Research
As a physical geographer and stream restoration specialist for years, Amanda primarily focused on natural resources during her early years. Later she began exploring belief systems and religions during her spiritual awakening in graduate school. She became curious and started to see the importance of both human and physical geography.
Initially she proposed her doctoral research to focus on shamanism, as she was intrigued with the Buryat practices and worship of Lake Baikal in Russia. This idea of studying shamanism was unusual for a quantitatively driven Geography department then. With limited funding opportunities, she had to stay close to home for her research. After discovering the concept of a spiritual landscape, she proposed exploring to see if the concept could be applied to prominent mountains and water bodies in the Southern Appalachian Mountains today. Read her dissertation here.
A spiritual landscape can be defined by viewing a natural landscape through the numinous, cosmic, and aesthetic dimensions of an individual or community experience in nature. They’re natural places where people have spiritual/religious experiences at, or where a ritual or ceremony takes place. Sacred spaces are places built by humans for religious or spiritual purposes such as churches, temples, cemeteries, mosques, synagogues, shrines, stone circles, labyrinths, and other built sites.
When it comes to cultural spaces as a geographer, Amanda is interested in constructed stone circles and labyrinths used historically and today for rituals, meditations, prayer, and religious/spiritual community gatherings. She brings her knowledge and experience of two geographically different islands, those of Hawaiʻi and Scotland, into her classes for cross-cultural comparisons with ritual, mythology, and landscapes.
As a practitioner, outside of academia for many years, Amanda added many unique skills to her traditional education. In turn, she has found ways to integrate them in for richer student learning in her academic teaching or has deepened her practice with more scholarly research to apply what she has learned to real-world issues today. She continually learns from actively doing and being engaged in what she researches.
Applied Research & Practice
Buddhism & Reiki
End-Of-Life & Rites of Passage
End-Of-Life & Rites of Passage
As a Reiki Master/Teacher since 2012, Amanda found herself being called to teach at yoga studios and wellness spas, training over 22 Master/Teachers. She teaches and passes on Usui Reiki Ryoho that has a Tibetan Buddhism influence. She incorporates in her training levels, both the hands-on energetic and esoteric aspects, along with the intellectual aspects of learning the history, foundations, and philosophy of Buddhism at an introductory level.
She became a Reiki Master/Teacher a year before completing her doctorate degree and originally took Reiki classes to support her own personal growth journey while also being a student in college. Within academia, Amanda collaborates with the Counseling and Psychological Services office in offering workshops around Reiki and meditation for student wellbeing today.
End-Of-Life & Rites of Passage
End-Of-Life & Rites of Passage
End-Of-Life & Rites of Passage
As an Ordained Interfaith Minister and a trained Death Midwife, Amanda specializes in supporting the death journeyer and their loved ones from diagnosis to the funeral ceremony. Offering non-medical practical, emotional, and spiritual support and as a Funeral Celebrant, she holds sacred space for this rite of passage for both the death journeyer and their loved ones.
Her work is heavily influenced by nature related practices, energy work such as Reiki and Kahi Loa, and Buddhism. At the request of participants of her talks around end of life topics and rituals for processing grief, she’s currently developing a more extensive training on rituals and ceremonies for end of life support and education to other practitioners and caregivers.
Hawaiian Hula & Kahi Loa
End-Of-Life & Rites of Passage
Hawaiian Hula & Kahi Loa
Amanda's first connection to Hawai'i was actually before she went there. She completed a program on nature based energy work with roots in Kauai in 2009. She has been providing sessions for almost two decades and teaching Kahi Loa since 2012. She’s one of only a few people in North Carolina that actively trains people in or provides sessions in Kahi Loa.
Amanda traveled to Hawai’i Island in 2013 and in one year returned two more times. During her second trip she discovered Hawaiian Hula and soon after, found a Kumu (teacher) for immersive in-person learning on O'ahu and continues her studies virtually. Through this sacred art, she continues to explore the intersection of movement (Hawaiian Hula) with geography, history, spirituality, and the natural environment. You can learn more about Amanda's passion in learning and sharing hula here.
Rituals & Ceremonies
Sacred Spaces & Paths
Hawaiian Hula & Kahi Loa
Over the past two decades, Amanda has spent time in person with her teachers from different cultures learning earth honoring rituals such as a water blessing ceremony from an Aymara healer and a despacho from a Peruvian paqo to honor a sacred mountain (apu). As someone interested in rituals and mythology, she also trained in traditional Scottish wedding rituals for nine-months with a well-known expert in Caim Ceremonies and Scottish rituals.
Sacred Spaces & Paths
Sacred Spaces & Paths
Sacred Spaces & Paths
Today Amanda also explores experiences people have with intentionally constructed sacred spaces such as within labyrinths, stone circles, and temples. Amanda is a Veriditas-trained Labyrinth facilitator and focuses on the use of labyrinths in Higher Education. In her Sacred Spaces, Sacred Paths course, students build a labyrinth to create a space on campus for contemplative practices in teaching.
Spiritual Landscapes
Sacred Spaces & Paths
Sacred Spaces & Paths
Her doctorate research focused on natural landscapes in the Southern Appalachian region. Within her research she explored people’s experiences in nature through three lenses - the perception of beauty (aesthetic), group and individual rituals and ceremonies (cosmic), and awe and wonder through strong religious or spiritual personal experiences (numinous). Today she guides people to these landscapes in Scotland and Hawaii.