I was born in New Jersey.

My father was emotionally stunted, saw me as competition, and didn’t want me. His father was a WW2 veteran who learned to suppress his emotions and used alcohol to cope.  His mother became unstable, diagnosed with schizophrenia.

My mother loved me dearly and yet was depressed, angry, and overwhelmed – faced with an unsupportive partner who wasn’t able to support us emotionally or financially. Her father was also an alcoholic, creating a home of unpredictable rage. 

And so, I was born into an emotional cocktail of disdain, depression, anger, and at times a lack of love. Which was rooted in my parents’ childhoods. Which was rooted in their parents’ childhoods. And on and on it goes. 

I was a geek who loved to study, lacked confidence, didn’t have a model of being a healthy man, and was beat up and made fun of for it.

In high school, I learned how to have friends. I hid the parts of me that were made fun of and became vigilant, learning what to say and how to be. I started to use pot and alcohol to cope.

I learned how to avoid my emotions.

I listened to my guidance counselor, who told me to go to college for technology as all the money was there. He told me to ignore my dreams to go into archaeology or psychology.

I bet you he learned from his parents to ignore his dreams in order to survive and thrive in modern society. And I bet they learned it from there’s. On and on it goes. 

I earned 2 degrees and got a job as a UI designer with a lucrative salary and quickly moved up the ranks, working 80 hour weeks and gaining weight to 280 lbs in the process.

I put an offer on a house. Thankfully, it fell through. And it was as if I woke up from a dream. I realized there was another way. And I quit my job.

I had a new guiding question: “How can I make the same amount of money doing work I love?” I pursued teaching and mentoring at the middle school, high school, university, and corporate levels. I got healthy and fit. And I prioritized friends and family.

I started many businesses over the years, bringing the Inner Wisdom Academy into high schools, operating One Planet For Change in Kenya and San Diego, mentoring in New Jersey and Spain, and starting my coaching practice in 2013. I was finding success, having fun, and making an impact. 

But I was seeking success in business and relationship to feel better. To feel accepted. To feel loved. And my relationships fell apart under that pressure, time and again.

I started coming face to face with the trauma I’d been running from: the protection patterns and survival mechanisms I learned in order to navigate a world where it wasn’t safe to be me.

These were nervous system patterns operating below conscious awareness rooted in my family ancestry and societal oppression.

I was unknowingly recreating the past. 

So, as I was having a huge impact on my clients, I was going through my own deep healing process.

I stopped jumping from book to course to seminar to coach (the personal development hamster wheel) and started learning how to be with myself. To be still and increase my capacity for discomfort and the unknown. To stay centered and confident in more and more conditions through breath and movement.

I began studying Medical Qi Gong and focused on my somatic and nervous system healing, as well as embodiment of all I learned.

I simplified. I said “No” to more things. I listened to my body. And I began to have an even bigger impact on my clients. Soon, I was attracting Vice Presidents and Directors of companies.

And then, they brought me in to work with their teams.

I’ve been able to help teams unlock the untapped genius on their team, communicate and collaborate across difference, learn how to better leverage each other, and have the tools to  remove resistance and increase belonging, psychological safety, impact, and profit

– by every one stepping in to their fullest expression…

I utilize Human Design, Talent Dynamics, and Somatic Breathwork and Movement practices (rooted in Qi Gong) to support Leaders and teams in building their nervous system capacity for the unknown, innovation, and full expression – 

– helping them to unravel patterns at the individual and collective level that are creating resistance and wasted energy.

This creates space for the genius of the team to emerge into new creativity, impact, and profit – the unique innovation only possible with their voices.