Circle Creation Breitenbush Guide Team
CLINICAL THERAPIST & FACILITATOR
Kay Alton, LICSW, M.Ed, RYT 500
Kay was born into an intentional community of nonprofit workers in Kenya, Africa and then Brussels, Belgium that centered their work around consensus building and third world development. At the tender age of 18 she completed a year long Technology of Participation training alongside her mother in their new home of Minneapolis, MN. The mother-daughter team led strategic planning sessions in the non-profit and for-profit sectors for years as Kay completed her first masters in Education. Kay was greatly influenced by her many canoe trips in the Boundary Waters of MN and found her way to Wilderness Therapy in Hawaii before returning to the mainland to complete her Masters in Social Work in 2012. Kay solidified her belief in the power of mindfulness through her advanced yoga training in Cambodia in 2015 before moving to the Columbia Gorge in 2016. Kay has been working with vulnerable populations ever since, most recently as an instrumental founder of programming at CultureSeed nonprofit that supports youth at the intersection of mental health and the outdoors.
Kay is able to combine her technical training on the neuroscience of communication with her clinical and social lens of the impact of individual stories and systemic oppression to provide a strong container for folks to be seen and heard whether in one on one therapy or in groups. Kay has sat alongside her co-facilitator, Kika Kielpinska, for over 6 years in circles. Kay recently left a lifetime of nonprofit work and has started her own private practice, Alton Counseling and Consulting LLC, that is focused on de-mystifying and de-specializing therapeutic work for individuals and organizations across the nation and abroad. She continues her community work under her banner “Aspen Collaborative Care” to provide care to local non profits and incarceration systems.
CRANIOSACRAL THERAPIST, CO-FACILITATOR
Kika Kielpinska, BCST, RYT 200
Certified as a craniosacral therapist and somatic coach, Kika brings curiosity and pragmatism to both the session and the circle. Her work centers the inherent health and intelligence of each participant. Over the last decade, Kika has created and facilitated somatic and circle-based programming for various life stages, including MamaRites, an experiential program focused around the initiatory journey of motherhood. Whether in individual sessions with adults, or while guiding a weekly group session of adolescents in her current nonprofit program director role, Kika is passionate about exploring the intersection of what’s true, what works, and what’s possible now.
Kika is also a second-generation land steward. She homesteads with her daughter and a collection of oversized fluffy animals in a small self-built house in the Columbia River Gorge. She is invested in building a world where people of all ages are empowered stewards of their bodies, lives, and places.
SOUND HEALER, YOGA TEACHER, COACH
Hannah Freeman
Hannah has dedicated much of her life to exploring and integrating holistic practices around nutrition, massage, birth, plant medicine, water therapy, and family health. Guided by a diverse array of teachers, including shamans, elders, children, and the wisdom of nature, she has deepened her understanding of these practices through extensive travel and study. Certified as a health coach, Doula, bodyworker, yoga teacher, and sound healer, Hannah's training includes experiences at the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics, the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and Columbia University. She has also spent immersive time in the Amazon of Peru and Ecuador, learning directly from the plants and the indigenous communities.
Her Doula training with Shiva Rae and the Chapman Family Center, along with recent studies with Rachelle Garcia of Innatetraditions, has further enriched her ability to hold space for women, offering a nurturing, grounded presence in her work. Whether she is facilitating circles or guiding women through water-based practices, Hannah brings a deep reverence for the body, the water, and the power of communal healing.
As a solo mother to her 9-year-old son Saylor, Hannah returned to Hood River in 2015 to be near family, grounding herself in a community she loves. They travel to warm destinations in the winter. Her free time is filled with supporting births, hosting moon gatherings, caring for newborns, and connecting with nature. Passionate about the intersection of community, water, and women’s health, Hannah continues to guide in water therapy with a deep respect for water and a desire to instill a love for it in the families she serves. Whether by the water’s edge or in women’s circles, Hannah’s work is rooted in connection, healing, and the shared journey of motherhood.