Todd Thillman, MDiv, MA, LPC

Todd Thillman was born in Vermont and spent most of his formative years in Florida. Directly out of high school, he joined the U. S. Navy in which he served two years on active duty and four years in the reserves. After serving in the military, he attended Florida State University and got a BA in Theater. It was also during this time that he began deeply exploring spirituality.

After graduation, he spent a year in Chicago working and performing in theater. From there, he moved to Seattle and this was when activism came into his life. He spent a few years working for a non-profit organization educating people, lobbying state senators and representatives, and raising funds on environmental and public safety issues.

In 1999, he helped to care for his mother up until she died. The experience profoundly affected him and forever changed the trajectory of his life. After she died, he knew that he wanted to work in death and dying and that he wanted to do it spiritually.

In 2001, he attended Naropa University and received a Master of Divinity degree in the religious studies department. This was when he was first introduced to mindfulness and began his journey practicing it. While attending school, he did an internship with Hospice Care of Boulder and Broomfield Counties (now known as TRU Community Care). After graduation, they hired him on as a full-time spiritual care counselor and he worked for them for eleven years.

In 2015, he decided to go back to Naropa and in 2018 he graduated from the Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling program. Immediately following graduation, he opened his own private practice called Sacred Connections Counseling. He works mostly with adults and specializes in grief, trauma and spirituality. He is certified in EMDR and uses mostly mindfulness based and somatic approaches when working with clients.

In the fall of 2018, he started working at Naropa University as a clinical support person and a meditation instructor. In 2019, he was hired as an adjunct faculty. In 2023, he was hired as a visiting instructor. He mostly teaches classes about mindfulness and grief.