The ICSS Faculty - Institute for Contemporary Shamanic Studies -ICSS Calgary

Meet The ICSS Faculty

Barbara Butterfly Dreamer

Barbara Butterfly Dreamer has been studying the Sweet Medicine Sundance path since 1989. She is an apprentice, parent of adult children, teacher and ceremonialist. Since 1993 she has been traveling and teaching internationally, the Wheels and Keys of the Sweet Medicine Sundance path, her 'path with heart'.

As a single parent Barbara put herself through college (with the support of friends and family) and obtained a teaching diploma focusing on young children. Pursuing her love of children and families she created several innovative programs in the child-care community and as faculty at the college level. In 1990 she co-founded a teaching Lodge in Toronto, Ontario Canada to facilitate her own growth and the growth of the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path in Canada. In 1996 she co-founded the Institute of Contemporary Shamanic Studies, Toronto, Canada which provides classes, lectures and workshops for personal self growth and development.

Barbara's gifts include working with women of all ages to understand and glean the richness of spirit of all the cycles of being a woman. She works with sisterhood and brotherhood circles facilitating heart to heart communication between them. Barbara loves working with families and holds an abiding love and respect for those who choose parenting as their path.

Barbara's vision is of working to restore the Rites of Passage that help adults come into more happiness and balance and to help the children make safe passage into healthy adulthood.

John Thunder Wolf

John Thunder Wolf has been a student of the Sweet Medicine Sundance Path since 1985. He is a psychotherapist, educator, musician, and corporate speaker who has been presenting the Sweet Medicine Sundance teachings for the past 12 years.

Throughout his 25 years as a professional classical musician, John performed with many of the most prestigious classical ensembles in Toronto. His interest in education began with a degree in music education from the University of Toronto and continued for many years as a music teacher of individuals and groups. His continuing quest for knowledge led him to complete a Masters degree in psychology and his training as a psychotherapist. In 1990 he co-founded the Black Lightning Lodge to bring the Sweet Medicine Sundance teachings to Toronto and to provide a home for the students of this path. He continues to lead the Lodge and is a teacher at ICSS, Toronto, Canada which provides classes, lectures and workshops for personal self growth and development.

John specializes in the understanding and treatment of performance anxiety and how to function well in a high stress environment. He has a love of working with the brotherhood and assisting people through their life changes in his counseling.

John has a vision of men returning to balance and finding their strength, power and beauty through ceremony and the community of the masculine.

Jay Eagle Sky Rider

Jay Eagle Skyrider, psychotherapist and teacher in both the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path and Gestalt therapy apprenticed to the path 1992 following a two year spiritual quest that led her through three countries and full circle back to Toronto.

"I was sitting in a bench in middle of the town of Brighton, England asking spirit to show me a path with heart, when deer suddenly appeared in front of me. I re-remembered the DeerTribe and a powerful story told by a friend of her experiences. I had no other information but bought a ticket to Toronto that day."

When she returned to Toronto she discovered that a group of dedicated men and women gathered several times a year to provide a teaching space for the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path teachings to come to Toronto. Jay was the spark that inspired Barbara Butterfly Dreamer and Gael Crystal Light Warrior to provide a permanent home for the teachings in Toronto, that is now the Institute for Contemporary Shamanic Studies.

"I have always believed in schools for the development of the human potential" says Jay, who has been a figural leader in the development of the Gestalt Institute as a centre for Gestalt teachings in Toronto.

Jay is a writer, chef, lover, corporate regional manager and on the leading edge of working with aged. She is a psychotherapist with a successful ten-year practice, a trainer and a facilitator of groups, couples and individuals. She is the senior faculty at the Gestalt Institute, an instructor in the Red Lodge Longhouse program and co-creator of Healing the Broken Circle, a powerful shamanic program for addictions.

The driving force in her life has always been spirit and the search for an individual to understand their impact on self, life and others. That it is possible to choose a life of beauty and balance is her life's message.