Dechen Ellen McSweeney is a teacher, facilitator, psychotherapist, writer, and musician living in Washington, DC. For more than two decades, she has been catalyzing and nurturing collectives who strive to embody the more beautiful world they long for: from string quartets and folk bands to Extinction Rebellion and metamodern monasteries.   

Dechen has been a Dharma practitioner since 2012, including two years of intensive training in a Buddhist residential community. In 2022, she completed facilitator training with John Thompson of Transformational Connection (formerly Circling Europe). As a facilitator, Dechen brings deep soulfulness; a fierce commitment to truth; and a love of improvisation that helps her welcome chaos, friction, difference, and the unknown. She regularly leads contemplative and relational practice retreats across North America.  

Dechen is the founder of The Nectary: a relational monastery, research-lab, and pop-up school which supports emerging spiritual teachers to collaborate more deeply and bring their offerings to a wider community of learners. She blogs at The Incarnate and practices spiritual friendship in a network of practitioners called the Sourcekeepers Guild. 

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