelical Purity Culture Movement and Mental Health Treatment
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
January, 2023
Mason Hale:
Attachment Theory and Attachment to God
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
Mason has earned a Bachelor of Science in Bible, a Master of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling, and a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Freed-Hardeman University. He is currently a PhD student in Counseling and Supervision at Tennessee Tech University, the Young Adults Ministry Intern at the College Hills Church of Christ in Lebanon, TN, and a counselor for the Harpeth Hills Counseling Center. He holds the Temp. LPC-MHSP in Tennessee, is a National Certified Counselor, and a Board-Certified Christian Counselor.
January, 2023
Dr. Douglas Ribeiro:
Religious Interculturalism and Spiritual Identity in Counseling
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
Dr. Ribeiro is the director of Graduate Counseling and Chair of Psychology at Lipscomb University. Dr. Ribeiro joined the Psychology and Counseling faculty in August of 2012 after finishing his doctoral program in Counseling Psychology at Georgia State University.
As a Professional Counselor since 2006, Dr. Ribeiro has dedicated his clinical and research efforts to helping survivors of trauma achieve the psychological wellbeing and freedom we are all worthy of enjoying. Beyond his interest in psychological trauma, Dr. Ribeiro is interested in issues related to interpersonal relationships, masculinity, mood difficulties, struggles with attention and concentration, cultural adaptation, and recovery from substance and behavioral addictions such as “sex addiction.”
January, 2022
Cassandra Riedy Rush:
The Incarnation of Trauma – A Call to Social Justice
(Virtual Gathering on Zoom)
Cassandra Riedy Rush (BA, Religious Studies, Georgetown University, 2009; MA, Theology, Ethics and Culture, University of Virginia, 2011; MA, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Belmont University, 2018; Doctoral Candidate, George Washington University) currently serves as a Lecturer at Belmont University for the Mental Health Program in the College of Theology Christian Ministry. She engages in private practice at New Moon Rising Wellness in Franklin, Tennessee where she specializes in trauma-informed care and perinatal mental health.