Dr. Patty is a hunka (adopted family member) of the Lakota-Sioux Rosebud Nation. Being adopted into a Native American tribe is an enormous honor and is done only when a person shows they can be trusted and have gained respect. Her work with the tribal nation includes serving as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Lakota Healing Way Center, a 501(c)-3 non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with trauma, addictions, homelessness, illness, and PTSD to rebalance themselves through indigenous Native American spirituality.Like many people, Dr. Patty came to her life calling early but then took a very long, circuitous path back to it later in her life. A fourth-generation Denver native, Dr. Patty lost her much-loved father at age 10 and confronted some of life's biggest questions and challenges at a very tender age. Naturally creative, she later obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education and Psychology from Western State College in Gunnison, with the goal of becoming an art teacher. That career led to a short stint as a commercial designer, a role she still fills at Mile High Church. Later, she received a Masters of Art in Psychology from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a second masters degree from Naropa University in Counseling and Thanatology (the study of death). Finally, she was bestowed an honorary doctorate degree from the Centers for Spiritual Living, a global community comprised of more than 400 spiritual communities, teaching chapters, study groups and other ministries in 30 countries. These communities teach a New Thought philosophy that offers spiritual tools to transform personal lives. She currently lives with her husband, Luke, and Newfoundland dog, Maggie Rose, in a happy home on top of a mountain.Dr. Patty Luckenbach is an Associate Minister at Mile High Church, one of the largest single location congregations in the country. The church and Dr. Patty's work there emphasizes inter-faith engagement, environmental stewardship, and nonviolence and human dignity for all. She is also a certified practitioner and instructor of existential metapsychiatry, having served as a Research Associate at the former New York Institute of Metapsychiatry under the guidance and instruction of the renowned Dr. Thomas Hora, M.D. Furthermore, she has received extensive training from Dr. Alan Wolfelt at the Center for Loss & Life Transition, Stephen Levine, an American poet, author, and teacher best known for his work on death and dying, and Elise Hayes around grief and loss, death and dying, and living with HIV/AIDS.
