Our Teachers

Sunya Kjolhede and Lawson Sachter, ordained Dharma heirs of Roshi Philip Kapleau, are the co-founders and teachers of Windhorse Zen Community. They are married and have four grown children. Both Lawson and Sunya have been Zen practitioners for over 35 years, and together and individually have conducted sesshins and workshops in the United States, Mexico, and abroad.

Sunya, along with her other teaching activities, travels regularly to Poland, where she serves as the spiritual director of the Bodhidharma Zen Center, a Polish Zen community founded by Roshi Kapleau in 1975. She has trained in Clinical Pastoral Education, working for a period of time as a chaplain in the trauma-burn unit of a large hospital in Rochester NY; and she has also worked as a professional storyteller.

Lawson is the spiritual director for the Clear Water Zen Center in Florida, and conducts several sesshins there each year. He is also a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in Asheville, NC. During the early 1990's he began training in short-term dynamic psychotherapy techniques, and since that time he has worked as a therapist with a wide range of clients, including many who practice meditation. Much of his personal and professional work has centered on the integration of Eastern and Western approaches to intrapsychic change.