Katherine Lash of SpiritQuest Sedona Retreats
Katherine Lash, B.S.Ed., PhB, Magna Cum Laude
Katherine provides personalized transformative experiences in the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. Katherine is blessed to share this work with an amazing community of master healers, teachers, and guides who make it all possible. Over the years, Katherine has used her intuitive skills and dedication to quality in order to hand-pick her retreat facilitators. Katherine is an Arizona native who has lived in the Sedona area for over 45 years.
Specializing in small group and individual relationship dynamics, she teaches interpersonal life skills and guides people and organizations through critical transitions in life. Her studies in various yoga traditions, comparative religions, and metaphysical systems form the foundation of her work. She is currently a member of the Self-Realization Foundation based on the works and teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.
Katherine holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Bachelor of Philosophy from Northern Arizona University, graduating magna cum laude. SpiritQuest Sedona Retreat’s founder, Katherine Lash, is a master teacher and confidant to people aspiring to the highest levels of personal growth. Katherine served as a secondary teacher in the public school system for over 15 years before moving on to a holistic and spiritual field of instruction. Schooled in both Compassionate Communication and Gottman Couples Coaching, Katherine has counseled thousands of people and has facilitated hundreds of retreats. Katherine helps others re-frame the past to move forward to a brighter future. Her certification in Family Constellation work assists couples and families to restore balance and peace. Katherine also has achieved an art degree which allows her to utilize creative expression as a means to help clients reach their highest potential.
While living in Bali, Indonesia, Katherine had the opportunity to travel extensively in Tibet, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. These travels have given her great insights into both cultural diversity and spiritual practice. Katherine then moved to Hawaii for two years where she studied Ayurvedic medicine, plant medicine, and various Eastern modalities while getting licensed and certified in aesthetics. While living in Arizona she participated in over 100 sweat lodge ceremonies deepening her ability to understand & let go of her own pain and teaching others to do the same.
Katherine strives to empower her participants & has helped literally thousands of clients find inner peace and emotional freedom by reconnecting with Mother Earth and with themselves. She facilitates self-growth with energy healing, color therapy, chakra alignment, EFT, holistic nutritional health, personal empowerment coaching, and NVC (Non-Violent Communication) conflict resolution. Katherine’s experiences of self-growth & healing through years of overcoming her own personal struggles have resulted in a richly diverse set of tools and awareness she can bring to others. Serving as a businesswoman and spiritual guide, Katherine’s life has been devoted to empowering individuals to reach their full potential by shifting perspectives and awakening to higher consciousness.
Hear From Katherine
Read Katherine’s Book
This is a tale of my journey from despair and low self-esteem to empowerment of the soul. My story leads the reader to various countries in Asia to Hawaii and back again to my beloved Sedona, AZ. Along the way I discover numerous insights and tools for spiritual growth and fulfillment.
By working through the dark night of the soul, I gained the jewels that allowed me to grow my business SpiritQuest Sedona Retreats and help others along the way. These tools include helping clients find purpose, develop self-esteem, let go of the past, embrace self-love, forgive others, sharpen communication, develop trust and much more.
Troy Joseph DeSmet – HVPM I & II, B.A., NLP Certified
Dare to live a virtuous life full of contemplation and acts of faith. Troy has devoted his life to right action, supporting others, and encouraging them to be their best. Along with life experiences that include being a dad to 3 grown adults, selling his organic foods company after a 30-year career, healing from a near-death experience (Aortic Dissection), and accomplishing 10 dreams in 10 years, Troy incorporates the wisdom from scars with tools and techniques gained over 30 years of personal growth and development to assist others in living their best lives.
Troy is an intuitive and wounded healer. Healing and development experiences have brought him through life experiences of Existential Nihilism/Depression and the Dark Night of the Soul, breaking free from Narcissistic/Manipulative Abuse, the embodiment of Psycho-Spiritual Integration, and emergency open-heart surgery and associated emotional/mental trauma.
Troy’s philosophy: when clients learn how amazing and powerful they are, when they learn to love themselves once again when they know that THEY are the ones who can heal themselves, then they will join those of us on the planet who are here to raise the vibration of consciousness. Troy lives with the love of his life, Katherine, at the Sedona Sanctuary in Oak Creek Canyon and provides Personal Spiritual and Healing Retreats with SpiritQuest Sedona Retreats.
SpiritQuest Office Staff
Manager Jessica Jade
Jessica is moved and motivated by Spirit. She has devoted her life to validating, seeing, and hearing other humans on their healing paths. After going through her dark night, she had a deep and profound Spiritual Awakening. Nothing was ever the same after that point. She devoted her whole life to Spirituality and healing. Her past experiences gave her a wealth of empathy, understanding, and a deepening of her heart. She learned to never judge anyone, and she has deep faith in each and every person she connects with. Jessica obtained her license for Life Coaching at Southwest Healing Arts in Phoenix, where she also studied Ayurvedic Medicine, Yoga, and Holistic Health. After working with SpiritQuest for over 10 years, doing bodywork and healing, she decided to pour her heart into the office, as the Office Manager. She has since studied Business Management, Human Resources, and Communications. She merges her life experience, spirituality, and heart-centered living with her love for Business Administration. She has a unique gift that allows her to deeply connect with the people she consults on the phone and create a custom retreat for them. Most of all, and more importantly, she lives with integrity, and deep humility and sees each of her clients as being their very own most impactful practitioner.
SpiritQuest Retreat Coordinators
Kirti Wright Zhu
Assistant Manager, Kirti is a valuable staff member of SpiritQuest Sedona Retreats. She began her journey in October of 2020, upon moving to Sedona, AZ. She has worked in hospitality as a Front Desk Agent and Reservations Coordinator for over a decade, from her hometown in Alaska to the Bay Area of California. Kirti transitioned from that world back in 2015, to live at the Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville, CA, where she practiced Karma Yoga and offered her skills to her community for 5 years. Kirti thrives when helping her clients re-connect with their true, authentic soul expression. She is our Assistant Manager, as well as Retreat Coordinator and Practitioner, enjoying the abundant opportunities to be a dynamic member of the SpiritQuest Team! Kirti has tremendous skill in listening and patiently holding space for SpiritQuest clients. Kirti’s gifted ability to “read” people and hear people allows her to design retreat programs that are highly effective for clients.
Lauren Riffle
Native to the Central Coast of California, Lauren first traveled to the Red Rocks of Sedona nearly a decade ago. With a comprehensive personal & professional background in yoga, energy work, massage therapy & trauma-informed care she is passionate about the myriad paths to well-being. She embraces the idea of staying. Staying with a feeling, staying in confrontation, and staying when things get uncomfortable. Her yin yoga practice embodies this concept, and the evidence of its benefits is easily spotted in Lauren’s resiliency, great attitude, and heart-centered commitment to what she lives and believes in. She is continually inspired by the Human Spirit and our profound ability to create healthy, empowered, impactful lives through the ever-changing, and often challenging seasons life presents. Lauren recognizes her position at SpiritQuest as a sacred call to touch and impact people’s lives & holds great reverence for the beauty & history of Sedona.
SpiritQuest Webmaster & Support Staff
Rayonna Lash
Senior web developer at SpiritQuest Sedona Retreats, Rayonna specializes in front-end development. She has a background in graphic design and is responsible for the look and feel of the website as well as more technical aspects such as web speed and optimization. She has a B.A. in History and Graphic Design, her passions include studio art, writing, and the great outdoors.
The Sedona Retreat Experience
Combining Eastern, Western, and Sacred Earth modalities, the SpiritQuest Sedona Retreat Experience will take clients to a place of wholeness through a very specifically designed program. Our retreats are built of a synergistic series of sessions based on a paradigm developed by owner, Katherine Lash. The retreat will not consist of random sessions thrown together, rather we will carefully consider which session should occur first and so on allowing one session to build upon another. We will then gather a team of specialists and form the core group, these are practitioners who will work with clients throughout the retreat. The journey will begin the morning after clients arrive at the tranquil Retreat Center and launch with a sacred ceremony out on the land.
We consider ALL of Sedona part of the retreat experience and because our retreats go DEEP. If a client needs to cry or have a big release, he/she will have the space and freedom to do so…privately. This is NOT a spa experience or a vacation hang-out. A SpiritQuest Sedona Retreat is a life-changing experience of authentic self-growth and healing. It is a spiritual awakening. Our guests are never the same!