Center for Spiritual Living Asheville

One of my greatest passions is to reach out and touch the hearts and lives of people who are seeking to find a better way of living. I hold myself up as a woman of power who has overcome significant obstacles to create a full and meaningful life. And with confidence, I tell all who care to know that they can do the same for themselves.

I was born the youngest in a family of four children in Miami, Florida. Growing up with minimal resources and an alcoholic father, I quickly developed a strong sense of independence and self-reliance. My early life was marked with drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, welfare and myriad other struggles.

I moved out of my parent’s home at the age of sixteen, was married and gave birth to my son, Matthew when I was 21. At 24, I moved to Oregon with my son, seeking to start a new life.

One of my first encounters was with a small Religious Science Church in Eugene, Oregon. At that point, my life had reached an all-time low. I was 3,000 miles from anyone I knew; I had a three-year-old son with no money, no job and no place to live. Days before, I had been in a car accident in which one person died and the other, the woman with whom I was staying, decided to return immediately to Florida.

Still as I listened to my new Science of Mind minister, I quickly learned that there were answers to all my problems and that all those answers were inside me. I enrolled in classes where I learned that by changing my perceptions of myself and the world around me, I could change my life for the better. As soon as I heard this, I was ready to embrace a new vision of a life that could be more fulfilling than anything I had ever imagined. Quickly, my life began to change. In 1980, I returned to South Florida where I joined the Ft. Lauderdale Church of Religious Science and soon after was hired as a member of the church’s administrative staff. I continued my course work in Science of Mind and in 1983, completed my ministerial studies where I excelled at public speaking. I soon after joined the staff of the Miami Church of Religious Science. There with my new husband, Rev. Tony Bonnacorso, I worked to build a ministry from an average Sunday attendance of thirty to over 300 in a three-year period.

I served the Miami Church for five years during which the community thrived and prospered. During much of this same time, Tony and I produced television and radio programming on WLRN, WKAT and WTMI under the name “The Truth About You.” Much of our success in Miami is attributed to our work in local media.

In 1988, I left the Miami Church and my second marriage. It was also that year that I was ordained into ministry by the Rev. Terry Cole Whittaker. After two years of speaking engagements and private counseling, with my new husband, John Waterhouse, I moved to Asheville, North Carolina.

In 1992, I enrolled at the University of North Carolina and quickly became an academic honor student, maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout my college studies. Still the call to return to ministry became irresistible and on January 15, 1995, John and I held the first Sunday Celebration of a new spiritual community in our rural North Carolina home.

Today, the central focus of my life is serving with John as co-minister of the Center for Spiritual Living, a Science of Mind spiritual community. We occupy a ten thousand square foot teaching facility on a 3½-acre site that was designed and built largely with the support of volunteer help from friends and members of the Center. The Center for Spiritual Living is located at Two Science of Mind Way in Asheville, North Carolina and is a growing community with more than 250 members. We offer Celebrations of Life every Sunday morning at 11:00.

In 2001, John and I initiated a new television program in the Asheville area under the name of my previous show, “The Truth About You.” The program aired on Channel 10, every Saturday evening for over a year.

Today, my life is about sharing with everyone I meet that the ability to be successful and joyously happy dwells within us. I offer my life as an example of this truth. My passion is still in teaching people to take charge of their lives, regardless of circumstances, past or present. Through our work at the Center for Spiritual Living, untold numbers of people have connected with their own inner beauty and personal power.

I describe myself as a teacher, guide, mentor, and leader. My life has long been about revealing the power that dwells within each person I meet. With this as my foundation, I have created a variety of expressions through which I contribute to the human experience.

I was born and raised in suburban Miami, Florida and began demonstrating my interest in leadership while still in high school. I participated in several varsity sports and was Junior Class Secretary and Student Council Vice President in mysenior year. As I neared graduation, I received an Excellence in Leadership Award from the Daughters of the American Revolution and was named Outstanding Youth Leader for the State of Florida by the Fraternal Order of Elks.

After attending my freshman year at Florida State University, I moved to Houston Texas and went to work for a large manufacturing company while attending night school at the University of Houston. In 1977, I started my own company, Waterhouse Engine and Pump Company, Inc. (WEPCO), which designed and fabricated fluid handling systems for oilfield drilling and production companies. During five years of operations I employed as many as 28 employees to produce as much as $4 million in gross annual sales. I also founded Waterhouse Enterprises and Adler Concrete Company as subsidiaries of WEPCO.

In the early nineteen eighties I reached a significant turning point in my life. The oil industry had collapsed, so I sold or closed all my businesses. Then in the midst of this turmoil, my marriage ended. Seeing this as an opportune time to reorganize my life, I moved to Australia where I met and worked with a man named Ken Dyers who became my mentor. This experience was the most significant of my life. Through our work, I began to understand the deep meaning and cosmic connection of all life.

As soon as I returned to the U.S., I came upon the Church of Religious Science in Miami, Florida and immediately immersed myself in the philosophy of Science of Mind. I began taking classes and was soon teaching my own non-certificated class at the Church on Sunday evenings. My formal studies culminated in 1988 when the Reverend Terry Cole-Whitaker ordained me into the ministry.

On my own, I have committed a great deal of time and energy to comparing and contrasting the teachings of Ernest Holmes with the principles and practices of other spiritual disciplines. This work has carried me deeply into an exploration of Native American shamanism and simultaneously into academic endeavors, studying cultural diversity, chaos theory and organizational psychology. As a result, I returned to my academic pursuits and in 1996 I received my doctoral degree in organizational psychology from the Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. I continue working with Cherokee and Lakota medicine people and have enjoyed exploring subjects of diversity and gender relations as an associate professor at the University of North Carolina as well as through my work at the Center for Spiritual Living.

During the course of mygraduate studies, the ecumenical organization, Churches Uniting in Global Mission and its founder, Dr. Robert Schuller, recruited me to lead a social action program known as Peacemakers. As national program director, I traveled across the U.S. helping faith communities find new ways to become more directly involved in eliminating and healing the ravages of youth violence in their cities and neighborhoods. I continued working with teenagers through the Smart Choices Youth Mentoring Program in Asheville as a teacher and mentor. I also have supported this work as a board member of the program's sponsoring organization, the Center for Restorative Justice.

I have a passion for working in the men's consciousness movement. I have led myriad men's support groups and retreats and have worked with other contributors to this movement such as Robert Bly, Michael Meade and John Lee. I am committed to supporting men everywhere who seek to live their lives with integrity and through the power of their open hearts.

Today, the central focus of my life is serving with my wife Barbara as co-minister of our Science of Mind spiritual community, the Center for Spiritual Living. Barbara and I founded the Center in our home in January 1995. Today, we occupy a ten thousand square foot teaching facility, which was designed and built largely with the support of volunteer friends and members of the Center. We are located at Two Science of Mind Way in Asheville, North Carolina and have a growing community of more than 300 members.

Providing clear guidance and strong, yet flexible leadership to individuals and organizations is what my life is about. I bring these skills and abilities along with a passion for the full expression of all ideas and possibilities to every endeavor in which I embark.