Marilyn Strong, MA
Spirit and Wellness Guide.
Marilyn is a Jungian-oriented spiritual counselor with a keen interest in ritual, depth-psychology, Alchemy, and the healing process that comes through making ritual art.
Most recently, after many years of personal study of and several years of pilgrimage to Black Madonna sites, she is now teaching on-line courses in that area of study and leads small groups of women in pilgrimage to France to see the Black Madonnas.
A life-long dream tracker and leader of dream groups, Marilyn has trained with Jungian Analyst and depth-psychologist Robbie Bosnak, in Embodied Imagination, a way of working with dreams and waking memories that is body-based and wellness-oriented. Through her studies of ritual and ceremony with Native European and Native American teachers, she discovered that she had a natural aptitude for walking and guiding others “between the worlds.” These studies also engendered in her a love of earth-based spirituality, an appreciation of the Wheel of the Year, the healing aspect of nature, animals, the elements and the seasonal round. As a ceremonialist she facilitates group and private ritual, and as an ordained minister, she facilitates weddings, rites of passage, and memorial services.
Marilyn has had an eclectic “career,” working in many arenas. She followed her love of keeping physically fit into being an instructor of step-aerobics, yoga and pilates mat classes at local Whidbey Island health clubs. She also served as Spa Director of The Spa at The Inn at Langley, where she created and facilitated Personal Wellness Retreats. She retired from this job when the pandemic hit in early Spring of 2020.
Earlier in her career, Marilyn worked for 12 years in the area of Open Adoption as a birth-mother counselor, an adoption social worker and an open adoption facilitator. In 2005, her training as a Death Midwife took her into the area of death and dying, helping families care for their own dead in facilitating Home & Family-Directed funerals. Upon reflection, Marilyn has been struck by the poignancy of working with others at both portals of transition - at the beginning and at the end of life, and the mystical connection between the two.
Marilyn has a BA in Religion and Adult Education (Antioch University) and an MA in Spirituality and Culture (Matthew Fox ’s ICCS). After graduation she worked in the areas of educational design, development, and group facilitation as Education Director at the Chinook Learning Center, and later through her own business called “Gaia Spirit Rising: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth” a Nine-Month Women’s Spiritual Growth Program, which ran for 8 years which she co-created and co-led with business partner, Renie Hope.