Time devoted to your spiritual journey: your questions and qualms, your doubts and dreams, your stories and your seeking.
Whether you’re Jewish or Jew-ish, here is support for your spiritual journey.
These sessions offer a non-judgmental container for:
- Non-Jews who find themselves drawn to Judaism and want a place to start exploring
- People in the process of converting to Judaism who wish to expand their existing Jewish conversations and explorations
- Folks who have Jewish heritage but limited education or knowledge
- Jews who identify as “cultural” or “spiritual but not religious”
- Jews who haven’t set foot in a synagogue since their b’nai mitzvah
- Jews who are observant in non-traditional ways
- Jews who are established in a synagogue/Jewish community of any denomination, and wish to reflect on their own Jewish experiences, beliefs, and questions
- Jews who wish they felt more connected but don’t know where to begin
- Jews who have felt alienated by other Jews
- Jews who question the role of Judaism in their lives
- Anyone who is curious to make more space in their lives for more contemplation and practice – and defining what that means for you
Each of our conversations will offer you space to see where your own questions and stories lead.
“We understand that ordinary people are messengers of the Most High. They go about their tasks in holy anonymity. Often, even unknown to themselves. Yet, if they had not been there, if they had not said what they said or did what they did, it would not be the way it is now. We would not be the way we are now. Never forget that you too yourself may be a messenger.”
~ Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, from Honey from the Rock
How It Works
It is my firm belief that this is not work that can or should be rushed.
For this reason, sessions occur monthly, allowing for plenty of time between meetings for you to “be with” the content of our conversations are well as to read, write, explore, experiment, and wander in the wilds of your real life.
Each session begins with a few minutes of silence, followed by an invitation to set a kavanah, or intention, for our time together.
From there, you might have specific questions or topics on your mind and heart, or we will simply begin where you are and trust the flow of conversation to lead you exactly where you need to go.
Book one, three, six, or 12 sessions
Each session is 90 minutes and costs $250
* We can meet over Zoom, by phone, or in person in Amherst, Massachusetts. Weather permitting, walking outdoors is a bonus!
* When you sign up for more than a single session, payments occur monthly.
* After you check out, you’ll be redirected to my calendar where you can select time(s) for our session(s) that best suits your schedule.
Jena’s Lineage
Ancestrally Jewish – Ashkenazi on her mom’s side and Sephardic on her dad’s – Jena and her two older sisters grew up with no conscious Jewish identity. In part because her mom grew up with Christian Science and her dad was more intellectual than religious, her childhood was completely secular and she didn’t realize until later that staples like matzo ball soup and Yiddish- and Ladino-speaking grandparents were there all along.
In high school, she began to awaken to her Jewish identity thanks to her high school history teacher, Mark Gerstein, whose Holocaust class changed her life. As an undergrad, Jena lit Shabbat candles for the first time, dipped a toe into services of various denominations, and felt a near-constant blend of yearning and alienation. As a Russian Studies major, her academic work mirrored her personal journey, culminating in a senior thesis about Soviet-Jewish identity among recent immigrants to the United States, which won highest honors.
Neither a rabbi nor a therapist, Jena’s work has long defied easy categorization. “Co-exploring” is what she does with clients: being curious with, asking questions, listening, deeply, and joining in the discovery our time together brings. Rather than offering answers, Jena walks alongside you as you find your own.
She brings 20+ years of experience as a life coach, writing coach, and college career counselor, Jewish professional experience as a former Hillel director, and lived experience as someone who did not grow up with a Jewish identity or education only to make Judaism central to her life and work. She has navigated raising Jewish children in an interfaith marriage, divorce and co-parenting, coming out, remarriage, and becoming an adult bat mitzvah. She traveled to Israel for the first time in 2019, with her parents and teenage daughter.
With her rabbi’s blessing, Jena is honored to hold space for those who are exploring their own spiritual journeys and to provide a starting point for anyone who wishes to connect more to their Jewish being, doing, and sense of possibility.
Through her work as a coach and a facilitator, Jena has worked with hundreds of individuals ranging in age from 13 to 83 navigating existential and practical questions alike. Deeply invested in her own personal healing work, she leans heavily on the tools she learned and deepened while taking Randi Buckley’s Healthy Boundaries for Kind People course. She is known for being empathetic, funny (but not usually on purpose!), gentle, and incisive. She often brings poetry and sometimes creative practices into her work with clients, based on their interests.
Terms & Conditions:
- All payments are nonrefundable
- If you need to reschedule, you must provide > 24 hours notice
- Jewish Co-Exploring Sessions may be therapeutic, but they are not a replacement for therapy
Jewish Creative Practice 