Like most people, Jennifer Salim Holt has gone through changes in her life, but few people have made such radical ones.
She represented South Dakota in the 1978 Miss America pageant. Shortly after parading across the stage in high heels and a swimsuit, she traded her tiara for a NOW bumper sticker and helped launch the Minneapolis-based feminist punk rock band Tetes Noires.
When she tired of the punk rock scene, she made another 180-degree turn, this time becoming a member of buttoned-down academia. After earning a doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota, she taught at the U, St. Cloud State and the University of St. Thomas.
These days she's living in California, where she picked up a master's degree in ministry studies and works as a counselor in women's prisons. Her specialty is dealing with prisoners' grief and loss issues.
"The women I work with are open to spiritual concepts and want to heal," said Holt, 52. "I enjoy being able to help them heal."
She has written a book, "Sacred Gateway of Grief and Loss: Freeing the Imprisoned Soul," based on her work in prisons. But it's applicable far beyond that, she said.
"The book uses the metaphor of being in prison to deal with people who are depressed or feel useless," she said. "When we feel stuck, that's a form of imprisonment."
Using her music background, she introduced her prison groups to sacred chanting, drawing from a wide variety of theologies, including Gregorian, Tibetan Buddhist and Native American. She recorded some of the chants, intending to include a sample CD with her book. But the music took on a life of its own and was released separately as "Ecstatic Groove: Sacred World Chant Infusions."
