Hero’s Journey® Foundation
About Us
Our Mission
The Hero’s Journey® Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization.
Our mission is to provide experiential learning opportunities by living into the myth of the Hero’s Journey®.
We embrace the Hero’s Journey® myth as a vehicle for awakening consciousness, for personal transformation, and to create opportunities for service locally and globally.
Our programs support individuals and groups in the pursuit of becoming ‘the hero of their own life’.
The Hero’s Journey® Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides unique programming in service of transformational experiences.
We make use of inspiring and challenging wilderness environments to deepen self-awareness and embrace unifying life experiences. People come from various traditions, cultures, and countries to experience this deep level of personal and communal support.
This work greatly assists those who seek successful rites of passage through significant life transitions, as well as those who seek to overcome personal obstacles and self-imposed limitations that hinder personal development and unity of mind-body-spirit.
At every event we create, we recognize people by their self-given gender identities. We strive to create a safe space for people from all backgrounds and walks of life.
“The mark Hero’s Journey Foundation ® and any copyrighted material authored by Joseph Campbell are used under license from the Joseph Campbell Foundation (www.jcf.org).”
OUR OBJECTIVES
To redefine the archetypal role of hero in our current times: from an idealized, super-human role of savior to a more human posture, one among the others, who is more real, more vulnerable, and ultimately, a more livable role.
We do this through offering wilderness intensives, weekend retreats, unique evening events, and dynamic online courses.
Meet the Summer Journey facilitators
Journey Facilitators
Michael Mervosh
Founder, Facilitator
Michael is the founder of The Hero’s Journey® Foundation. Michael has designed and implemented all of the Journey offerings provided by HJF. He is also the site director and lead facilitator for the Men’s Journey Intensives and Weekend Immersions.
Michael is a licensed psychologist and has been a well-established psychotherapist in private practice in Pittsburgh, PA. He also trains and teaches across the US and Europe. He received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology and his master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Pittsburgh.
Anna Noack
Facilitator – Women’s Journey Director
Anna Noack has worked with the Hero’s Journey Foundation for 20 years, supporting the work of the Foundation through Immersions, Retreats, online courses and the week-long Women’s Journey Intensive.
Anna is a life-long learner, and heart-centered journeyer, in practice of communication, learning, connection and adventure, both professionally and personally.
She is a registered yoga teacher, and brings her whole-hearted approach to life to the classes she teaches.
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David Baycura
Facilitator
David has been an organizer and facilitator of men’s circles since 2007; active in the ManKind Project since 2006, in which he currently serves as local leader and trainer; and has been a student of the Diamond Approach (A.H. Almaas) spiritual path since 2010. Along the way, David has graduated programs in PsychoEnergetics, Holographic Memory Resolution (HMR) and TaKeTiNa, and explored many dozens of multi-day workshops, from NLP, energy medicine and Chinese medicine to continuing education classes for psychotherapists (like psycho-pharmacology, Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning and treatment of trauma).
David’s lifetime in relation to career experience has been in creating places for people to live, as designer, builder and developer, and property types from houses to high-rises to golf course retirement community.
Josef Beraha
Facilitator
Josef Beraha is a Facilitator at the Hero’s Journey programs, a teacher at PhycoEnergetic
His passion is to journey and support others into their own inner and unfolding world.
Kim Clay
Facilitator
Eddie Cruz
Facilitator
Eddie’s longing and desire for a more fulfilling life led him to attend his first men’s summer intensive in 2009. It was this powerful and life-changing experience that had him returning to men’s group. Eddie brings his passion, sensitivity, and desire to his work.
Eddie is a licensed psychotherapist who maintains a private practice in Miami, FL. In his private practice, he has gained extensive clinical experience working with various clients.
He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida International University, in Miami, FL. His formal training and education have played a part in how he practices.
Joseph Jastrab
Facilitator
The power of Joseph’s presence as a teacher, counselor, and retreat leader derives from his lifelong apprenticeship with the wisdom teachings of the earth.
His 20-year vocation of guiding Vision Quests is chronicled in his book, Sacred Manhood, Sacred Earth. Joseph is an HJF Teacher, facilitating explorations in conscious eldering, and currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Turning Point, the online journal of the Conscious Elders Network.
He has been with The Hero’s Journey® work since it’s original inception in 1999.
Cecily Armstrong
Facilitator
Cecily is a holistic wellness facilitator. She works with emotionally-attuned leaders and professionals who feel disconnected because their intense lifestyle is taking a toll on their health, work and relationships. Cecily empowers them to reconnect to their inner guidance, so they can choose what happens in their lives, engage in fulfilling relationships and feel strong in their bodies again. Cecily has been involved with the Hero’s Journey Foundation since 2006. For more on Cecily, visit www.cecilyarmstrong.com .
Nancy Lishack
Facilitator
Kate Pernice
Facilitator
Kate Pernice has been a nurse practitioner for 30 years, currently in private practice in New York. She is a teacher, therapist, and healer. Her work has brought her into the wilds of mountain forests, the mythical and magical birthing room, culturally rich inner-city clinics and more. Kate’s integrative approach combines allopathic, botanical, homeopathic and energy medicine with a deep search into identity, thriving and the spiritual journey of the psyche and soul.
Kate has taught internationally and in the U.S. for over 20 years. In addition to co-facilitating the Women’s Hero’s Journey since 2005, she lectures, offers retreats, and facilitates women’s circles and shamanic journeys.
Kate has been a lifelong student of body energy and movement practices and holds a 4th degree black belt in the martial arts.
Cindy Petrakis- Mason
Facilitator
In her experience as a teacher and counselor, Cindy has brought her passion for the process of self-discovery, healing and growth to her work with families, individuals and groups.
She believes in the healing and transformational powers of community and in the importance of honoring transitions in our lives.
Cindy brings her experience in the Hero’s Journey program and her desire to work with young women on their journey to her role as co-developer and facilitator of the Young Women’s Program.
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Irene Tobler
Facilitator
Irene Tobler is a licensed naturopath and certified homoeopath, body worker, process oriented therapist and healer.
In her private practice since 1990, in Switzerland and internationally, Irene had the opportunity to gather extensive clinical experience working with clients from many different cultural and language backgrounds.
In her work with clients she combines classical homoeopathy with body oriented process work, which includes the transpersonal perspective of human experience. She pays special attention to body sensations as a gateway into unconscious material.
Irene has been teaching workshops and trainings internationally since 1998, and has been co-leading the Hero’s Journey® for Women in the USA for over ten years.
Janet Wepner
Facilitator- Women’s Journey Assistant Director
Janet Wepner is a healing arts professional and owns and runs her own wellness center with her husband, in Newton, NC. She is a yoga instructor, reiki practitioner and Brennan healing practitioner. Janet is passionate about supporting people as they cross significant thresholds in their lives. In her work, she sees people not just as who they are, but also as who they are becoming. Janet has been involved with the Hero’s Journey ® Foundation since 2007.
John Wepner
Facilitator
John has been involved with the Hero’s Journey Foundation since 2004. He brings his passion for personal growth and transformational group work together with his love of wilderness and nature settings. He finds that simple and wild natural settings invoke a powerful response in our inner psyches that modern life in cities fails to reach.
John is a licensed psychotherapist and maintains a full-time private practice in Hickory, NC. He received his bachelor’s in Health Promotion from Appalachian State University and his master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lenoir Rhyne University. In years past, John also led groups and programs with the Pathwork and Barbara Brennan School of Healing.
Administration
Reach Us Here
Mailing Address
201 S Highland Ave Suite 101
Pittsburgh PA 15206 USA