Our Staff and Board Members.
Paul Weiss, Founder
Paul's unorthodox training began with his early interest in human potentiality that led to a 1967 graduating thesis entitled "Towards a Non-Dualistic Psychology," which built a bridge between Freudian psychology and the yogic psychology of the East. He subsequently devoted years to intensive training in Zen meditation as well as immersion in other yogic and spiritual systems under several noted teachers. His studies carried him on four visits to India and on eight visits to China, where he was eventually certified to teach by three different schools of qigong, the ancient mind/body system practice based in principles of Taoist philosophy and traditional Chinese medicine. Paul returned to school for counseling psychology with a minor in clinical health education, and pursued supplemental training in nutrition and bodywork therapies.
Paul founded The Whole Health Center in Bar Harbor in 1981 as a nonprofit education and treatment center dedicated to providing holistic and integrative approaches to personal wellness and spiritual growth. Several years of emotional process work and subsequent years of training contributed to his then-uncommon integrative healing practice available to individuals, couples, and groups. Paul's network organically grew to include participants from all parts of the country and the world, and he hosted workshops for institutions including Kripalu, the Unitarian Church, and local colleges.
Today, Paul brings his incisiveness of vision and natural ability to build community to a new chapter for The Whole Health Center, in which the digital era allows for new audiences and modes of teaching. A lifelong poet, he has written four books that combine his passion for weaving the poetic and the expository to invite reflection on human experience and spirituality.
Sherene Cauley, Associate Director
Sherene is a National Board (NBHWC) certified Health and Wellness Coach with specialties in family wellness and peace studies. Sherene founded The Nurtured Life in 2003, a Maryland-based wellness service to build mindful life practices into everyday living. As a mother and connected community member with an academic background in education, she recognized the need for holistic early childhood education and designed The Nurtured Life to offer guidance to families in communication, physiological awareness, natural world connection, and whole foods sustenance. The role of The Nurtured Life naturally broadened to become a nexus for practical and emotional family support with the launch of a whole foods purchasing cooperative, a network of peer support, and coaching services for parents and families. In 2008, Sherene completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training with Diane Finlayson and, in 2009, a certificate in pregnancy yoga to integrate yoga practices into family care.
In adulthood Sherene explored with newfound curiosity her unique abilities as a neurodiverse individual. As someone who has struggled throughout her life with dyslexia, she began to recognize how her neurodivergent sensitivities help her to tune into her internal and external environments, which not only allow her to experience her spirituality more fully but also to guide others in healing practices that are responsive to mind and body. In 2018, Sherene completed a Master of Arts in Health and Wellness Coaching from Maryland University of Integrative Health and formally became a wellness coach.
In 2019, Sherene moved with her husband and children from her hometown in Maryland to the coast of Maine. From Orland, Maine, The Nurtured Life has evolved as a wellness coaching service for clients across the country and includes workshops on attuning to our inner and outer realities to build supportive, sustainable lifestyles. The move to Maine allowed Sherene to live more fully in nature and community, which has lent itself to sharing The Nurtured Life’s practices with others. In the spring of 2022, Sherene and her family settled permentantly in Blue Hill, Maine.
Sherene’s academic research has examined the effects of hegemonic white patriarchy on spirituality and human development. As an American and woman of Iranian heritage, she recognized both socially and personally the harm caused by systems of oppression and the need to actively cultivate a culture of wellbeing. Her education continued through a 2021 Master of Peace and Reconciliation Studies at the University of Maine. In the fall of 2022, Sherene will embark on the path to a Doctor of Ministry with a focus in Social Transformation from United Theological Seminary, Twin Cities. She continues to combine her knowledge in health coaching, peace studies, and wisdom traditions to offer coaching around barriers to peace, equity, and social justice.
Sherene joined The Whole Health Center in 2020 as Associate Director. She has found a natural affinity with the Center’s approach and considers Paul a collaborator and mentor.
Board of Directors.
Katie Bell
Katie Bell – Born in New York City, Katie has lived in Northeast Harbor, Maine, since 1976. She is a stone sculptor and painter with a longtime presence in the local artist community and is represented at The Gallery at Somes Sound. As a direct carver, she begins carving a piece with no idea at all, allowing the “follow the stone” process to let something come on its own.
Katie served in the past as a court advocate for the NextStep Domestic Violence Project in Ellsworth, Maine, assisting survivors of domestic violence with obtaining legal protections. She currently is a hospice volunteer and is involved in the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute, a nonprofit founded to develop leadership skills and confidence in high school girls. She has been active with The Whole Health Center for over 20 years and has been on the board for 10.
Katie has two grown daughters, one wonderful son-in-law, and two perfect grandsons.
Ann Hooke
Ann has completed approximately forty True Heart/True Mind intensives at The Whole Health Center and continues to find reward with each experience. She was a regular participant in the longstanding Monday Night Support Group, introduced to her by her great friend (and indispensable Whole Health Center organizer) Bettina Dudley.
Ann, her husband, and their two children spent much of their lives in Minnesota, where she had a long career in physical education. She held a Master’s degree in the field and traveled to Sweden on several occasions for industry workshops. She published a YMCA training manual and, prior to retiring, led and trained other teachers in adult exercise classes. She and her family traveled to many remote places of the world for her husband Roger’s field of research in glaciology. They moved to Maine in 1999.
Ann joined the Board in 1996 as President. Her position was complemented with board experience at a local land trust, for which she served many roles over time: president, interim executive director, director of fundraising, leader in natural history educational excursions, staff recruitment committee member, and head of the land stewardship committee.
Today, Ann embraces a transition to a quieter life to allow more time for spiritual work, walks in the woods, and playing the organ and piano.
Jeanie Smith
Jeanie is an experienced landscaper and small business owner, having run her landscaping business, JA Smith Associates, for 30 years in Massachusetts. She served as a board member for the Ipswich River Watershed Association for ten years, and is an alumnus of Hampshire College and Harvard University (at the time Radcliffe College for female students).
Jeanie and her long-term partner, Paul, moved from northeastern Massachusetts to Bar Harbor, Maine, and in the winter of 2015 Jeanie began taking qigong classes at The Whole Health Center. The classes proved to be pivotal for her recovery from Lyme disease. Her gratitude as well as her discussions with Paul on the teachings from the Center inspired her to reciprocate by serving on the board.
Jeanie enjoys gardening, painting, and traversing Acadia National Park trails in all seasons.
Barbara Thomas
Barbara is a multi-generational Mainer born in Camden, whose life has almost entirely been spent in beautiful Maine. Her early career was in the medical field as a registered nurse. Thirty years ago she began studying holistic healing skills and became a practitioner in Reiki, a Japanese energy healing technique. She is a Reiki master and has taught the practice to others. She continues to offer Reiki services and additionally works with elders in her community in Lincolnville.
Barbara was introduced to The Whole Health Center 20 years ago through the True Heart / True Mind intensive and ever since has assisted The Whole Health Center through various stages, including the move from Bar Harbor village to Town Hill.
Barbara’s life is enriched with the presence of her two grown children, three grown grandchildren, and a new great grandson, as well as hobbies in sewing, painting, writing, studying spiritual texts, hiking, skiing, kayaking, and traveling. She is thankful for each day she awakes to the sun rising over Penobscot Bay, life spent with friends and family, and being present in each moment.
Holly Winters
Holly has been in the nonprofit fundraising and management field for over 30 years. Her earliest development positions were at Cornell University, the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and Cleveland State University. In 2004, she moved to Connecticut to become Director of Philanthropy for a 10-person development team at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Connecticut Chapter. After six years at TNC and a two-year stint as Vice President of the East Division for The Alford Group, she spent five and a half years at Goodwin College as Director of Advancement, where she oversaw all fundraising and alumni relations activities. Since 2019, Holly has been the Director of Major Gifts at Connecticut Public.
Holly is a former board member and current member of the Copper Beech Institute Development Committee, a non-denominational mindfulness retreat center in West Hartford, Connecticut. She volunteers for several human service nonprofits and is a trained voice-over professional specializing in narration and commercial genres.
Holly’s personal interests include a deep commitment to personal healing, becoming a more conscious human being, reading and writing poetry, backpacking, listening and learning in nature, recognizing and working to free herself of prejudices and biases, and finding ways to experience love and joy in the everyday. She has a non-binary daughter in college and lives in Windsor, Connecticut, with her husband and cat.