About Me

Hello,
My name is Susan J Katz and I am glad you have come to visit my website!

My life has been one of questioning and curiosity, adventure, and exploration, in both the external world and the greater internal, spiritual one.

My first career was as a Biologist, an extension of my affinity with Nature as a child and then adult. I learned the science of how living things and the natural world worked, and as a University Laboratory Research Associate, learned how to manipulate or recombine DNA, the material that creates our genetic stories.

I had gone deeply into the chemical mystery of how life worked, but wanted to know more. My work shifted away from the DNA laboratory and toward inner growth, through learning the internal martial arts, including Tai Chi  Chu’an and University studies of their philosophical foundations as found in the I Ching, or Book of Changes. I easily grasped and absorbed these arts, and in 1984 my teachers charged me with becoming a teacher, as well. I stepped away from the laboratory work.

Beginning with that auspicious time, my students came to be my teachers, and their keen questions piqued my curiosity about the nature of our spiritual selves further. 

More internal barriers to self-actualization dropped away and I embraced my life-long desire to play the Oboe. My deepest levels of spiritual connection and self-expression became obtainable through playing this most lovely and evocative double-reed instrument.

I went back to school, into full-time studies in Spiritual Care and Sacred Music. There, I received affirmation and encouragement to develop my gift of being highly sensitive and intuitive. Traits that had previously been a burden in my life and relationships, now became my strength.

I focused on serving the needs of people with mental, physical, and financial barriers.

Whether teaching Tai Chi Chu’an with seniors or sitting at bedside with patients living with HIV/AIDS, the focus remains; on providing the sacred work of Presence, of going alongside those who are striving to find spiritual connection that may have been lost, and who have the desire to find it once again.

I have Certifications in Grief Recovery Training and Peer Group Facilitation, and am an Emergency Responder with the Canadian Red Cross. I am a Member, with Professional Practice Insurance, of the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC), and am also a member of the Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC), the American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA), and Spiritual Directors International (SDI). I am a freelance musician, and play the Oboe and Cor Anglais.

****Please fill out the form on my Contact page for more information

More details about my career path are on my profile on LinkedIn.

Thank you for visiting!