Jeff Nixa J.D., M. Div., CMT is the founder of Great Plains Guide Company, an array of nature-based spiritual healing programs including individual counseling, seminars, outdoor retreats, and wilderness trips. Jeff began walking the heart path in 2009 after a life-changing vision quest in the wilderness of northern Michigan. 

A veteran spiritual guide, Jeff's work has spanned over thirty-five years. He first earned a law degree, then made a shift into spiritual care and counseling, working for two-plus decades as a university campus minister, professional hospital chaplain, pastoral counselor, and board-certified massage therapist. After the vision quest above he threw himself into the study of Indigenous healing practices, apprenticing with C. Michael Smith, traditional healers in the Peruvian Amazon and Andes Mountains in South America, Cree Nation healers and elders in Alberta, Canada, and Oglala Lakota teachers and spiritual elders on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. On Pine Ridge he volunteered for several years with Re-Member and Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center and led his own program in conjunction with both organizations. Jeff has been a professional associate with Crows Nest Center for Shamanic Studies USA and is a graduate of Sandra Ingerman's shamanic teacher-training program. He published his first book, The Lost Art of Heart Navigation,in 2017 (Bear & Company.)

After raising his family for over twenty years in an inner-city neighborhood in South Bend, Indiana, Jeff and his wife Regina moved in 2021 to a simple home on Christiana Creek in southwest Michigan. There he continues his fire-talk counseling work and hosts clients and visitors in their guest cabin. For more information on Jeff's programs or to contact him directly see his website at www.GreatPlainsGuide.net.