Iowa Wander

Transformational Guide, Explorer, & Nature Liaison

Iowa resides at the intersection of nature, people, and play. From an early age, wild places offered solace from her suburban childhood home in Northeast Ohio and sparked her creative imagination. With equal parts love of nature and love of people, Iowa considers herself a steward and a tender. This love manifested early in her life when she began teaching outdoor education and traveling.

Fascinated with how people learn and relate, she studied social psychology and received her undergraduate degree from Kent State University. After working with people and children in various environments, she entered the public education sector and earned a master’s in education. Iowa had a rewarding 15-year career working with the most diverse populations of learners across a multitude of learning environments, and with summers off, Iowa spent her free time traveling. Whether by car through the backbone of the country, by backpack in foreign lands, or by raft through the wilderness, she spent every spare moment by exploring the nature and people of the places she visited.

In 2015, after a near-death experience on a white water rafting trip, she took her spiritual studies and commitment to the shamanic path to the next level. She completed a year-long shamanic apprenticeship program, studied under shamanic practitioners, began a consistent journeying practice.

Learning to journey with a drum was a pivotal turning point, and allowed Iowa to integrate external landscapes with internal ones. She now brings people to different geological terrains based on the healing that is needed. From deserts, lava beds, mountain tops, forests, hot springs, and waterfalls; her unique experiences with so many terrains are incorporated in creating a unique and personalized experience.

More recent endeavors have included a year-long immersion in the art of Sacred Storytelling to support the creation of transformative experiences and the study of yoga through the lens of releasing trauma. Iowa incorporates yoga and journeying to create a powerful healing modality rooted in movement and self-empowerment. When not traveling or leading navigations or teaching yoga, Iowa can be found tending the plants and flowers in her garden or creating art with nature. As a guide, she can help you navigate both outer landscapes and inner landscapes with a sense of play and mystery.

On The Mountain: A Conversation

you ask
why I perch
on a jade green mountain?
I laugh
but say nothing
my heart
free
like a peach blossom
in the flowing stream
going by
in the depths
in another world
not among men