Director, 

Pacific Institute for Essential Conversations

For over 35 years, John Jeffery has been an Interfaith pastoral provider. He has worked in hospitals, trauma centers, hospices and palliative clinics and has accompanied hundreds of individuals and families through their dying journey and has served at the bedside of countless individuals in the midst of their trauma, uncertainty and despair. John began his journey as a Methodist minister and has served as a professional clinical chaplain, pastoral counselor, spiritual director and end of life care practitioner. He is a graduate of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and is a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain & Pastoral Counselor. John is a former Director of Spiritual Care Services for Kaiser Permanente.  He holds a doctoral degree in Ecological Theology.

For the past fifteen years John has been a clinical supervisor of chaplains, spiritual directors and pastor counselors and often provides training in end of life care for physicians, nurses, therapists and hospice staff. He is a graduate of the Metta Institute for End of Life Care,  a Fellow with the Association for Death Education and Counseling and a Fellow in Palliative and Hospice Care. John has been a student of Zen for the past 30 years. John offers pastoral counseling and spiritual direction to individuals both locally and nationwide.

John is a fully credentialed CPE Supervisor with the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation (CSCPF). 

John can be reached at: 925.699.2444 or john@pacinstitute.org

Susan Shannon, M. Div., BCCC,is a seeker, educator, earth and animal steward, and devotee of the heart. She has worked in the fields of Emotional Literacy and Restorative Justice for over 20 years, serving various communities including Tibetan Refugees, the homeless, the differently-abled, at-risk youth, and most recently, a Buddhist Chaplain to the men in San Quentin State Prison and Death Row. Susan incorporates over 45 years of Buddhist practice and study from the Tibetan tradition through an interfaith lens. She currently resides in the San Juan Islands where she writes, supervises Clinical Pastoral Education through the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation/Pacific Institute, provides spiritual coaching and stewards her land. 

Lily Godsoe received the call to ministry through her encounters at

the bedside as a Zen Hospice Project volunteer and other

spiritually-based outreach work.  She was ordained an Interfaith

Minister with the Chaplaincy Institute in 2011. Since then, Lily has

worked as a chaplain in a variety of clinical settings, including

hospices, rehabilitation centers, and life-plan communities.  Lily is

a Board Certified Clinical Chaplain & Supervisor of Clinical

Pastoral Education. Since 2017, Lily has served as the President

of CSCPF - The Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation,

an International Community of spiritual care practitioners that

educates chaplains and teaches CPE.  She achieved her MTh in Spiritual Direction and

DTh in Clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy through the University of Theology and

Spirituality. Lily began supervising Clinical Pastoral Education with CSCPF/Pacific

Institute in 2023. She lives in Half Moon Bay, California, and shares her life with her

husband, James and their dog, Tito.

Barbara A. McGuire is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Social Work Manager, Grief and Bereavement Counselor, Clinical Educator, and a Spiritual Care Emergency Responder for the American Red Cross.  She earned her Master of Social Work degree from Fordham University in New York City.  

 She currently works at Home Visits and Psychotherapy, LLC where she councils client’s in their homes.  Barbara provides individual plans of care, assessments, clinical interventions, and emotional support to adults and their families.

As a hospice-palliative grief and bereavement counselor, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her ongoing therapeutic counseling relationship with her clients who are spouses, parents, siblings, children, caregivers, or colleagues.

  Barbara is also in private practice.  She sees individual clients and facilitates group supervision and psychotherapy to lay and ordained professionals in New York.  For her ongoing professional continuing education, she recently started a online course in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).    

Barbara is a founding member and Supervisor in Pastoral Psychotherapy, Clinical Fellow in Hospice and Palliative Care, Board Certified Clinical Chaplain, and Board Certified Pastoral Counselor with the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation (CSCPF).   

For self care and fun, she loves walking the shores of Jones Beach on Long Island, enjoys reading, films, theaters, parks, and travels.  She says, "the miracle of your existence calls for celebration, everyday!”

 Barbara can be reached at: Barbara.A.McGuire@gmail.com or 516.316.5629

Julie is a chaplain and a Roman Catholic woman priest. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Public Communications and a Master of Science in Educational Psychology from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, and attended People’s Catholic Seminary, also in Albany (and online). Julie did her CPE through Albany Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center, and CSCPF/Pacific Institute. She also received a certificate in Community Chaplaincy through Global Ministries University.

Julie is currently a chaplain at Capital District Psychiatric Center, an in-patient behavioral health facility; a facilitator of moral distress/injury programs for Volunteers of America; and occasional chaplain volunteer at Albany Med, mostly so she can remember how pagers work. She lives outside Albany with Henry, her grumpy old man dog.

Julie is a Supervisory Fellow in training to become a CPE Supervisor