PsychoSpiritual Mentoring

Distilled to its essence, my work is simply the reflection of two intentions. First, to orient, mirror, and support people in coming home to themselves. That is, to what's most innate, though often overlooked, if recognized at all -- one's very being, presence itself...

Here, a non-divided Unity patiently awaits its discovery. In it we feel complete, and no longer such a stand-alone, apart from everyone and everything else. If spaciously (and conceptually) "empty," we're paradoxically full. And we notice there's nothing compulsively driving or stressing us. For nothing is missing, and nothing in excess. Nothing we urgently need to do first, or think about in order to experience a natural ease. No one in particular we have to be...  

Second, I attempt a compassionate, occasionally provocative, yet nuanced reflection of something else -- exactly what it is that we currently do, or believe -- that keeps the fullness of presence obscured. For when presence is obscured or inadequately valued, we can't help but thrash like a fish out of water -- and feel orphaned from the sacred.

Flavors in my work include the archetypal, mythic, and poetic traditions; the irreverent humor and deconstructive clarity of the non-dual traditions; and the diverse skillful means contained within the clinical tradition of western psychology. 

We live in a time of rapid change, where the culture itself often seems lost, anxious and disoriented. This places a premium on accessing a perspective that, while innately available, is not readily offered by the culture at large. This perspective is one in which we might lock eyebrows with our wise ancestors--those of the world's sacred traditions.

Working Together

A web page such as this is inadequate to provide an overview of individual sessions, speak to process-related matters, or help you to know if the work I offer would be right for you now, or for someone you know. But if you are interested in exploring the possibility of doing individual sessions, or in seeing if we might be a good fit, I’d welcome hearing from you. You can contact me by email or reach me at 510-232-8701. 

Since the pandemic, I’ve been working with clients via phone, FaceTime, and Zoom, enabling me to connect with people from around the world.

Whether or not you’re in the market for individual sessions, including consultations and strategies centering on the workplace, I hope some of this site's content speaks to you in an evocatively useful way.

Couples Work

I love doing couples’ work, and consider it a specialty. In an uncertain world, few things are as reliable as an intimate relationship – reliable that is, for bringing into awareness the remaining emotional patterns that obscure each partner’s more essential nature. In this way, couples’ work can be rather economical – sort of God’s way of hitting two birds with one stone.

Like snowflakes, no two couples are exactly the same. Yet 40 years of working with couples leads me to note an interesting phenomenon that commonly presents itself in the consulting room. This is the presence of what I term “the Shadow Couple.” For at the point at which couples initially seek help, the Shadow Couple has often begun to crowd “the Lovers” off-stage. Here the particular form of defensive reactivity experienced by one member of the couple has had the uncanny ability to activate the reactivity of their partner. These two forms of reactivity tend then to abduct a relationship and deliver it into a recrimination-filled Wasteland that not only crowds the Lovers off-stage, but also obscures the deeper nature of each member of the couple. 

Once couples have become more savvy in identifying the Shadow couple in their relationship, they may recognize this as a systemic issue, rather than blaming the partner for one’s own contraction and reactivity. Here the couple can band together against a common opponent – while given specific tools for uncovering an already content, non-dual, and loving Presence – a birthright that had become obscured…

Spiritual Retreats

Spiritual retreats offer the invitation to a radical simplicity, a leave-taking from “the ten thousand things” in order to become more intimate with the Source from which all things arise. They thus nudge us toward something – the embrace of our own true nature – as much as they offer a means of retreating from the perceptual habits which obscure it. 

Over the past several years I have felt blessed to witness an evolving form of retreat. One that seems – in a curiously brief period of time – capable of giving people a more extended familiarization with non-dual states of presence than our prevailing ego structures normally allow. 

Here, there’s no requirement to adopt the ethnocentric trappings, liturgies, or mythological underpinnings of this denomination or that. No need to join the monolithic structure of this school or that. Instead, these residential gatherings provide further orientation toward – and tend to activate – a few of the pivotal features common to all mystical spirituality.  

In so doing, they give us some footing in eternity – a true underpinning of our lives. Yet with this gift, they also leave us with an often humbling challenge – to more continuously embody what we’ve experienced on retreat in the often trying circumstances of daily life. For that's where the rubber really meets the road...

If you are interested in finding out more, contact me, and I’d be happy to speak with you on the phone, or in person. If we each get a green light, it would please me greatly to bring this work to your retreat or conference.