Spiritus®
Spiritus®
Stephenie Purnell
Spiritus8® was founded by Stephenie Purnell following more than three decades of professional experience guiding complex human conversations in environments where discretion, emotional intelligence, and sound judgment are essential.
Stephenie began her career in the legal profession, working within complex commercial litigation at internationally respected law firms, including Jones Day. The work required precision, confidentiality, and the ability to navigate high-stakes environments where both human and institutional dynamics carried significant weight.
She later built a successful career in institutional advancement and philanthropy at leading universities, including The University of Texas at Austin, Southern Methodist University, University of Colorado Boulder, and St. John’s College Santa Fe.
In these roles, she worked closely with presidents, trustees, major donors, and institutional leaders on philanthropic strategy, major gift development, and complex organizational initiatives.
Across each chapter of her professional life, a consistent throughline emerged:
the capacity to hold complex human experiences with steadiness, discretion, professionalism, and care.
Alongside her professional path, Stephenie devoted herself to the disciplined study and practice of expanded states of consciousness.
What began as a personal turning point evolved into more than sixteen years of ongoing study, facilitation, and direct experience exploring the capacity of expanded states to support insight, emotional healing, creativity, personal transformation, and meaningful shifts in perspective.
Her formal training includes more than 800 hours of education in the theory and facilitation of expanded states of consciousness.
Stephenie is one of only a small number of certified Holotropic Breathwork® facilitators in the State of Texas and among a limited number of certified Trance Movement™ practitioners in the United States.
Her work is grounded in:
A lifelong student of philosophy and contemplative traditions, Stephenie approaches questions of human transformation with both intellectual depth and grounded spiritual inquiry.
Her work integrates psychological insight, expanded states practices, contemplative traditions, and a deep respect for the intelligence and healing capacity inherent within each individual.
Spiritus8® emerged through the convergence of professional leadership, personal transformation, and years of disciplined training in expanded states of consciousness.
Through Spiritus8®, Stephenie facilitates private retreats, immersive experiences, and select group offerings for individuals seeking meaningful interior work within carefully held environments grounded in discretion, safety, beauty, and depth.
She facilitates experiences throughout the United States and internationally in both private and select public settings.
A Personal Note
For most of my life, I followed a path that looked successful from the outside.
I built a meaningful career, worked with extraordinary people, and achieved many of the goals I had set for myself. Yet aspects of my life remained unhealed despite years of effort, insight, and personal work.
Then one day, I had an experience that altered the course of my life.
A single session of Holotropic Breathwork® revealed a dimension of healing and transformation I had never encountered before. It opened a door that traditional approaches had not been able to reach, and fundamentally changed my understanding of what is possible for human beings.
What began as a single experience became a lifelong inquiry into what becomes possible when we travel beyond the limits of ordinary awareness.
That exploration led me into years of study, training, practice, and facilitation, and ultimately gave rise to Spiritus8®.
Over the past sixteen years, I have witnessed firsthand the remarkable capacity of expanded states to catalyze healing, insight, creativity, resilience, and profound transformation.
One day changed everything for me.
And that possibility for all human beings continues to inspire my work today.
Stephenie Purnell
Founder, Spiritus8®
Holotropic Breathwork® Facilitator
One day can change everything.