About Cynthia

I offer educational programs and facilitate retreats aimed at quieting the mind, dissolving stress and engaging with a new way of living. The intention is to deepen our inner connection with the sacred, with each other, and with nature. It's all about easing into a peaceful mind and heart. 

My approach is influenced by the profound insights of J. Krishnamurti, G.I. Gurdjieff, the world's great mystics, and the non-duality that underpins the wisdom traditions of both East and West. 

I take an integrative approach to what I present, drawing on my own experience and life-long study. For example, some of my programs focus on what unites Christianity, Buddhism and Sufism beyond doctrines and dogma—namely, a foundational teaching on compassion, inclusion, non-violence and our relationship with the sacred. I mention these particular traditions because I have immersed myself in them over the years. 

However, what truly shapes the overall approach to my work is my experience of war. It put everything into perspective and tested my conscience and my endurance like nothing else has. 

It compelled me to re-evaluate my life and to delve deeply into a search for meaning.

In the mid-1990’s, I was a photojournalist during the Balkan War and witnessed firsthand the devastating impact that war has on children. I worked with United Nations humanitarian organizations, such as Save the Children, Human Rights Watch and Terre des Hommes, traveling to front-line hospitals and refugee camps to help document the trauma experienced by children. Nothing can prepare you for the despair of war and its destructive impact on everything it touches. 

This war experience made it clear to me that the root cause of violence and exploitation is a conditioned distortion in the human mind—one that divides us against ourselves and separates us from each other and from nature. Understanding and transcending the conditioned mind is essential for building a truly peaceful and compassionate world—a world where children everywhere, regardless of where they live, are safe and loved. 

The fundamental human quest is to unite the mind with the wisdom of the heart. While this may sound like a slogan, it is what the world desperately needs. It is an ancient wisdom teaching that remains relevant today, yet is still not fully understood.