Faculty and Staff
Cathy Little, CP-IA
Executive Director
Co-Founder of the Face to Face Network
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Cathy's personal journey of deep inner healing transformed her life and propelled her into her true identity. As Executive Director of the Face to Face Network and the Immanuel Institute, Cathy brings lived experience and extensive professional training to her roles. Her background includes advanced training in Sozo and HeartSync, and since 2019, as an advanced Certified Practitioner of the Immanuel Approach—including three years of direct mentorship under its founder, Dr. Karl Lehman, MD.
In full-time ministry since 2011, Cathy has facilitated over 1,000 Immanuel sessions and trained hundreds of practitioners. She has established herself as a trustworthy voice in the inner healing movement, co-authoring the book Streams of Healing and co-hosting the Face to Face Podcast. Cathy's combination of professional expertise and genuine compassion creates a unique ability to guide others toward the same freedom she has come to know.
Melinda Wilson, MA, CP-IA
Director of Community Engagement
Co-Founder of the Face to Face Network
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Melinda holds a Master of Arts in Communications from Regent University and brings a global perspective shaped by years living overseas as a student and missionary. With a strong background in teaching and training, she is passionate about equipping others with practical tools that foster healing, self-awareness, and transformation.
Cross-trained in multiple inner healing modalities, Melinda has facilitated over 1,000 Immanuel Approach sessions and taught the model to hundreds across the U.S., both in-person and online. Her deep understanding of the Immanuel Approach has been shaped by three years of personal mentoring with its founder, Dr. Karl Lehman—an experience that profoundly deepened her skill, insight, and capacity to guide others.
As co-host of the Face to Face Podcast and co-author of Streams of Healing, Melinda offers a warm, authentic voice within the inner healing movement. Her compassionate presence and lived experience create a safe, empowering space for others to encounter God and live more freely and fully.
Marie Kasner, MTh, CP-IA
Director of Academic Design & Development
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Frustrated by distant and oppressive religious systems, Marie met Jesus and found him more gentle and accessible than she ever dared hope. Her work is at the intersection of trauma healing, theology, and academic leadership, and her vision is to prepare leaders and healers to minister the surprising love of God to a traumatized world.
Marie holds a Master of Theology from Union School of Theology in Bridgend, Wales and a Bachelor’s degree in Media Communications and Biblical & Theological Studies. She became a Certified Practitioner of the Immanuel Approach in 2024. In her personal time, she enjoys long road trips, live music, art collecting, and interior design.
Julia Gifford, CP-IA
Community Coordinator and Immanuel Institute Coach
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Julia’s journey toward healing took a transformative turn when she discovered the Immanuel Approach, just after her 2.5-year-old son’s fourth open-heart surgery. For nearly two decades, she had sought healing through counseling with minimal progress. However, within just one year of meeting with Jesus through the Immanuel Approach, Julia experienced more profound healing than she had in all the years of therapy combined.
A Montana resident, Julia has been married for 14 years to her husband, who recently retired from the Air Force. Together, they have three beautiful children, each learning to experience joy in God's creation in their own unique ways. Julia recently took on coaching her 12-year-old daughter’s volleyball team, and she loves watching her son play flag football.
In addition to serving as our online community coordinator, and because of her deep passion to help others experience healing through attachment to Jesus, Julia is also a member of our coaching staff.
She cherishes the small, beautiful moments in nature and continues to be delighted by the fact that Jesus is always glad to be with her.
Megan Burmester, MA, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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Amanda Curtis, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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Amanda is based in Sheffield, UK, the greenest city in England. She is trained in the Immanuel Approach and is passionate about helping people live from a place of wholeness. She has been involved in ministry for over 20 years, focusing on healing, both physical and emotional. She is experienced in teaching and training, particularly in enabling people to listen to and encounter God for themselves.
Amanda is married with 2 teenagers (almost young adults) and loves spending time in nature, hanging out with friends, and laughing lots. She is passionate about studying and learning to find keys for people to access healing and wholeness, which led her to the Immanuel Approach. She has been both astounded and delighted at how Jesus meets people in such beautiful, gentle, and profound ways and has personally experienced her own heart healing through the Immanuel Approach. This has led to a new confidence, deeper intimacy with Jesus, healthier relationships with others, greater self-awareness, and has helped her become more whole-hearted and emotionally mature. She has discovered how God is so much better and kinder than she ever thought.
Mary Dyer, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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An apt line in a recent worship song says, “It’s getting harder to recognize the person I was before I encountered Jesus." Mary is grateful to be part of the Face to Face Network, where she has learned to experience Jesus more deeply and help others encounter him for themselves.
"The transformation from a left-brained engineer and high school math and science teacher to a Certified Immanuel Approach Practitioner has been a journey of immense learning, healing and profound joy!" Mary says. "I can't get enough of pursuing Christ this way. I’m discovering my authentic self that was buried under many false identities and so becoming a greater reflection of God’s glory to my world."
Mary is proud of her 41 year marriage to her best friend, Marc, and 23 years of homeschooling that nurtured 4 brilliant, successful children. She can often be found outdoors biking, at the YMCA swimming or on a journey somewhere where she can still camp in a tent. One of Mary's greatest joys is to spend time with her 7 grandchildren, in pursuit of some excellent adventure.
Cindy Fry, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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Cindy’s journey to the Face to Face Network began in 2011, though she didn’t realize it at the time. That year, faced with the choice to quit or be terminated from a job she once thought would be her lifelong career, she sensed that God was giving her the nudge she needed. Leaving that role opened the door for Cindy to take courses in Biblical Counseling, and she became certified, offering counseling through her church and other ministries.
In 2022, after training in HeartSync and Sozo, Cindy was introduced to the Immanuel Approach. It was a lightbulb moment—she suddenly realized that this was what she was called to do: to become a practitioner of the Immanuel Approach. She is now honored to serve as a Certified Practitioner and Coach through the Immanuel Institute.
If Cindy has any kind of mission or agenda, it would be to share the Immanuel Approach with others so they can find healing for themselves. Her hope is that they, too, will have their own lightbulb moment and realize that they can do this as well!
Kristi Hennessy, CMT, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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Kristi Hennessy is a Certified Practitioner of the Immanuel Approach. With a heart for healing and transformation, she cultivates a joy-based, relational connection to God and fosters safe spaces for individuals to process their emotions, thoughts, and trauma in the non-anxious, ever-patient presence of Jesus.
Having personally journeyed from the depths of fragility and brokenness to a place of resilience and more lasting joy, Kristi brings deep empathy and insight to her work. Through meeting with hundreds of clients, she has witnessed the powerful and gentle approach of Jesus and how an ongoing, relational Immanuel lifestyle is integral to walking in our God-ordained intimacy and identity.
She holds additional certifications in narcissism, eating disorders, personality styles, trauma, grief, massage therapy, and personal training. Passionate about fostering environments where others can grow, build and thrive, she firmly believes the Lord is our ultimate strength, counselor, and healer.
Kristi seeks to live out what she teaches and remains rooted in a healthy, supportive community. Through her massage therapy practice, she helps clients increase body awareness, release emotional stress, experience trauma recovery, and restore overall well-being.
As a former professional athlete, Kristi competed on the beach volleyball tour while raising her three children. She’s also very fond of camping, hiking, swimming, biking, tennis, beach walks, pickleball, and a good laugh!!
Jane Hyde, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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Jane has a background in special education with ten years of classroom experience, and five years of experience as co-owner and operations manager of a nitro beverage company.
Moving 12 times while her husband was active duty Air Force, Jane became a professional "new person," volunteering many hours to build, lead, serve, and nurture connection in her many communities. For most of her adult life, she has focused on learning and teaching about her favorite passion—Jesus—leading small groups in many locations around the country.
A circuitous route brought Jane to encounter the Living Word in the Immanuel Approach, and a “personal relationship with Jesus” took on a whole new meaning. Now, instead of teaching people about Jesus, she is humbled, honored, and delighted to help others experience authentic conversational connection with the One in whose image they were created.Â
Stacey Risner, MABC, CP-IA
Immanuel Institute Coach
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An unhindered relationship with Jesus is at the heart of Stacey. Whether studying brain science research or helping her friends and clients ask Jesus curious questions during an Immanuel session, you will find Stacey learning, stretching, and growing in intimacy and identity with Him.
Over three decades of ministry and training combined with her own heart healing journey have equipped Stacey to help others pursue him. His fingerprints on her life and the convergence of all her experiences have propelled her into the world of inner healing prayer and the Immanuel Approach. Nothing has proven more gentle, surprising, and deeply transformative than an interactive connection with Him. What a joy and honor she feels to accompany others into this lovely connection!
When not engaged in training and Immanuel sessions, you will find Stacey hanging around her firepit with her best friend and husband, Jay — an artist and firewood enthusiast — their daughter, Delenn, and their two cats. She enjoys conversation and curiosity about the metamorphosis of dragonflies, rainstorms, and the goodness of God. And on quiet days, you might catch her petting bumblebees.
