My TRAINING
With over two decades of meditation experience, including ten years of residential study and practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as extensive training in coaching, counseling, and shamanism, I weave together both dynamic and contemplative approaches.
From 2009-2013, I trained directly under Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, the originators of Voice Dialogue. I completed Mastery Level training and certification with Integral Coaching Canada® in 2014, and Mark Forman's Certified Integral Therapist program in 2015. I am trained in R-CS therapy with Jon Eisman and somatic trauma therapy with Manuela Mischke-Reed’s Trauma to Dharma training.
Additionally, over the last five years I have studied in the Amazonian tradition of shamanism under the guidance of Susana Bustos PhD as well as engaged in study and mentorship within the lineage of Stanislov Groff.
As an integrative counselor, I employ all of these modalities, taking a holistic approach to the endeavor of healing, learning, and becoming fully human. Rather than approaching challenges from a single perspective, my aim is to widen the view in order to perceive the greater contexts in which we all dwell, as well as the underlying principles, patterns, and processes of our transformation.
I weave together both dynamic and contemplative approaches to counseling.
My STORY
As a child growing up in Mt. Shasta, California, I was steeped in the outdoors with much time spent hiking, camping, and skiing. Through this, I developed a strong love and reverence for the natural world. A lifelong athlete, I discovered mountain bike racing at the age of seventeen and quickly moved through the ranks, becoming a professional cyclist at twenty-one. Over my eleven-year career, I raced in world-class, national, and international competitions, including six world championships. I was a National Cyclocross Series Champion and a two-time Oregon State Champion. These years were an in-depth apprenticeship in discipline and focus. My biggest takeaway was learning the immense power the mind has on performance and overall well being.
I began to meditate for ten to twenty minutes per day, finding it to be like a long draft of cool, clear water after years in the desert.
Through my passion to refine and deepen the psychological aspects of my training, at the age of twenty-five, I discovered the practice of meditation. I began to meditate for ten to twenty minutes per day, finding it to be like a long draft of cool, clear water after years in the desert. My passion for bike racing soon transformed into a passion for mind training and Vajrayana Buddhism. At the age of thirty, eager to deepen my spiritual practice, I moved to Rigdzin Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center near northern California’s Trinity Alps, where I began a course of intensive residential training. For the next ten years, I engaged in full-time study and practice, alternating between karma yoga (yoga of service), ceremony, ritual arts, and periods of solitary meditation retreat.
As I deepened my practice, I uncovered intricate layers of psychological habits and wounding that exposed ways in which my approach to my spiritual practice was incomplete and had become imbalanced. This spurred me to seek out and integrate new psychotherapeutic and somatic modalities, which helped me heal and free many of these obstructing patterns. I was then able to re-engage with my path from a state of greater wholeness.
Having experienced firsthand the benefits of this more holistic approach and wanting to share my learnings and support others, I began a course of psychological training, leading me to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I studied and began working with clients.
I currently reside in Mt. Shasta with my wife, where I enjoy a contemplative life at the edge of the wilderness.
I work with clients in person as well as via phone and Zoom.