Justin Ferko
City: Camp Hill
State: PA
Languages: English, Spanish
Personalized Affiliation: Interspiritual
Spiritual Spheres: Buddhism, Christianity, Eco/Nature-based, Interfaith, Interspiritual, Spiritual but Not Religious, Spiritual Independent, Unitarian Universalist, Wicca/Neopaganism
Affinity Groups:
Category: LGBTQ+
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 7172205034
Website: http://www.wildspiritpaths.com
Focus Area: Corporate/Workplace, Creative Arts, Dreamworker, Dying/Sick/Hospice, Ecospirituality/Nature-based, Education, Elderly/Mature, European Cultures, Grief and Loss, Group Spiritual Direction, Health Care, Homeless/Low Income, LGBTQIA+, Mental Health/Depression, Mindfulness/Meditation, Non-Traditional Healing, Young Adults
Social Media:
Profile: Justin Ferko (he/they) is inspired to help folks explore and live into the gift of their soul purpose in a world that needs our deep imagination, compassion and connection. Justin is an Interspiritual Companion, Certified Forest Bathing Guide, and professional chaplain. He is Dean for Year II of Oasis Ministries Spiritual Direction for Spiritual Guides Training Program, a Co-Facilitator with the Spiritual Companioning Training Program with the Spiritual Life Center of West Hartford, Connecticut , Eco-Grief Spiritual Direction Circle Facilitator with the BTS Center and a 2022 New Contemplative with Spiritual Directors International. Justin is a graduate of Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Development (Harrisburg, PA) and chaplain residency at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. His educational background includes a Master’s in Education from Boston University, a Master’s in Theological Studies from Trinity Lutheran Seminary and a Master’s in Spanish from Simmons College. Justin celebrates the giftedness of the LGBTQIA+ community and facilitates soul friendship with Mother Earth. He honors and facilitates companionees' relationship with Earth and with each person's own beautiful embodiment including gender expression, gender identity and sexual orientation. Justin's practice of spiritual companioning is contemplative and interspiritual, drawing on Earth-honoring spiritual practices including poetry, forest bathing, Tibetan Buddhism in the Karma Kagyu Lineage and the desert tradition of the Eastern Christian Ammas and Abbas. He and his spouse Craig live on the banks of the Susquehanna River with their beloved rescue dogs Yeshe and Benny. Areas of focus include: -Earth Connection, Eco-Grief, Climate Anxiety -Supporting LGBTQIA+ folkx of all ages with personal experience, communal wisdom, and research -Discovering, Recovering and Living into your Soul purpose -Navigating life transitions -Facilitating Spiritual connection, Tending Spiritual trauma -Wonder and Awe -Embodiment practices -Ancestral Connection and recovering heritage and chosen lineage wisdom practices Some important questions I work with folks on finding their Wisdom for include: -What is mine to do? -Where is my spiritual home? -How do I fit my spiritual practice(s) into my life? -What is my sacred activism? What this might look like: -Walking with you in discernment of your spiritual path and which practices nurture you -Facilitating your soul work (Bill Plotkin) and navigating your transitions from First Half of Life to Second Half of Life (Richard Rohr) -Inviting you to practices from Forest Bathing to foster connection with Earth, Self, and your higher power -Companionship through grief and spiritual trauma -Fostering your contemplative posture in the world -Supervision for spiritual directors/companions In other curves of his spiral life path, Justin has been a professional Palliative Care chaplain and Spanish and English Language Learners teacher at the secondary and university levels. You can reach him for spiritual counseling, supervision of your spiritual counseling/companionship/direction practice and in-person/remotely guided forest bathing walks: [email protected] www.wildspiritpaths.com
