Hi! I am a Yoga Therapist, Life Coach, and author of books and courses for emotional empowerment and psychological well-being. Through decades of leading individual and group process work combined with deep healing of my personal issues led me to discover the therapeutic role of troubling emotions. My life’s work is to share ways we can heal ourselves and help others. My big vision is the possibility of world peace through the emotional agility that every individual can gain with good information, tools, practice, and support. How did I come to this mission?

Inquiring Minds Want to Know
My inquisitive mind was always fascinated with looking inside things to understand how they work. From taking old machines apart as a boy to the physical sciences - how the universe works - I then became more interested in how people’s lives work - or don’t. I wanted to study something that would help me be happier along the way. As a lifelong student who loves to teach, I am passionate to share whatever I learn. 

Yogi, Teacher, & Trainer
My own mental/emotional struggles motivated me to investigate a number of body-mind-spirit based health and healing systems. Yoga and meditation was being discovered in the U.S. and in 1980 I committed myself to the old-world system of full-immersive training in yoga with ashram life, a spiritual teacher, and intensive daily practice. A desire to share these transformative practices led me from student to teacher to a career as an international trainer of teachers. Leading large groups in deep process workshops using eastern psychologies exposed me to the many issues that even high-functioning people face. I witnessed time and again the healing power of self-awareness through meditation. 

Life Coach & Yoga Therapist
To develop skills for individual counseling and inspired by Thomas Leonard, who many consider the founder of the coaching profession, I spent three years becoming a professional life coach. 20 years later, when yoga therapy evolved in the U.S., I became certified with the International Association of Yoga Therapists, realizing that my coaching techniques had naturally been yoga-based therapy all along. In all of this, my own stress patterns led to a health crisis. I was forced to realize that with all the tools and techniques, my emotions were unknown territory and my happiness depended on them. Karla McLaren’s work showed me that one could become an “emotional genius”.

Discovering Emotional Liberation
Observations of my emotional life and that of my clients led to remarkable discoveries about the amazingly systematic nature of emotions. Each emotion has a unique purpose with its predictable causes and solutions that will bring relief. The research of Bessel Van Der Kolk, Peter Levine, and Gabor Mate helped to scientifically explain how I was getting such remarkable results from my method of combining therapeutic physical practices, mindfulness, and emotional processes to heal trauma. To my amazement I had uncovered the natural innate self-healing faculty of emotions; a psychological immune system to heal the effects of adverse experiences and help us get through our day. Weaving this knowledge into my professional work produced the workshops, book, and online courses which continue to help many and I hope will serve my vision for global emotional wellbeing.

More Recently…
I moved to the green Appalachian Mountains after living in Los Angeles where I raised two children with my wife during most of this story. My continuing focus is to share these techniques with other healing professionals, teachers, therapists, and self-healing enthusiasts who will in turn help many people and bring emotional agility and liberation to the world. I am enjoying the peacefulness of my new mountain life near Asheville.