The TL;DR Background

My formal educational background in this area is that of certified hypnotherapist; specifically, Transpersonal Hypnotherapist, as issued by the Institute of Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, WA. This included many other subjects, of course, including neurolinguistic programming. (I also have a background in sports and performance hypnosis.) However, in the twenty years leading up to that program I was immersed in Eastern and Western philosophy, psychology, comparative religion, traditional healing systems, esoteric sciences, and a host of other things.

I made the decision to not formally pursue most of those subjects for a number of reasons. First, in terms of the Ph.D. type subjects, I was interested in them as functional practices more than as academic pursuits, so I wasn’t willing to commit the time and resources to dedicate to one particular area.

Additionally, I loved the area of psychology when I was younger but I was less interested in the clinical area and more interested in everyone else. What types of things plagued the rest of us; the “every day” person who didn’t have an clinically diagnosable issues but who suffered just the same? I was also more interested in the mechanism of thought and less in the content of thought. At least initially. So Eastern philosophy felt like a better track for me than clinical psychology.

Second, in terms of traditional healing systems, I studied a number of systems…Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha Vaidya, etc…but I never found one specific system that resonated with me so much that I wanted to plant myself there and give up studying the rest. Over time, what I came to appreciate the most was comparing and contrasting the systems in terms of how they viewed and treated individual’s within their unique environments and cultures.

This same type of thinking applied to spiritual pursuits as well. I was raised very Lutheran, but in my early 20s I started devouring books on Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Native American spirituality, esoteric traditions, and so many more. My initial quest may have started as a search for “Truth,” but it quickly turned in to a vast appreciation for the different ideas and insights each tradition contributed to the Great Mystery.

So while I didn’t commit myself to a formal academic program or spiritual pursuit, I did commit myself to a massive amount of learning in order to identify and trace the similarities and differences that ran through each subject. My goal was to eventually weave it all together.

Of course, true learning also involves a great deal of practice, and in addition to everything I was reading, there were a number of people that I studied with along the way. So many, in fact, that there is no way for me to list them all here, but there are a few that I would like to mention.

While I had already been a student of Eastern philosophy for many years, my hatha yoga practice didn’t really start until the late 1990s, and I was fortunate to have linked in to an incredible studio in Seattle called The Yoga Tree. At the time, The Yoga Tree was owned by Kathryn Payne and Theresa Elliott, and the instructors were an amazingly talented and diverse group with different styles and backgrounds. These differences shouldn’t be underestimated.

When it became fashionable to start teacher trainer programs, many studios hired the students who went through their training programs to be instructors. The result of this was that studios started to lack diversity, because everyone was immersed in the same philosophy and culture.

This was certainly not true at The Yoga Tree, where instructors would sometimes, politely, disagree with the approaches of other instructors. It was a great place to be a student and to get exposure to many different styles and traditions.

Additionally, the visiting instructor circuit was rich, and full of some of the top names in the yoga community; Gary Kraftsow, Shandor Remete, Dona Holleman, Richard Freeman, and many more.

In short, it was an incredible place to be at an incredible point in time in hatha yoga’s history in this country and I am very grateful to have had the pleasure to study with all of those people.

While I had a number of influences in the qigong world, there are three that are worth mentioning. First, for most of my life I have considered Dr. Guan-Cheng Sun, founder of the Yi Ren Qigong system, my primary teacher. I studied with Dr. Sun for many years and even worked on a research project with him (the effect of qigong on diabetics).

During those same years, I would also sometimes do some workshops with Xu Mingtang, who was the lineage holder of the Zhong Yuan Qigong system.

More recently, after a long time off from practice, I connected in to the Zhineng Qigong system, as taught by Master Mingtong Gu. Of all of the things I have practiced in my life, qigong has been one of the most powerful, and I am excited to have found a system that is as all encompassing as my curiosity.

I have sat at the feet of too many teachers to begin counting. A quick few come to mind, however; Rodney Smith, from the Seattle Insight Meditation Society; Gen Jangsum, from the Kadampa Meditation Center; and Robert Svaboda, Tantric practitioner and author of the Aghora book series. All of them left an impression on me and helped shaped my path forward.

It is a little embarrassing that I am leaving out so many people, because there are so many others, but this list is already getting long.

When I transitioned to the health/fitness/wellness industry in 2003, primarily as a way of taking a “baby step” towards my future in, well, some sort of health/healing tradition that I hadn’t quite figured out yet, I fully embraced the fitness and performance world. As a long time athlete, it was an easy transition to make, and I soon found within it so many things that I was hoping to find in a health/healing career; namely, the opportunity to develop deep rapport with people and the ability to help them discover their inherent power.

And like all those who took the profession seriously, I passionately pursued certifications and further educational opportunities: National Strength and Conditioning Association, National Academy of Sports Medicine, USA Weightlifting, LeMond, TRX, and on and on.

Eventually, I let a number of them lapse, and just kept the ones that were most important for the business aspect of training and coaching.

I was also honored to be named as one of the Top 100 Trainers in America by Men’s Journal. I don’t bring it up very often because the truth is there are hundreds, if not thousands, of amazing trainers and coaches out there doing great work.

To increase my skill set, I pursued a number of health and wellness coaching areas, starting with the Chek Institute. I know that Paul Chek receives a lot of criticism for some of his unconventional (ok, maybe wacky) ideas, but he is a smart guy who is not afraid to question convention. I don’t agree with a number of things Paul teaches, but I still loved him as a teacher. He taught me to look at things differently, which was a great perspective to have as I broadened my health and wellness studies in to more traditional avenues.

What’s up next for me? I am constantly researching everything I can in the psychological-somatic-philosophical realm, and I love the insights that are coming out of the brain science and consciousness studies areas. I love the new movements that are trying to identify the components of “flow” so that we can try to reverse engineer the process (or at least put ourselves in the best possible position to catch the wave). I love our growing understanding of how the gut biome plays a part in mood and mental health. I love the re-emergence of psychedelics, as I think they hold great promise for both mental health and personal development issues. I love the growing trends in technology that are contributing to the field, from qEEGs and neurofeedback to audio-visual entrainment and electronic and magnetic applications to the brain. I love the growing understanding that we have regarding how we are affected by our ecology; from our food to our social community.

These areas are where I am headed. I obviously cannot be an expert in them all, but I can know enough to help point people in the directions that can help them best.

I could continue typing for hours, but if you are still reading, it probably doesn’t make a difference. If you are the type of person who thinks a lot of letters after someone’s name is the only thing that qualifies them as competent, I am likely not your guy. Although, I probably know a lot of those people, and I would be more than happy to send you to them, because they are good at what they do.

What I offer is breadth, and a weaving together of ideas. What I offer is the freedom to not have to adhere to a particular dogma or strategy. What I offer is open-hearted listening, understanding, and an offering of a broad range of ideas that we use to co-create the path that is right for you, specifically.

If this resonates with you, please contact me and let’s see if I can help you achieve your goals.