Meet The Institute's Shamans
Welcome to our team of skilled shamans! Each member brings a wealth experience and unique healing practices that have been honed over many years. With deep connection to nature and ancient wisdom, we are dedicated guiding you on your journey toward healing and self-discovery Together, we create a supportive and nurturing environment for all who seek teachings.
JP McLaughlin is a Colorado-based shaman and an initiated Kuraq Akulleq, a fourth-level shaman priest and wisdom keeper in the Q’ero tradition of the Peruvian Andes. He has studied with Ginger and Dale Lee of Sacred Ways, John Milton of Way of Nature, and Christina Pratt of Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing, and he also holds academic degrees in business management and intellectual history. In addition to his shamanic work, JP maintains a lifelong practice as an executive coach and is an ordained non-denominational minister. JP grew up in the desert Southwest, where in the quiet solitude of the high desert he became aware of the presence of life-force energy in all things. This awakening began a lifetime of seeking, exploration, and study of global Indigenous traditions that better explain the true nature of existence than modern science alone. JP now lives and practices in the Colorado mountains, where he spends time in nature, honors the seasonal cycles of the land, and continues his shamanic journey through study, contemplation, and teaching. Shaman JP is currently President of the Colorado Institute of Shamanic Studies and sits on the Board of Directors.
Rowena is a Colorado-based shaman whose work bridges a long career in the medical field as a Registered Nurse, working in many clinical fields. Always a spiritual seeker, she studied energy medicine, first through Reiki attunements and then with the ancestral teachings of Andean shamanism through the Rites of the Munay-Ki and further study with Puma Fredy Quispe Singona in Peru. After decades spent caring for the physical body and studying the subtle currents that shape human well-being, she stepped fully onto the shamanic path, where the science of healing and the wisdom of Spirit meet in a single, luminous thread. She is an initiated Kuraq Akulleq, a fourth-level shaman Priestess and wisdom keeper in the Q’ero tradition of the Peruvian Andes and continues to deepen her practice through ongoing study, ceremony, and service to the lineage and community. Raised in landscapes where nature speaks in wind, stone, and silence, Rowena learned early to sense the living energy within all things. That quiet recognition became the compass for a lifetime of inquiry—first through Western medicine, then through energy work, and ultimately through the Indigenous traditions that revealed a more complete map of the human spirit. Today she lives and practices in the Eastern Plains of Colorado, where the shifting seasons and the wide sky continue to guide her work and contemplations. Shaman Rowena is the Vice-President of the Colorado Institute of Shamanic Studies and serves on its Board of Directors. Through her teaching and healing practice, she helps students and clients reconnect to the wisdom of their own luminous nature, honoring both the grounded knowledge of the body and the expansive truth of the soul.