Our Mission

Melanie

Melanie brings extensive experience in leading retreats to Sacred Habit. As a pastor ordained in the United Methodist Church she has led suburban and urban churches. While serving the local church she nurtured a youth ministry, preached, developed and led worship services, facilitated local and international service projects and missions, taught classes on the Bible and spiritual practices, and offered pastoral care and spiritual direction. She has developed and facilitated numerous retreats which incorporate contemplative spiritual practices with the human body; some of her recent retreat topics include Sabbath-keeping, body image, healthy sexuality, and centering prayer.

Melanie is also a registered yoga teacher (R.Y.T.) trained in Anusara-inspired yoga. She has taught yoga in various settings, including Blue Point Studio, Duke University, Duke Youth Academy, and Caring House (a non-profit residential facility for persons undergoing cancer treatment). In her retreats Melanie often incorporates yoga, and has developed a one-day yoga retreat for Master of Divinity students at Duke entitled “Becoming One: Worshipping God in Mind, Body, and Spirit.”

She received a BA in English and Political Science from Furman University. Her undergraduate work included foreign studies in England, Germany, and Russia. She holds a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from Duke University. Melanie is currently pursuing a Doctor of Theology at Duke with a focus on spirituality and healing. Her dissertation will discuss habits of health utilizing Thomas Aquinas as the primary resource. Melanie has also completed the two-year Academy in Spiritual Formation, during which she was immersed in a monastic rhythm of prayer, worship, learning. A central spiritual practice for her now is nurturing the life of her baby son.

John

John Hughes, D.O., practices osteopathic and integrative medicine in the tradition of Andrew Still and William Sutherland. A graduate of the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Hughes served as a family practice resident at the University of Arizona before starting an integrative medicine practice in Colorado near Aspen. In the past year, Dr. Hughes has traveling widely in the U.S. studying integrative medicine logging over 300 hours studying osteopathic manual medicine, cranial osteopathy, prolotherapy, oxidative medicine, IV nutrition, chelation therapy, IPT, alternative cancer, environmental medicine, medical fasting, nutrition, and mind-body medicine. He is currently on track to receive board certification by the Integrative Medical Board of Arizona in 2009. He also has had extensive exposure to holistic medical therapies since an early age being influenced by Nicholas Gonzalez, Norman Cousens, Westin Price, Bernie Siegel, Dean Ornish, David Hawkins, Lewis Mehl-Madrona and his own father, John A. Hughes, DDS.

John also holds a Master of Arts from Duke University in theological studies with a focus in post-Enlightenment philosophy. He has lectured to schools and community groups on subjects such as the “Metaphysical Nature of Medicine,” “Habits of Nutrition,” and “Pesticides and Health.” Prior to his theological work at Duke, John worked as a professional consultant to large corporations (including BellSouth of Atlanta) helping them to decrease the ecological footprint of their high rise office buildings by saving energy and water.

John’s personal interests include medical philosophy, ancient monastic, Buddhist, and Native American spirituality, architecture, astronomy, and poetry. Honoring his ancestry from the Wolf Clan of the Cherokee tribe, John has studied with Dakota-Cree, Dineh, Cherokee, and Hopi native elders and healers in Arizona, North Carolina, and northern Canada. An avid outdoorsman, John has backpacked, kayaked, and climbed mountain ranges over the Southeast, American West, and Canada. At 18 years old, he spent 3 months hiking 1000 miles of the southern half of the Appalachian Trail and was noted in the credits of the 1994 A.T. Thru Hiker’s Handbook. In college at Furman University, John served as a teaching assistant for outdoor education courses while earning dual degrees in biology and chemistry. In medical school, he published poetry in the online journal Voice of the Healer and has read poetry aloud at the Union Art Gallery at the University of Arizona. He has just begun work on his first book, The End of Death and Disease.