The Birth of Vision Quest Retreats

Vision Quest Retreats was born out of my own quest for my passion and purpose in life. After completing my doctoral studies in clinical psychology I began to realize that this was no longer my life’s dream. Instinctually, I knew that I had to find what I was passionate about in order to find my purpose and life’s work. I embarked on a course of prayer, meditation and study. I also received assistance from guides and other helpers I found along my path. My quest first led me to a reunion with a lifelong passion that had become dormant during my graduate studies—art. I reinvigorated my love of painting, eventually exhibiting and selling my work. The last series of paintings I completed are called Reclaiming the G*ddess, and they reflect female representations of the feminine divine. While painting is an important part of my journey, I knew being a professional artist was not my entire vision. 

The next step on my quest was Cutts Consulting, LLC. Toward the end of my five year stint in Los Angeles for graduate school, I had considered changing my area of study to organizational psychology. I liked the idea of working with people in organizations, but still enamored with clinical psychology at the time, I decided not to make the switch. 

Around 2002 and back on the East Coast, I got back in touch with my desire to work with organizations. I was already teaching in the Women’s Studies Dept. at The University of MD, Baltimore when a friend asked me to conduct a seminar on boundaries and ethics in the helping profession. I really enjoyed teaching and facilitating but when he asked me to conduct a two day staff retreat for sixty people I told him I had never done anything like this and was not sure I was ready. Remember the helpers I mentioned above? Well this man was one of my helpers. He assured me I was ready and guided me through the process. It was during a break the first day of the retreat that I had my epiphany. I had put the group into an exercise and gone to the room next door to grab a cup of coffee. I stopped and realized how much fun I was having and thought “I can’t believe these people are paying me to do this!” That’s it, clarity came. I wanted more of this so I began focusing my energies in this area. I continued to keep one foot in my clinical practice, but was becoming more and more aware that this was not where I found true fulfillment. 

Eventually I was ready to let the clinical work go, so in 2006 I turned Cutts Consulting into a limited liability corporation (LLC) and got serious about this business. While I have loved building and doing the organizational development and coaching work of this business, I know this is not the end of my quest. I coach many executives, managers and staff in a variety of enterprises and enjoy this and what always gets me excited the most is listening to people talk about what it is they REALLY want to do. Perhaps because I believe that I should be joyful in my work, and maybe because of my belief that we should be united with our life’s purpose, these discussions always resonated with me. On one level I am living my vision through my organizational development work but on another I realized that my ultimate mission and vision is helping others discover and live their visions. Hence I started Vision Quest Retreats as a vehicle to carry out my life’s work.