Director
Ted Esser, Ph.D., has been the Director of Operations of the Spiritual Emergence Network for over twenty years (with a two-year pause–see below). He has an MA in Philosophy & Religion and a PhD in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. A summary of his doctoral research, Lucid Dreaming, Kundalini, the Divine, and Nonduality: A Transpersonal Narrative Study appears in the book Lucid Dreaming: New Perspectives to Consciousness in Sleep (2014) published by Praeger. He is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies. He has taught graduate-level Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology courses at John F. Kennedy University and Sofia University (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology). He has a spiritual counseling practice in San Diego, California, USA. Further information about his work is available through his website: www.tedesser.com.
Community Manager
Travis Gray, MFTI is the Spiritual Emergence Network USA’s Community Manager. You can find out more about his research and therapy practice here.
SEN Advisory Board
Susana Bustos, Ph.D., was the SEN Director for two years before transitioning into a more supportive role in 2020. She holds degrees in Clinical Psychology (1992) and in Music Therapy (2002) from Chilean universities, as well as a doctorate in East-West Psychology from CIIS (2007), where she presently teaches courses in Entheogenic Shamanism and Research Design. She is certified in Holotropic Breathwork and the Expressive Arts.
Her work in Chile included the creation of psycho-educational programs, teaching, research, and psychotherapy. Susana’s long-term passion for indigenous cultures and their relationship to the natural world, along with her interest on the therapeutic potentials of non-ordinary states of consciousness, led her to the Peruvian Amazon in 1999. Since then, she has been studying Vegetalismo and other indigenous shamanic practices from the Americas. Her doctoral research focused on the healing function of the icaros during ayahuasca ceremonies, which is an ongoing area of study for her.
The process of integration of entheogenic experiences in ordinary life became one of her main interests while working as a therapist and clinical trainer at Takiwasi (a Peruvian center for the treatment of drug addiction which integrates indigenous and Western medicine), where she has worked as a clinical supervisor and researcher. Susana continues to focus on this theme in her private practice in Berkeley, CA.
She works supporting the integration of experiences in nonordinary states of consciousness into daily life in her private practice in Berkeley, and she also teaches and conducts independent research on entheogenic shamanic traditions of the Americas. Susana offers workshops and lectures internationally, and leads groups into the Amazonian rainforest.
Susana’s latest book contribution Healing Icaros in Peruvian Vegetalismo appears in Luna & White’s “Ayahuasca Reader: Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine” (2016).
is a psychologist specializing in transpersonal and expressive arts approaches to mental health. She works with individuals, couples, families, and groups. One of her areas of expertise is using embodied and mindfulness-based practices to uncover and release blocks to mental, emotional, creative, and spiritual well-being. Dr. Bella brings an integral approach to her treatment protocols, which includes traditional-based modalities as well as cutting-edge clinical technologies. She has used these approaches for those with PTSD and trauma, depression, addictions, personality disorders, anxiety, spiritual emergence and spiritual emergencies, as well as other major mental disorders. Dr. Bella is an authority on the use of creative and expressive arts in clinical treatment, and has co-authored a chapter on the use of this modality in the “Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology.” She is also a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and a certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Practitioner, which reflects her integral approach to using embodied and somatic approaches to treating the whole person. Dr. Bella holds a doctorate in East/West Psychology and has been a yoga and meditation practitioner since 1997. She is a lifelong artist and is deeply interested in the role of expressive arts and consciousness practices in living a full and rich life based on creativity, vitality, and present-moment awareness.