Holistic

I operate from the conviction - backed by a century of reputable science - that there is no such thing as the "mind-body duality." Everything is cognitive. Therefore, Interotelligence as a theory-practice engages your whole being, not just isolated aspects such as your thoughts or emotions. We'll use simple somatic practices to help you rediscover the innate intelligence of the body~mind, which is vital for any substantive and lasting change to occur.

We also incorporate curious yet critical exploration of your entire life situation: what in your daily life enables or disables your authentic needs and desires? Where are opportunities for change and optimization? What factors can you control to support your goals? We can't heal, grow, change, or learn in isolation. Adapting your "cognitive ecology" to support your unique needs is crucial.

Interotelligence employs a synthesis of ancient, time-tested wisdom and the very latest, highest quality, scientific evidence. The key insight from both perspectives is that mind and body are essentially unified; it is when this integration is disrupted that we display symptoms that the pathologizing medical industry labels a "mental illness" or "disorder." The solution to a wide range of challenges, therefore, is not to "fix" you by suppressing symptoms, it is to trace the origin of the fragmentation within your being and recreate a functional integration of what we abstractly name "mind" and "body."

Sadly, many people go to therapy for years and never make any progress, and this is largely because they just sit and talk about their challenges rather than substantively engaging and tangibly processing them. But by taking an integrated approach to your holistic life situation, you can learn how to make real, lasting changes.

I specialize in:

• existential support/life transitions
• trauma resolution
• grief
• psychedelic integration and cannabis use/misuse
• compulsive or addictive behaviors
• mood dysregulation (anxiety, depression, low motivation, hopelessness, etc.)
• attentional challenges (ADHD, OCD, looping thoughts, distractibility, etc.)
• men's issues

Resource-based and strengths-oriented, not deficit-based or pathology-oriented

Most approaches of mainstream medicine and therapy operate through a pathologizing perspective that focuses on "what's wrong" with a person and how to "correct" or "fix" it. My approach is the reverse: compromised interoceptive function doesn't indicate that there's anything "wrong" with you, or that some part of you is "defective" -- rather, this merely reveals that there are incongruences in your holistic life situation and habits that have caused imbalances in your energy management abilities. To rebalance your neurophysiological system and restore adaptive interoceptive abilities, we engage, strengthen, and refine those abilities so that you can more creatively and sustainably meet the inherent challenges of life.

In other words, as G.K. Chesterton observed generations ago, "what's wrong with the world is that we're not asking what's right." Holos Therapeutics and my unique theory-practice of Interotelligence is premised on the conviction that you are already capable, competent, and possess the intelligence necessary to thrive in life. The challenge is learning how to work with these innate capacities and strategically leverage them to achieve your goals. 

You Are Your Own Expert

The brilliant Sherri Mitchell (Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset) observes that "The primary role of an external teacher is to empower your relationship with your inner teacher. Your inner teacher is the all-knowing part of you that is connected to the [entirety of] creation."

In traditional clinical practices such as psychotherapy or psychiatry, the credentialed professional assumes the role of "expert" and interacts with a client on the basis of their special knowledge, which it is assumed the client lacks. I don't do this. Instead, I relate to you as an equal human being on common ground. While I do, of course, hold professional qualifications and bring expert knowledge to the table, the difference is that my unique expertise is precisely the ability to guide you in discovering the innate intelligence of your body~mind that enables you to be your own expert.

Or, as Sherri Mitchell says, my specialization is helping to "empower your relationship with your inner teacher." This means that, paradoxically but also logically, my job is to work myself out of a job. Which is to say, the express purpose of Holos Therapeutics is to guide you into a place in life where you don't need professional support to live your best life: you now carry this knowledge and expertise within yourself, rather than being dependent on a professional expert to provide it.

It's like the classic "Give a person a fish, they'll eat for a day. Teach a person to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime" parable. But not only will you learn how to fish, you'll learn how to make a fishing rod, where to fish at what times of day, with what types of bait, and how to clean and cook the fish - metaphorically speaking, of course. By analogy, our sessions won't just be me telling you what to do to feel better, they will involve substantive, custom-tailored education about our neurophysiological systems so that you can literally embody this knowledge and apply it creatively, adaptively, and sustainably throughout your lifetime.