Mary G. Jackson, Author
Mary’s Appearances
Mary was a guest on the Overcomers Podcast. Listen here.
About Mary
Mary G. Jackson is a licensed therapist, pastoral counselor, author, and speaker with over 25 years’ experience in spiritual exploration. She has graduate degrees in educational psychology, counseling, and a post-master's certificate of advanced study in pastoral counseling.
Born and raised in Washington, DC, into a middle class, marginally Protestant family of four, and attending public schools, there wasn’t a great sense of being rooted or connected – not in school or church, or with family and friends. The first “ah ha” experiences came to her through attending what at the time were considered personal development, new age, or group encounter retreats designed to enlighten the spirit within. That, along with a constant sense of being companioned, awakened her spiritual quest.
Her first book, PRESENCE Recognizing the Divine in Your Everyday Life came about after a long-time Quaker friend contacted her thanks to a dream, the kind you have while sleeping. In the dream, the friend was told to reconnect with Mary after a long absence due to living far apart and propose a plan to develop classes designed to strengthen a person’s spiritual journey. Those classes were presented over the next several years, and eventually became the basis for PRESENCE.
Mary lives in coastal Lewes, Delaware on a pond which provides peaceful solace to begin each morning. On any given day, she may be at the beach, riding her bike, or at the pool. Her house is often full of family and guests in addition to significant other, Rob, and dogs, Pixie and Emma. Whether traveling locally to Maryland to visit family, domestically this year to Sedona, Arizona and Saratoga, Florida, or internationally - last year to Africa, and this year to Portugal, Croatia, and Greece - she is enjoying and learning through all that life offers.
About Quechua Benefit
Mary adopted her two daughters from Peru and remains connected to the community there. Mary’s close connection with the nonprofit charity Quechua Benefit is central to her life, and all of the images in her upcoming book come from the children there. She hopes her work with PRESENCE will inspire more people to work with the poorest of the poor in the highlands of Peru.