I grew up among the golden hills and oak filled outskirts of Los Angeles, with the briny sea breeze that is infused with scents of sage and the unmistakable magic of Southern California. Spending my youth embedded in punk, skate and surf culture, I took to the arts and crafts quickly, immediately drawn to woodworking and classical guitar. The communities of folk music, punk rock allowed me to be surrounded by makers and mentors who gave me an appreciation for the unique expressions that art can have on the world.

Even before high school graduation, I began touring with metal, hardcore and emo bands  playing internationally and excitedly to both makeshift punk venues all the way up to arenas, selling 7” records, handmade zines and t-shirts, extending my personal relationships to an interconnected and supportive DIY scene while making lifelong friendships, playing a tiny but passionate role in the DNA of the underground music scene.  

While on the road I was lucky enough to be exposed to self studied intellectuals and a kind of brilliance that is only gained through deep engagement with a dynamic sea of ideas. I read Nietzsche, Lao Tzu, Adrienne Rich, and Alan Watts in the back of dusty vans and on motel floors. I was exposed to ritual magic, esoterica, Buddhism, Taoism. I also met inspiring individuals who came from all over the world no matter whether they were adherents to Krishna, math metal geniuses or crust punks.

Somewhere between tours I took a job as a ceramicist and scraped up enough money to attend classes in philosophy at Moorpark College, and though it would be years until I put touring behind me, those classes planted the seeds of my future.

By the time I was in my late twenties, I knew I had a gift for listening deeply to people’s desires, perhaps influenced by my parents, one a professor, the other a therapist. My time in music trained me to be attuned to others and to collaborate effectively. As I got older I was drawn to academia. I attended a college founded on radical thought at Antioch. After my mother passed away from cancer, the sublimity of loss and the unexpected explosions of kairos inspired me to enroll and finish my degree. There I studied eastern wisdom traditions, The history and sociology of American Utopian and communal movements, mysticism, classical literature, new religious movements, the philosophy of religion as well as continental and post modern philosophy. I did field work in the areas of sociology of religion and traveled to sacred sites in Mexico, Spain, Japan, Israel and South America. I sought out mystics, artists and ethnobotanical adventures, writing about my travels in journals and zines.

After receiving my B.A. in philosophy, I was at a crossroads. I knew I would either continue in academia towards philosophy or study psychology, I couldn’t decide and so I took a hiatus. During that time I started the non-profit, Rogue Scholars, which was a radical experiment in pushing experiential learning to my own conception of its zenith point and challenging current pedagogical models. All events were free, the only cost was one had to have read the selected text before entry. I ran the group for two years putting on events almost everywhere in Los Angeles, utilizing a non-hierarchical model to facilitate the interpretation of texts through curated experiences bringing to life works by folks like Maggie Nelson, Noam Chomsky, Guy Debord, Jane Jacobs, Jack Haberstram, Jurgen Habermass, Henri Lefebvre as well as collective works such as  The Invisible Committee. The project was committed to making critical yet free thinking ideas accessible no matter the attendee’s level of scholarship.

I went back to gain my masters at Antioch and found alignment with the work of Michael White and Narrative Therapy. Such work spoke to me because it drew much of its ideas from the realm of anthropology, local knowledge, semiotics and critical theory. I also gravitated towards the work of Carl Rogers and the Humanistic theories the came to inform relational Gestalt therapy. Even so, I continued to be drawn to the Taoist tradition, its wild subversion of language and the beautiful potentials embedded in the rich poetry, which  is the primary influence my practice. I interned at both the Southern California Center and Narrative Counseling Center and upon completion opened my own practice which is now a decade running.

Through this I found myself writing less about obscure, wayward cults and moved towards the intersection of ecology and psychology. I also hosted a scholarly podcast Shoot The Dancing Bear, and intersectional exploration of pop culture, philosophy, literature and psychology. I’ve led workshops educating therapists on psychedelic psychotherapy and worked training talented and inspiring fledgling therapists towards effective, compassionate and caring therapeutic environments.

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