An Ally on Your Path

Welcome!

Are you one who suspects -- or knows -- that there is more to life than what mainstream society prepares us for? Maybe there are deeper mythic undercurrents beneath the calm or turbulent surfaces of our lives that we can either ignore, or come into exhilarating relationship with.

I'm here to provide support for your self-healing, your coming into wholeness, and ultimately to live into your own emergent mythos, your soul, so you can step deeper into a meaningful life and offer your gifts to the world.

I believe this is largely a path of coming home to what has been right here all along -- an invitation to re-inhabit our body-mind wholeness, our emotional life, our relationships with other humans, with our wild kin, with the living places where we sleep and wake, with Mystery itself…

Why have a mentor or ally?

Even if we are blessed to have close relationships that support our continual unfolding as a being, there is still something special about having additional allies on our path who give their full attention and presence, and actively help draw us deeper into our being and our becoming.

Some approaches I draw upon

Mentoring sessions begin with where you are, coming into presence in a collaborative spirit, listening, and attuning to what is emerging in the moment. A given session may center around one of the following approaches:

Dream tending: Dreams… On one hand they can be understood as having a physiological function. Much like the body spontaneously heals wounds, and continually replaces and restores our tissues, nightly dreaming helps regulate our psychospiritual health. And dreams can also be related to as poetic, metaphoric, and somatic gifts offered from a deep current of intelligence in service to our wholeness, growth and evolution. This is especially true if we tend to our dreams, holding them in our waking awareness, giving the characters and scenes our careful attention, and feeling how they affect us. When we don't tend to our dreams it can be more like receiving a gift, and perhaps enjoying the wrapping paper, but not actually opening the gift to see what's inside!

The way I've learned to practice dream tending is not based on imposing quick interpretations or conclusions, but brings you back into the dream experientially so that its intelligence and gifts can be accessed more fully. Then after spending time with the dream I can suggest ways you might be in further relation with the interesting and valuable threads and themes, via artistic expression, explorations in nature, or self-designed ceremony.

Eidetic imaging: This is a form of somatic imaginal concentration that draws upon our innate but often underdeveloped capacities to experience spontaneously arising internal imagery, while tracking our bodily sensations and emotions. It allows us to:

• Gain lucid insight into how our past experiences continue to live inside us and shape us -- our beliefs, our nervous system patterning, the ways we habitually relate to life.

• Realize that these patterns are not fixed and unchanging, but can be refreshed by accessing readily available currents of vitality.

• Enter interior realms that may have seemed unpleasant or unsettling by instilling confidence that even those places can be navigated safely --  and likely hold some important medicinal qualities.

• Exercise our own empowered agency, by selectively accessing images that activate essential facets of our wholeness.

• Enjoy the surprises that arise, which can include images related to childhood, nature, parents or grandparents, and can take on a mythic quality.

Parts work, shadow work, psychodrama: These are related approaches to discerning, welcoming, and integrating different subpersonalities, banished parts, or archetypal expressions of Self.

Practices include voice dialogues, and learning to spot and work with projections. These approaches are invaluable for being able to discern when we are operating from original, wounded, defended, adaptive parts of self or our capacities for wholeness.

Nature-based inner development: Doing one's inner exploration in cooperation with the wild world offers:

• Mirroring from the endlessly rich and varied mosaic of life: the subtleties of the shifting breeze, bird song, the play of light on the flowing stream, the uplift of a leaping deer.

• Elements of spontaneity and participation in the animate world

• The potential for a more expansive and nuanced sense of self, not just within a narrow set of social norms, expectations and measures of value, but in relation to the wild and enchanted world that is our true home.

Preparation and integration of medicine journeys.  While not a quick fix in itself, and not for everyone, plant medicines and certain other substances can be an invaluable element of one's larger journey into healing, wholeness, and soulfulness. I don't supply medicines, or condone anything illegal, or for minors, but otherwise am happy to support your inner process.

Sessions

Sessions are usually 60-75 minutes and can be in-person or online.

Sessions can be weekly, occasional, or for a set duration. Every session is customized around your current wants and needs. One session may center around exploring a particularly impactful dream, while another may be about learning particular skills, helping navigate your relationships with nature, mystery, other humans. Maybe you are exploring deep questions around livelihood, life priorities, and how to navigate the strange and sometimes confusing times we are living in. Or perhaps you can use support with preparing for or integrating an important life experience.

My background and training

As a mentor and human development guide I've been supporting others for over 15 years. I draw on multiple streams of experience and practice, including my own inner and outer explorations, and leading and participating in somewhere around 500 small group sessions. This work uses varied approaches including parts work, shadow work, psychodrama, and supporting people on overnight solo time in nature.

As my own inner life has continued to evolve in recent years I've been deeply involved in study and practice with the Animas Valley Institute, including training in dream work, deep imaginal practices, council and mirroring, and self-designed nature-based ceremony.

For the past four years I have been studying and collaborating with Eidetic Imaging trainer Janet Bloom. Janet has been using this practice daily for over 40 years, and studied extensively with Eidetic Image Psychology creator, Dr. Akhter Ahsen.

These strands of inquiry all drawn on aspects of our innate imaginal and somatic capacities, and have become increasingly central to how I approach working with myself and others.

Other relevant experience have included a decade I worked closely with indigenous peoples in Central and South America. This was primarily focused on territorial land rights, but also gave me the opportunity to understand on a daily basis about other ways of relating to and moving through the natural world.

Recently I've also been getting additional 'on the job training' by organizing and facilitating events such as the annual Forest and Village gathering in New Hampshire, where I have had a lead role in the Men's Pilgrimage, and the Men's Village for the past three Summers.

I'm also one of the founders, mentors, and the curriculum development lead at Rooted Futures, a mentoring organization for helping boys and young men navigate the journey to manhood.

Trainings

I'm a certified facilitator through the Animas Valley Institute's Wild Mind Training Program., based on the work of depth ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin and others. I've also been a participant in Animas's yearlong Soulcraft Intensive and other programs.

Other preparation includes:

• Embody Lab's excellent Somatic Psychedelic Facilitator Training, led by Atira Tan and Dr. Devon Christie. The training integrates trauma-informed somatic skills with psychedelic facilitation across preparation, session, and integration.

• The Power of Embodied Transformation training through the Strozzi Institute and Coaches Rising

• The Radiance Sutras School of Meditation teacher training

• The Mythic Body course with Josh Schrei and other.

• Several trainings through the Mankind Project, including leadership, shadow work, and trainings on multicultural issues.

• I also have a BS in Biology, a Masters in Geography, and did a lot of graduate coursework in Anthropology and Nature Conservation back in the day.