My Methods
The Training and Lineages That Shape This Work
A deep dive into the methodologies, certifications, and wisdom traditions that inform my integrated approach
When people ask about my methods, they're really asking: what makes this work effective? How do I know what I'm doing?
The answer lies in decades of rigorous training across multiple disciplines, combined with long-term mentorship in ancient wisdom traditions.
This isn't casual dabbling - it's the deliberate cultivation of expertise that serves your deepest healing. And you’re right to make sure that any healer you engage with is qualified, trained, supervised, and is accountable to your wellness.
Somatic Experiencing + Nervous System Work
Primary Training:
Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) through Somatic Experiencing International
Studied directly with SE founder Peter Levine and trauma expert Gabor Maté
Advanced training with master SE teachers: Ariel Giarretto, Joshua Sylvae, Efu Nyaki (transgenerational trauma), Twig Wheeler, Catherine Lemon
Post-Advanced Certifications:
SE™ Master Class: From Hauntings to Wholeness
Transgenerational Trauma specialization
Eye of the Needle advanced training
Theraplay certification for child work
What this means: Somatic Experiencing is a body-based approach to healing trauma that works with your nervous system's natural capacity to regulate itself. Rather than reliving traumatic events, we track subtle sensations and impulses to help your system complete interrupted responses and discharge stored activation. I assist official SE trainings, which means I help train other practitioners - a level of competency that requires deep mastery of the method.
Certifications:
Craniosacral Therapy
Certified Acupressure Practitioner
IAST (Integrative Approach to Structural Therapy)
Reiki Level 3
Training Institution: California Institute of Integral Studies, alongside extensive work with master teachers
What this means: These hands-on modalities work with your body's inherent healing intelligence through gentle, trauma-informed touch. Craniosacral therapy works with the subtle rhythms of your nervous system. Acupressure addresses energy pathways without needles. All touch work is conducted with explicit consent and can be integrated with verbal somatic work as appropriate.
Bodywork & Touch Therapies
Ancient Wisdom + Ritual Traditions
Dagara Tradition (West Africa):
15 years studying with elder Malidoma Somé
12 years learning grief ritual with Sobonfu Somé
Given explicit permission to share certain practices with ongoing reciprocity to Dagara communities
Mayan/Tz'utujil Tradition:
Student at Bolad's Kitchen (New Mexico) since 2009 with Martin Prechtel (Keres/Mayan spiritual leader)
Training in revitalization of living culture, ancestral crafts, stories, and ritual
Dakota Tipi Tradition:
12 years learning with Keith and Shane Pease
Understanding of indigenous approaches to ceremony and land relationship
What this means: These aren't weekend workshops or casual cultural borrowing. These are deep, long-term relationships with teachers who have given me permission to share certain practices. All work is conducted with ongoing reciprocity to the communities these traditions come from. This training informs my understanding of grief as medicine, ritual as healing technology, and the importance of ancestral wisdom in personal transformation.
Wilderness & Land-Based Skills
Certifications:
Wilderness Guide
Wilderness First Responder
Wild foraging instruction (since 2008)
Teaching Experience:
Berkeley Herbal Center
Landpaths organization
Various educational institutions
Cultural Permissions: Trained with California Native teachers with explicit permission to share certain harvesting and land tending practices
What this means: This work connects healing to our relationship with the natural world. I can safely guide you in outdoor settings while teaching sustainable practices that deepen your connection to local ecosystems. This isn't just nature therapy - it's learning to be in right relationship with the land that holds us.
Ongoing Training Areas:
Anti-oppression work and examining white/male privilege
Justice-informed healing approaches
Cultural humility and appropriate relationship with indigenous wisdom
Understanding how systems of oppression live in our bodies
What this means: Effective healing must address not just individual trauma but the collective conditions that create it. My work explicitly acknowledges how racism, patriarchy, and other systems of domination affect our nervous systems and healing capacity.
Social Justice + Cultural Competency
How These Methods Integrate
Rather than using these approaches separately, I weave them together based on what your unique system needs. A session might combine somatic tracking with ritual elements, or blend bodywork with land-based practices. The goal isn't to use every tool, but to create the precise container that serves your healing.
This is what 25+ years of dedicated training looks like when it's integrated in service of your wholeness.
“Years as a healer and trauma therapist have taught me that trauma isn’t destiny. The body, not the thinking brain, is where we experience most of our pain, pleasure, and joy, and where we process most of what happens to us. It is also where we do most of our healing, including our emotional and psychological healing. And it is where we experience resilience and a sense of flow.”
—RESMAA MENAKEM
How I See This Work
I am passionate about boundaries, self-care, and the kind of deep listening that tracks what wants to emerge. Just as I track animal signs and bird language in the wild, I track the subtle signs your nervous system shows me about what it needs to heal.
This isn't about me having all the answers - it's about creating space for your own wisdom to unfold.
As a white, cis-gendered man, I've spent years examining my place in systems of power and privilege. This work has taught me that true healing must address not just individual wounds, but the collective patterns that create them.
Your healing journey happens within larger webs of relationship - to community, to land, to the ancestors, to justice.
