“We’re all just Walking each other Home.”
—Ram Dass
Our Team
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I’m a counseling graduate student, researcher, and writer exploring selfhood and intimacy through the lens of emotional architecture, attachment, and storytelling. From academia to art, I connect a common theme: our relationship with ourselves–and the infinite ways we explore that connection–determines the quality of our lives. I believe sex is one of those sacred pathways. By sparking new conversations around sex, I aim to reconnect people to their inner compass, and ultimately, to the eternal fire of life within.
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I've been interested in the concept of the self since I was an undergraduate. Now, as a professor in higher education for over two decades, father to children aged 3 to 34, I've begun to explore the expanded self as it relates to development, the brain, and the interaction with others. I've come to believe that a strong, grounded self is what gives rise to the mature, healthy mind, inoculating individuals from the woes of modernity such as the comfort crisis.
I received my PhD in 2002 in biopsychology with an emphasis on comparative animal behavior/evolutionary science and cognitive neuroscience. My dissertation work explored the role of self-awareness in people with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like traits. I've published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, half dozen peer-reviewed chapters, and have presented my work all over the world. One of my most cited papers used fMRI to localize the processing of the self in the healthy brain. In a follow-up, my team and I demonstrated that self-processing is not an all or nothing process, but on a spectrum as evidenced by variability in performance in families with schizophrenia.
I continue this research on self-awareness today and strive to bridge the gap between what we know about self formation and how individuals can apply this knowledge meaningfully in their lives.
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I’m a clinical mental health counseling graduate student with a passion for integrative approaches to wellbeing. My work draws from expressive arts, contemplative practice, embodiment, and more, with the aim of promoting authentic realizations of selfhood and its natural evolution. I’m fascinated by the many ways selfhood takes shape—through story, movement, creativity, connection, relationality, and intimacy—and what these expressions reveal about one’s psychosocial wellbeing.
Ultimately, I hope that my work encourages others to wander bravely through the wilderness of selfhood and to integrate all that stands to be learned through such an adventure.
Our model
Selfhood
Our inner enduring essence is multifaceted and mysterious, and turning inwards is a journey that can last a lifetime.
Embarking on this journey is the starting point for much of our work. Often, self-knowledge is all one needs to spark profound growth and positive change.
Relational Integrity + Group Work
None of us can be fully understood outside of relationships. Humans evolved to survive in community, and interpersonal connection is a central component of health.
In order to maintain genuine contact with the world around us, it’s vital to stay anchored in selfhood. When one’s own inner-architecture is strong, one can connect more fully with those around them.
Experiential Learning
We believe that learning and growth happen best through direct experience. By consistently focusing on real experience in the here and now, our model promotes sustained learning and real-world relevance. Experience brings deeper understanding and greater opportunities for growth and change.