Trauma, Transformation and Healing

As I begin writing for this section of the website I keep struggling with how to share the things I've experienced in such a way that the telling will be of value to you. I would also hope that my mistakes and missteps and the lessons learned will help and support you in your walk. However, since growth seems to require some degree of discomfort, I wish for you, a little less pain as a result of empowered choices that yield life affirming experiences. Now that's a mouthful but I mean it... life that builds positively on itself.

I started using psychological counseling when I was 15 years old, using the money I was making washing dishes at a local dinner, to work through some issues that put me squarely in the at risk category for death, addiction, criminality or insanity. Things were quickly turning very, very  bad for me. I was becoming dangerous to those close to me and my dental health was deteriorating towards disfigurement. I will be going into more details of this phase of my life a bit later, but for now I just want to tell you that at 68 years of age I still use counseling resources to keep my life livable and worthwhile. I guess my greatest achievement to date is that I now use counseling to improve and deepen my understanding of my "sacred" purpose on planet earth. Sounds grandiose? Well maybe, but I say it this way because I'm pointing towards a birth right that we all have in common; and that is that our very existence is profound in it's nature and the implications for each of us as we wake-up and live the life our creator intended for us.

I feel a twinge of embarrassment talking to you in this way, but the truth is that I think about about this aspect of life almost continuously, except maybe when I'm watching the Mandolorian, but wait a minute Mando also speaks to my heart, so oops! Anyway you get my drift I'm sure.

As I said, I was born in Gimli Manitoba, but early in my life at about one year of age+/- my mother moved us to the States, a place called Astoria Oregon. Mom rented an apartment and made a little home for us while we waited for my Father a soldier in the US Army stationed in occupation Japan from early 1954 to late 1955. 

To Come...

Wahkohtowin is a Cree word for a philosophy of being that links land,

family, and identity into one inseparable whole.

I started my personal therapy at age 15, which I paid for myself from the money I earned washing dishes.

I will be writing about my first sweat lodge with Wallace Black Elk almost 50 years ago. 

My 8 years sweating with a local drug and alcohol recovery program

My 13 years sweating with the members of the Native Circle at the prison on McNiel Island 

and My 10 years sweating with Military Veterans at the VA.