I have studied breathwork actively for more than 15 years. I consider myself a perennial student and I want to forever remain curious and teachable. The folks I consider not only peers but also my teachers in the breathwork field are Jennifer Patterson, Founder of Corpus Ritual, and Chauna Bryant, Founder of Breath Liberation Society.  I would not be the teacher, the practitioner, or the man I am today without the help of these two incredibly skilled and earnest badasses. With them in my life, I felt for the first time I found a community who also cared about the things I felt were so important. They have also helped me be more accountable for my work in the world, and I’ll be indebted to them for the rest of my life. It is also important to say that I learn so much from every instructor that comprises our Breathwork Clinician Certification faculty, and from being in right relationship with my students.

This particular breathwork technique found me in 2009 while I was in treatment for alcoholism and mental health issues including suicidal ideation/attempts. Corrie Murguia (then Borris) introduced it to me, and we are fast friends to this day. It changed my life. After working with it as intimately and as long as I have, I’ve come to recognize that it has its own consciousness, its own intentions, and its own desires. The Spirit of this work deserves more credit than any human and deserves to be recognized as the driving force behind its power and healing, not some “guru.”

As a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor Level II, I am not required to seek continuing Clinical Supervision. However, I voluntarily seek it under Dr. Janoc Vance. Under her supervision, I have become so much better as a counselor, an educator, and as a supervisor. I have learned discernment and differentiation.

I hold a Sex Educator Certificate from Everyone Deserves Sex Education. Its Founder, Anne Hodder-Shipp, is an award-winning sex and relationship educator, and the author of Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love. They are also the great love of my life. As her student, I have learned ways to use the power I have as a white cisgender man to help dismantle the patriarchy, how to prioritize the disenfranchised, and how to identify and take responsibility for behaviors that unwittingly uphold patriarchy, white supremacy, and other oppressive systems. They are one of the most qualified and skillful educators I’ve ever met. I hope I get to continue to learn from her until the last star explodes in its death gasp and the Universe starts all over again. May I return as mycorrhizal network.

I am a student of Hellenistic Astrology as taught by Austin Coppock and Chris Brennan, two deeply knowledgeable scholars of astrology, and of Diana Rose Harper, a renowned relational astrologer and educator who I also have the privilege of calling a close personal friend. I have learned to hope more deeply and consistently with her in my life.

I began developing our Breathwork Clinician Certification in 2015 because there were many gaps in what I and other students were being taught about this form of breathwork. The breathwork program I had completed numerous times was too short and led exclusively by David Elliott, a white heterosexual man with no clinical training, which led to Black, gender expansive, LGBTQIA+, and other important perspectives being deprioritized, appropriated, or absent from the program. The content did not include informed teachings or discussion of trauma, consent, power, identity, diversity, and other topics I consider essential for anyone being trained to provide space for healing. Like most New Age "wellness" trainings, it was white-washed, rooted in characteristics of white supremacy and patriarchy, and blamed the individual as the reason they experience suffering, abuse, or poverty and, as a result, solely responsible for their own healing. As through systemic oppression doesn't exist.

I finished the creation of the Breathwork Clinician Certification in 2022, and it has been some of the most fulfilling work of my life. I hope that I continue to get to share this work in this way.

I would like to thank Breathwork for the People for their labor and shedding light on the many still unaddressed issues within my former mentor, David Elliott, and his breathwork community.

For almost 12 years, I assisted and taught for him and was deeply involved in his community of breathwork providers. In 2020, he was called in by Breathwork for the People in a letter which I signed along with 20+ others before it was delivered to him. Its authors put forth tremendous labor by writing it with compassion and clarity and managing the resulting vitriol and backlash they ultimately received from his community. The change and evolution that Breathwork for the People urged David to make did not happen. Over time, it became clear that David or his other teachers did not plan to rectify any of these issues, and they appeared distrustful and suspicious of community members like myself who advocated for implementing Breathwork for the People's solutions. I left David's breathwork community in 2021.