Meet Our Guides
Our team is a constellation of dedicated nature guides, soul-centered ecologically focused associate therapists and leaders with a wide range of exerpience in teaching, facilitating guiding and mentoring. All guides have personal experience in Rite of Passge work and are supervised by a licensed ecotherapist with speciality in Nature Based Rites of Passage work — together we bring a heart-centered dynamic and diverse team. Program Guides
Jay McCarrick
Project steward + co-guide Jay (they/them), MA, AMFT #15669 (supervised by lauren hoernig, LMFT #145687) is a ritual guide, animist practitioner and student of their traditional ancestral lifeways. jay is a fourth generation irish-american, trans/nonbinary, queer creative dedicated to a place based lifestyle. jay is a passionate steward of bioregional practices and values and tends a rich intergenerational and interspecies web. Jay is a group facilitator, community organizer and cultural worker focused on intergenerational & relational healing. Jay is an Somatic Therapist and graduated with a Masters in somatic Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in 2025 with a focus in ecological, depth and liberation psychology. Jay was co-guide for Nature’s Mystery School of Awareness youth Rite of Passage Program supporting adolescents in nature-based education and engagement through a multi-month long initiation mentorship. jay has studies and practiced with Community Supported Rites of Passage organization in oregon. jay has held diverse roles supporting youth development over the last 15 years. jay is a song carrier, gardener, and apprentice to oak, sea and deer and hawthorn.
Lauren Hoernig
project supervisor Lauren Hoernig (she/her), MA, LMFT #145687, is an ecotherapist and wilderness guide practicing through Axis Mundi Center for Mental Health. Lauren holds Wilderness First Responder, Education Specialist, Wilderness Leadership, and Holistic Counseling Psychology certifications and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Lauren is also a queer, bi-racial mother, divorcee, lover, and artist who loves to sing and dance, currently living in Richmond, CA
Martine Glaros
circle of kin co-guideMartine Glaros (she/they) is passionate about connecting with community in nature. Trees and tall-grass fields sustained their spirit in adolescence, and they remain in awe of how the natural world- whether a dandelion on the sidewalk or an old-growth redwood forest- can inspire wonder, reflection, and a healing connection to something greater.
Martine graduated from the Wright Institute with a masters degree in counseling psychology in 2026, and spent her internship at a family-oriented mental health organization supporting parents, children and family relations. Before entering the psychotherapy world, Martine spent six years working as a Seed Ecologist participating in habitat restoration on Coast Miwok & Raymatosh Ohlone land (Marin & San Francisco), as well as facilitating nature programming for groups that ranged from tots to teens to elders (good snacks were crucial for all ages).
As a Black/ mixed queer woman with invisible disabilities, Martine is committed to holding space that feels inclusive and celebratory of diverse identities, and looks to nature to inspire new ways of expressing, adapting and relating. Martine is thrilled and honored to welcome youth/teens and their families to this space of connection, growth, and journey towards selfhood.
Reet Rannik Carías
cirlce of kin co-guideReet (pronounced rhett) Rannik Carías (she/they/ella) is a Latinx wilderness guide, song carrier, yoga teacher, creative writer, and psychotherapist-in-training devoted to the reciprocal healing of humans and the wild.Born and raised in the Dominican Republic with Estonian, Colombian, Dominican, and Irish (Celtic) roots, Reet’s path has been shaped by land and water. While living nomadically as a wilderness guide in the deserts of the Yavapai and Apache peoples, the saguaro, creosote, nopales, and the Verde River became teachers in their deepening ecological identity.Reet holds a master’s degree in Transpersonal Ecopsychology from Naropa University and guides nature-based rituals through Ecoterapia and EarthWays (earthwaysllc.com), inviting people into deeper relationship with the Earth and their own inner wild.
Leia Rippe
circle of kin co-guideLeia Rippe (she/her) studied at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA, earning her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology in 2026. Leia likes to go on hikes with her big dog, forage for wild mushrooms, listen to the rain, tend her garden, beach-comb, eat home-cooked meals with friends and family, and harvest plants, roots, bark, flowers, and berries to make natural dyes. Leia is passionate about interspecies kinship, dreamwork, off-trail adventuring, healthy mischief, and mixing humor with depth. Leia has been working with teenagers internationally since 2012, in roles ranging from lifeguard, project supervisor, and camp counselor to wilderness guide and mental health therapist. She has led and participated in her own rites-of-passage journeys and is beyond excited to hold an expansive and curious container for folks to cross meaningful thresholds together.