Transformation that
spans the decades,
spans lineages,
spans modalities.

I’ve been blessed with an amazing array of opportunities to study in diverse fields, often under world-class teachers. They all weave together to create an integral approach.

I haven’t invented anything other than the unique configuration of learnings that have come my way. In my twenties, a colleague called me “the master of synthesis.” While I’m a bit shy of the “master” title, I will go with “student of synthesis.”

A Life of Serial Transformations

The primary reason that I am a champion of transformation is that at the heart of my life’s process have been a series of profound transformations.

From Head to Body

For the first three decades or so of my life, my attention was primarily on my head. Both as a student and as a professional, how my brain performed was my chief interest. However, in my 30s and into my 40s, I encountered for the first time experiential training (LifeSpring) and psycho-spiritual somatic work (Shalom Mountain). The net effect of these experiences was a profound shift in my attention and my understanding from the wisdom of my head to the wisdom of my body. This was a game-changer. This shift of focus from head to body prepared me for the transformation …

From Slippery to Authentic

For the first half-century of my life, my childhood yearning to be loved (coupled with a profound insecurity about the notion that I was lovable) created a man who struggled with honesty. While I was aware of some of that dishonesty, that turned out to be the tip of the iceberg. I was unconsciously shaping who I was for each person I encountered, not exactly lying but certainly not being authentic. In the midst of a Shalom retreat, I had a sudden flash of awareness that awoke me to the entire mechanism, which I described in that moment as “slippery”. I devoted the next part of my life to purging that from myself, moving toward radical honesty and authenticity. In that process, I discovered a sense of freedom I had never encountered. This then laid the ground work for the next transformation …

From pre-packaged spirituality to authentic unique path

I’ve had a deep interest in finding my spiritual path since I was eleven, when I first bumped up against some of the more troubling aspects of the fundamentalist form of Christianity. I grappled to stay within the faith in which I was raised, the theological problems I encountered as a child — primarily the doctrine that doomed non-Christians to eternal suffering — were not easily dismissed. I then found a path that posed no such issues — Zen Buddhism. I began to take up Zen practices, and sustained and, in my late-40s, doubled down by studying at a Zen monastery for 5 years. This served me quite well — right up until the previously mentioned transformation to authenticity overtook me, and then I found myself dissatisfied. This shifted when I encountered Ken Wilber’s vision of Integral Theory and the Unique Self teachings of Marc Gafni. This prompted a deep shift to discover — rather, co-create — my unique spiritual path that is profoundly authentic and evolutionary, meeting my need for connection to the All for which I had been searching my entire life.

From mere self-care to Outrageous Self-Love

When I hit 65, in the midst of a traumatic development in my personal life, I decided that my only approach to navigating that painful passage was to commit to exquisite self-care. This involved a full commitment to plant-based food, daily exercise, and giving up my evening cocktail. I was once told by a friend and health coach that “100 percent is much easier than 99 percent.” I had ignored that advice for years, until this transformation. I committed 100 percent to this new lifestyle, and haven’t looked back. I lost every bit of the weight I had put on and never lost since I was 25, and haven’t felt this good since my youth. My new lifestyle — inspired by my teacher Jerry Jud’s invitation to feel good every day — is easy to sustain and never feels like sacrifice. This is what it feels like to have become my own Beloved.

I now live, work, and play in Hillsborough, North Carolina, in the northwest portion of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area.

Influences

Here are a few of the many influences of my life, all of which inform my work with my clients:

Training and Experience

PhD and MA in Psychology

(with an emphasis on behavior in organizations and individual decision-making)

Law Degree

Shalom Mountain Retreat Leadership

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Spiritual Traditions

Christian Mysticism

Buddhism

Tantra

Kashmir Shaivism

Sufiism

Hinduism

Taoism

Nature Mysticism

Teachers and Academic Influences

Ken Wilber, Marc Gafni, Gerald J Jud and many other teachers at Shalom Mountain, Joe Weston, Vyana Bergen, and many others.