Professional Bio     

Stories in the Grass © 2008 cknealson

At the age of forty I left behind the roles of psychotherapist, wife and mother, and moved alone into the wilderness. I imagined that I would live there one year, through the four seasons. I stayed, instead, for over five years. One never knows what soul has in store.

This solitary retreat is the subject of Living on the Spine: A Woman's Life in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains ("It is gentle, gracious and profound ..." Library Journal.) My second book, New Mexico's Sanctuaries, Retreats and Sacred Places (Westcliffe Publishers, 2002), was a natural extension of my solitary experience.

My essays have appeared in numerous magazines and publications including the Santa Fean, and Santa Fe Trends, Inside/Outside Magazine, Writers on the Range syndicated column, Mex-Connect, Taos Horsefly and numerous book collections that include Living in the Runaway West (Fulcrum publishers, 2000) and Writers on the Range (University Press of Colorado, 1998.) My Mexico Travel essays were featured on Mex-Connect online. Travels have taken me into the Mayan lands of Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, down the Baja Peninsula, throughout Canada and the United States and across the sea to France, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Denmark.

I am photographer for three published books: my New Mexico's Sanctuaries, Retreats and Sacred Places; In Fire's Way by Thomas Wolf, University of New Mexico Press, 2003; and Arthur Carhart: Wilderness Prophet, Thomas Wolf, University of Colorado Press, 2008. My photos have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers.

In February 2008 I traveled to Tanzania as photojournalist to document the efforts of a sister hospice program, The Kilimanjaro Hospice Initiative. My work resulted in the PowerPoint presentation, "The Kilimanjaro Hospice Initiative: Hope on Shining Mountain." (See "Wildeye Photography and Stock List")

In 2004 I jettisoned 95% of my possessions, sold the house in Taos, NM and moved into a 35 foot motorhome where I lived, wrote and traveled for several years. This is the subject of my next book, MotorHome Zen: Of Risk, Faith and Freedom.

C

H

R

I

S

T

I

N

A

N

E

A

L

S

O

N

ETC

MSW, combined degree in social work, counseling and business administration, University of Iowa

Post-graduate mediation training with the Bay Area Radical Psychiatry Collective

Administrator, Rockwell International's Employee Assistance Program

Administrator, Tucson Counseling Center

Psychotherapist and spiritual counsel for women for 30-plus years

I give thanks to my mentors Thich Nhat Hanh and Brooke Medicine Eagle and this planet that teaches with every breath.

Photo by R. Leithead

Photo by R. Leithead