About Luz Sagrada

 

Stacy and Brad are the founders of Luz Sagrada, a Section 501(c)(3) faith-based organization located in the state of Maryland. Their story together began in a Queer Theology course at Yale Divinity School (YDS) in August 2000. They bonded over shared interests and were married almost two years later. Stacy completed her Master of Divinity degree at YDS and Brad completed his Master of Arts in Religion degree. Forgoing traditional ministerial paths, Stacy subsequently pursued a profession in counseling. To that end, she completed a master’s degree in transpersonal counseling psychology focusing on trauma therapy. Stacy is currently a therapist in the state of Maryland, is the owner of a group therapy practice, and trains other therapists in various modalities related to victims of trauma. Brad remained in academia and completed his Ph.D., focusing on American religious history. Today, Brad is a Religious Studies professor and author.

 

Their professional interests intersected in 2018 when Brad began researching the history of ayahuasca and entheogens more broadly and when Stacy started exploring psychedelic-assisted therapy, which shows tremendous potential for treating clients with trauma. After reading and hearing about numerous stories of profound healing with various entheogenic plants and fungi, Stacy and Brad attended their first ayahuasca retreat. For the first time in their adult lives, they felt called by something bigger than themselves to pursue a particular course of action. That calling resulted in Luz Sagrada.

 

To create this church, they hired attorneys who specialize in the formation of entheogenic communities. Brad then travelled to Peru where he trained with members of the Shipibo tribe to administer ayahuasca and to facilitate ceremonies. Stacy studied psychedelic-assisted therapy and completed several courses related to the topic. They also purchased a home with twenty acres of land about ten minutes north of Baltimore, Maryland, where they hold ceremonies.

 

Given his training, Brad is the primary facilitator in ceremony and is the administrator of our sacrament. Stacy, along with the members of the Board of Directors, are Guardians during ceremony, who help hold the space and who assist attendees if they need help. After ceremony, Stacy leads integration circles to help people continue to heal and to implement the lessons revealed by spirits guides during ceremony.

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