Passion in Action: Alumnx stories of service by Halley Hadfield, Kendall Higgins & Danielle Poitras
CONTEMPLATIVE BUSINESS
Beth A. Smith utilized their degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy to re-enter and rise in the business world Beth A. Smith’s degree in Contemplative Psychotherapy (‘06) prepared them to re-enter the business world with what some might see as an unconventional perspective. Today, Smith is the CEO of StickerGiant—a company with 130 employees voted “One of the Best Places to Work in 2018” by Denver Business Journal and again in 2022 by Built in Colorado. Smith is one of the few CEOs who identifies as gender non-binary, and they say they utilize their training in contemplative psychotherapy all the time to meet the demands of being a leader in the fast-paced world of business. Smith first heard about Naropa through a tourism book they picked up on a business trip in Denver twenty-some years ago. They decided to visit campus
and were amazed to discover a university like Naropa existed, yet they returned to Virginia and eventually obtained their first master’s degree from George Washington University. Years later, when Smith got their first home computer, the first website they typed into it was naropa.edu. They had not thought about Naropa in ages—yet, when confronted with the question, “What do I want to search?” The answer that came to mind was Naropa. Smith shares how their dyslexia always drew them to non-traditional education and speaks to the uniqueness of a Naropa education. They valued the connection with their cohort and experiences in the Maitri rooms—and they laugh about how Naropa can be challenging to explain to someone who has
FINANCIAL THERAPY
Bari Tessler fuses financial management with somatic counseling in The Art of Money Bari Tessler is a pioneer in the financial therapy field and redefining how it looks to cultivate a healthy relationship with money. Fusing her financial management experience with the tools she learned in Naropa’s Master’s in Somatic Psychology program (‘98), Tessler developed her own money methodology, The Art of Money. Upon graduating from Naropa, Tessler thought her areas of expertise would be intimacy, sexuality, food, the body, grief, and death, “and we get to all of these topics,” says Tessler. “Our relationship to money is the doorway I’m going through.” Her methodology navigates the practical through the sacred. Tessler invites her clients to practice a body check-in and notice what emotions arise in money situations. “They are the same set of emotions that come up in every other area of our life,” Tessler
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