Core Team:

Paula Terrero, Lead Reiki Master and Lead Reiki Teacher.  

Paula Terrero, Reiki Master in the Usui System of Natural Healing was born and raised in the Dominican Republic.  Paula has been practicing Reiki since 1986 and was initiated as a Master in 1993 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Since then, she has been teaching continuously in New York City, Detroit, Michigan, Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Dominican Republic.   Her focus is in the empowerment of people by helping them to rediscover the power to heal that is innate to all of us.  She believes Reiki is a beautiful, powerful and easy way to contact and activate that power.

 She is an advocate of grass roots health community work and as such has participated in many projects including People’s Health Center in New York City.  Currently she is a member of the Council of Elders of the Kalpulli Izcalli and a former member of the Kalpulli’s Promotoras Tradicionales Project offering Reiki to community members as part of this community based group that promotes traditional and alternative ways of healing.  She also offers her services at Casa de Salud Family Practice in Albuquerque’s South Valley as the coordinator of the Healing Oasis Program –an intensive outpatient program for opiate recovery.  Paula is a founding member of the Cancer Care Reiki Clinic, which has been offering Reiki treatments free of charge to Cancer Survivors and their Caregivers and loved ones since 2008.  She is a founding member of the Sacred Spring Reiki Collective. 

She teaches all the three levels of Reiki.  She also teaches Reiki in Spanish upon request.

Paula is the author of “Sowers of Light” where she shares stories of her Reiki Journey.

 Jeni McCormick, MPH, Reiki Master

Jeni McCormick has been practicing Reiki since 2007 and has over 20 years’ experience as a health educator, health program administrator and as a community organizer.  She learned the Usui system of Reiki in New Mexico with her teacher, Paula Terrero, and is a Reiki Master.

 Ms. McCormick began practicing Reiki in 2007 as a means of self-treatment during her own cancer therapy and was initiated as a Level III Reiki practitioner in 2018. She and Paula Terrero developed the free-of-charge Cancer Care Reiki program to help relieve the burden of medical care (both financial and stress-related) for cancer patients and their families in New Mexico.  She is also a founding member of the Sacred Spring Reiki Collective. 

 She has presented about Reiki and its impacts in medical institutions, as well as its impact in community settings.  As a patient advocate and educator with a background in public health as well as a health systems innovator, Ms. McCormick works as a community organizer and contractor for healths systems development organizations nationwide, such as Accountable Care Organizations, medical cooperatives, and community health clinics.

Ms. McCormick, along with her comadres in the Sacred Spring Reiki Collective, offers compassionate end of life care, peace of mind, and guidance for patients, families and caregivers.  Their approach is to relieve suffering, enhance awareness, and to empower clients with the tools of self-healing, useful both in disease prevention and in support of conventional medical treatment.

Frances Varela, MSN, MALAS, Reiki Master

Frances Varela, Level III Reiki Practitioner, has been practicing Reiki since 2003. Frances has over 50 years of experience as a registered nurse in a variety of clinical settings, a child advocate, a public health administrator and educator and a health education trainer. She received her Reiki First Level training from Elizabeth Valsala, Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2003. She received her Second Level and Reiki Master training from Paula Terrero, Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2004 and Amy Rowland, Skippack, PA, in 2006. She has received additional training in traditional Japanese Reiki Level 3 from Frans Stiene of the International House of Reiki. She has been trained in the first 2 Levels of Jikiden Reiki by Frank Arjava Petter.

Since 2003, Reiki practice both for self healing and sharing with others in the community has been an integral part of her healing journey as a cancer survivor. As someone committed to social justice and the power of community to promote healing, Frances sees the practice of Reiki as one of the most self-empowering paths to individual and community wellbeing.

She has been participating in community Reiki healing events since 2003 and has been a core team member of Sacred Spring Reiki Collective since 2015.

Teresa Tobin-Esdale, LMT, BA, Reiki Practitioner

Teresa Tobin -Esdale has been practicing Reiki since 1998 using the Usui System of Reiki.  She began working in the health and wellness field as a Massage Therapist, Reflexologist, and Healing Touch Practitioner since 2003.  She also had the opportunity to attend the Traditional Medicine with Borders in 2015 at UNM.  Her practice has been in Massachusetts, Florida and now in the Land of Enchantment.  

Her journey to Reiki and the healing arts opened up as a self-treatment during her own medical issues.  She was initiated as a Level II Reiki practioner by her teacher in Massachusetts where she volunteered in a Reiki clinic.  Her comittment to community service began as a career after college working with the elderly and women in poverty.  Her volunteer services include hospice and cancer care. 

Here experiences in health and wellness led her to Sacred Spring Reiki Collective where she found a place to honor self-healing and offer compassionate care to the community. 

Jacque Schneider, RN, Reiki Master

Jacque Schneider originally comes from Arizona, where she began as a Registered Nurse with a specialty in Neonatal Intensive Care.  She spent 15 years in Portland, Oregon working in the NICU at Oregon Health Sciences Center.  She has worked as a School Nurse, Pediatric Triage Nurse and Hospice Nurse. 

She moved to Albuquerque several years ago to learn traditional medicine, or Curanderismo.  Her mother and her family came from Northern New Mexico and her grandmother was a partera, or midwife.  Naturally, she was drawn to learn more about her family in New Mexico and the medicine of her grandmother and her mother.   When she discovered that her cousin was a Curandera, she knew that she needed to be here to learn and to practice the natural way of healing.

Ms. Schneider has been fortunate to attend the Traditional Medicine class at UNM yearly since 2008 and to study with her cousin and Elena Avila, the internationally known Curandera from Albuquerque.

It was at the UNM class that she met her Reiki teacher, Paula Terrero.  She is a level III Reiki practitioner and gives treatments in the Cancer Care Reiki Clinics.  She also practices Reiki and Curanderismo in the community gatherings and ferias de salud in and around Albuquerque, and is a Core Member of the Sacred Spring Reiki Collective.  

For several years, her passion was working with premature and sick infants.  Now, her passion is the healing of the mind, body and spirit of those who open their hearts to this wonderful traditional form of healing.  

Lupe Marroquin, LISW, Reiki Practitioner

Lupe Marroquin is a specialist in Social Work and School Social Work.  She graduated from New Mexico Highlands University in 1991, with a degree in Social Work.  She has a background in counseling, and is a Level II Reiki Practitioner.  Lupe is a core member of the Sacred Spring Reiki Collective, and is actively involved in practicing Reiki with the Cancer Care Reiki Clinic.  She has extensive community experience as a counselor, volunteer Reiki practitioner treating victims of sexual assault, and continues her healing as a local musician.  

Volunteers:  

Over twenty Reiki practitioners regularly volunteer their time to serve our community by giving free treatments to Cancer patients and their families, and communities in need in the Albuquerque area.  We thank you all for your beautiful healing hands and for being  a part of our circle of community healing.