Hello, I’m Scott and I’m glad to meet you here.
My life has been shaped by pivotal moments of connection with teachers, loved ones, and trusted guides. It is in these moments that the magic happens. We are relational beings, literally designed for connection. So, it is no surprise that when we have these moments of clarity, we are not alone. In the attuned company of a fellow human, we can expand, take a step forward, and become the next version of ourselves. It is for this reason that I love connecting with people one on one. My journey is no exception, all of my expansion has occurred in the company of a fellow traveler, a trusted companion, on the road back to myself.
My Story…
I was fortunate to be exposed to many different spiritual practices in my childhood. My mother was a healer, and she was deeply intuitive and spiritual. She was a powerful force in my life as a child, always encouraging me to explore. However, and unfortunately, as I became a teenager, I succumbed to the typical societal pressure to conform and fit in. I turned my back on all things spiritual, taking what would turn out to be a 25-year sabbatical from my inner knowing. My seeking turned toward money and accomplishment as I bought into society’s yardstick of success.
In this phase of my life, I also began my long, slow dance with covert depression. From the outside, I seemed happy, but on the inside things were not as they seemed. I climbed the corporate ladder in the Information Technology world, checking all the boxes on my checklist of happiness as I went. Finally, I reached a point where all those boxes were checked, and yet I found that I still wasn’t happy. In fact, I was terribly unhappy, but I was so numb to most of my life that I didn’t realize just how unhappy I was. It wasn’t until a friend of mine, someone who I perceived as a very happy person, took his own life that I realized just how bad things were. I was shocked to realize that I could sympathize with what he had done. I had every reason to be happy, but I was unfulfilled. I was empty inside. I was striving to achieve someone else’s life, not my own.
It was not too long after my friend took his life, that my young 10-year-old daughter really brought this home for me. As we were sitting at the kitchen table together after breakfast one morning, she turned to me with her sweet cherub face and her soft high voice and she said the most profound thing. She said, “Dad, you know, you’re kind of like a ghost. I see you here in front of me, but you are never actually here.”
She was right, I was an absent participant in my own life. I was an empty character playing the parts assigned to me, but not really showing up to participate in any of it.
And so began my journey back to myself. I entered therapy with the first of many trusted guides and slowly climbed out of the deep dark hole I was standing in. I gave myself permission to explore intuitive and spiritual concepts again, but I was skeptical. I had spent years living in a world that revolved around engineering, where truth was defined as only what you could see and touch. I devoured books about near-death experiences and past lives, but I still couldn’t quite believe that there was more to this life than what I could see and touch. I learned about past life regression, a hypnosis-based method to access your own memories of a past life. In this method, the regressionist gently guides you into a relaxed, semi-trance state. You are still fully aware and have complete control of yourself, but in this relaxed state, you are able to access and even experience memories from a past life. I read all the books I could find on the topic. I was starting to question the belief that this life was all there was. I needed a past life experience for myself. I had to see if it was real.
I booked my first past life regression session and it changed my life. The funny thing is, I didn’t even experience a past life in that first session. Instead, something profoundly more impactful occurred. My mother appeared before me (she had passed away 7 years prior). I couldn’t believe it was her at first, but when she greeted me I could hear her voice so clearly, so distinctly, it was as if she was still here. It was incredible. I was so relieved and overjoyed to see her that I was momentarily overcome with emotion. There was a part of me that had always hoped she was not gone forever, and it lifted a huge weight from me when I saw her. When she got close enough, she placed her hand on my chest, and bang! It felt like my body was not my own. As massive waves, of what I now know was energy, swept through me, moving my body with each wave. It felt wonderful, weird, but wonderful. I have no idea how long it lasted, but it felt like it went on forever. I was awed and amazed. When I left the session, I knew something big had happened, but I wasn’t quite sure what.
That experience was so intense, so undeniably real, that it changed my perspective instantly. It left me without a shadow of a doubt that there is much more to this life than what we perceive with our five senses. In the days that followed, I started to notice a strange tingly sensation that moved through my body in strange ways during certain situations. I also started to notice that I could move the tingles with my thoughts and my intention. I slowly realized that I was feeling and manipulating energy. This was a sensation that I had never even been remotely aware of prior to that session.
This pivotal experience opened up a door I had slammed shut over 25 years ago. This door led to a world I had been ignoring since I was a teen. I have no doubt that my mother saw it in me from an early age: My desire to help others. However, in order for me to be able to see it, I had to go on my own hero’s journey. I had to take my own long and winding road to finally realize what had been inside me all along. I know who I am now: I am a healer.
Now, I want to bring some levity back into this story. My journey has been nothing short of amazing, but it’s not over. My journey continues. I am still working in the corporate world, and while my dream is to someday move into this healing work full time, that time has not arrived yet. In many respects, I believe this gives me the ability to better relate to my clients. I am no longer unhappy, and I bring my whole integrated self into the corporate world as well as into my healing work.
If you are on your own journey and are having trouble finding your way back to yourself, I am here to be your guide. My passion is helping others find their own true north, discover their own gifts, and return to who they are meant to be.
My Philosophy
I believe that almost all suffering arises when we lose the connection to ourselves. This is often a response to a trauma we have endured, either as a child or an adult. This is a normal response to something we didn’t have the capacity to understand or handle on our own at the time. We became fractured from ourselves, and we took the painful part of us and locked it away in a box. We did what we had to do in order to survive and for our own self-preservation, but eventually, the pain will demand more and more of us. When we disconnect from ourselves, we can’t just disconnect the pain, we also lose our connection to joy. We have suppressed our own authenticity. We are unable to fully enjoy the wonderful things in our life. Eventually, we must take the time to heal so that we may return to our whole and complete self, so that we may end the suffering and once again be able to show up in the world as our fully realized and colorful selves.
I believe that we are energetic beings and that absolutely everything is composed of and influenced by energy. Similarly, I also believe that we are all connected, to everyone and everything. We are much more than just a body. Yes, we have a mind and a body, but we also have emotions that are made of energy and we have a soul. All of these aspects of ourselves need to be in harmony for us to be functioning as our best selves.
I believe we are spiritual beings with the innate capacity to heal ourselves (and others). I am not here to heal you, but instead to guide and show you how to heal yourself.
I believe that we are all intuitive and while we may not have developed our gifts, we each have the capacity to do so. I want to show you how to reconnect to yourself, your own sense of truth, and your own knowing and intuition.
I am spiritual, but not religious. People often confuse the two. To me, religion is a man-made set of rules and spiritual beliefs that attempt to dictate what everyone else should believe. In contrast, spirituality is a deeply personal set of beliefs that you have discovered for yourself through your own journey. My spirituality is my own, and your spirituality will be different based on your experience. It would be my honor to be your guide as you discover what your own spirituality means to you.
What it’s Like to Work with Me
I am here for no other purpose than your healing. I have no agenda or expectations except to be the best possible guide to you on your journey. I am here to give you permission to heal yourself and the freedom to tune into your own intuition and wisdom to do the work you want to do.
I welcome feedback. This work is your work, so it is important that we are heading in the direction that you want to go. I will check in with you often to make sure we are on track. If something isn’t working for you, let’s change it.
I often like to start a session with a few minutes focused on “arriving” and reconnecting with self. Our lives are so busy, it’s important to take a moment to let go of everything outside the room, and become present for the work we will do together. This may look like some breathing exercises, a short guided meditation, or a visualization. Sometimes it may just be a moment of silence. Many clients comment on how these few minutes of calm positively impact them for the rest of the day.
I will bring my whole self to our session. That means if my intuition picks up on something or I notice something energetically that could be helpful to you, I will share that with you. It also means that I may occasionally ask your permission to share something I saw in my mind’s eye during our work together.
I love humor, and I will use it generously in our work together. But beware, my belly laugh can be loud!
I am an empath. I will feel what you feel, and sometimes I will share what I’m feeling in order to help you navigate your own feelings. Other times, I will just sit with you in your experience.
Soul Callings
Coaching:
As a certified Holistic Life Coach, I focus on the client as a whole person, honoring the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of a person’s life. We are multi-faceted human beings. If we want to grow in a certain direction, we need to consider all aspects of ourselves. In my coaching practice, the types of clients that typically arrive in my office are undergoing large life changes (divorce, career change, recent loss, etc.). The work we do together may focus on exploring spiritual topics or healing negative thought patterns to facilitate growth. Regardless of what we focus on, the work we do will use your own innate wisdom. This is a journey of self-discovery. I am only a guide. I use a multi-modal approach, combining my intuition, energy healing abilities, brainspotting, and meditation techniques to create a transformative experience for my clients.
Couples Coaching with RLT:
I use the Relational Life Therapy (RLT) model of coaching with my couples. This model supports relational healing, helping couples improve their relationship with their partner, but also with themselves. An interesting side benefit of this work is that it can’t help but improve the other relationships in your life such as those with family, friends, or coworkers.
Developed by master couples and family therapist Terry Real, the RLT approach to couples therapy aims to equalize power imbalances and build empathy between partners. This is done by conducting inner child work and deep healing in the presence of your partner. I empower partners by teaching them the skills to embrace an entirely new way of relating to each other. As an RLT coach, I am neither better or worse than you, instead I am a fellow-traveler, sharing my own relational learning experiences as I walk alongside you and guide you back toward a relational way of living.
Meditation:
At the heart of almost everyone’s connection to themselves and their intuition, you will find a meditation practice. Meditation is the art of learning to quiet the mind, often using your own breathing, in order to become present with yourself, bringing a clear and natural attention to whatever you may be feeling, thinking, or experiencing right now, at this moment. It is the application of mindful attention to your present experience while letting go of the judgment, clinging, and distraction.
Meditation is a practice. This means it takes consistent repetition in order to do it easily, but it also means that there is no end goal. We are not striving to become amazing meditators. Instead, it is about the journey. Meditation is something we do on a regular basis not to get good at it, but to gain benefit from the mere act of doing it. When we have a meditation practice, we are building inner peace, we gain clarity on our emotions, we develop compassion for ourselves as well as others, and most importantly we build a connection back to ourselves. I incorporate different aspects of meditation in my work, and I often help clients develop a meditation practice that works for them.
This technique was brought to my attention most recently, and it is my passion. It is the perfect combination of all the things I believe about the human condition:
We have an innate ability to heal ourselves.
We are relational beings and we can heal more effectively in the presence of a loving guide that can hold space for us.
Our brain, physical body, and our emotions are all interconnected.
Brainspotting is a healing modality that originally evolved out of the trauma treatment technique known as EMDR. However, while it is very effective for trauma, it is also a powerful healing tool for many of the diverse struggles we face today such as anxiety, relationship challenges, grief, addiction, focus or attention issues, etc. Brainspotting can also be a powerful performance enhancement tool for activities such as sports, business, leadership, writing, art, and public performance work such as public speaking, acting, singing, and music.
Reiki + Energy Healing:
This is where it all started for me. When my ability to feel and move energy showed up, it changed my life. I now incorporate energy work in everything I do. I almost can’t help it, it’s part of who I am. I have seen firsthand how powerful this energy work can be for healing. I have helped clients physically heal from injury or recover from serious physical conditions with amazing results. I have also helped clients relax and step back from their panic or anxiety. I have helped clients sitting directly in front of me, as well as clients who are halfway around the world. The distance between us doesn’t matter. What matters is the desire of the client to allow themselves to be healed. We are literally made of energy (every atom in your body is vibrating with energy right now), so of course, it makes sense that if we can get that energy moving in the right direction, remove blocks and bring the system back into balance, we can heal ourselves, we can feel better, and we can grow.
Now that we have officially met, here’s all the nitty gritty details:
In 1996, I graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. I spent the next 20 years in the corporate information technology world. This experience has given me the opportunity to build my leadership skills, emotional intelligence, and insights into the different things that motivate people. Surprisingly, this corporate leadership experience has served me well in my healing work, allowing me to easily relate to my clients.
In 2016, I had my energetic awakening where I was suddenly able to feel energy. I took my first energy training class: Intuitive Energy Medicine with Marie Manuchehri. I dove deep into books and training related to energy. This particular course focused on the energy centers, auric layers of our body as well as how to recognize blocks and problems in those energy pathways in order to correct them and promote healing.
In 2017, I pursued the art of Reiki. Reiki is a form of energy healing that originated in Japan in the late 1800s. It is typically practiced as hands-on healing, but touch is not required. It can also be done remotely. I was trained in Reiki I and Reiki II with Marcella McMahon, and then became a certified Reiki Master with Marie Manuchehri.
Also throughout 2017, I was exploring channeling. I attended a course called, Receiving Clear Guidance by Sanaya & Duane Packer. This husband and wife team (and their channeled beings: Orin & DaBen) literally wrote the book on channeling. This class focused on connecting to your higher self, as well as other high vibration beings (guides, etc.) in order to receive information.
In 2018, I became a certified Life Coach with Alan Cohen’s Foundation for Holistic Life Coaching. Alan is a Hay House author and lifelong student and teacher of A Course in Miracles (ACIM). His spiritual approach to coaching was perfectly aligned with the type of coach I desired to be. We were taught that healing and success do not require self-compromise, self-sacrifice, pain, or struggle. Wellness is achieved by acceptance of self and recognizing the opportunities that difficulties contain. I opened my coaching practice later that year after I achieved certification.
Later in 2018, I was called to explore mediumship. I attended a course called Communication Beyond the Veil by Marie Manuchehri. In this class, we learned how to elevate our energy field (raise our vibration) and connect with those who have crossed over. I was blown away when I was actually able to pull through information for the person I was reading for during the practicum parts of the class.
In 2019, I attended a course by Alan Cohen based on his new book, Spirit Means Business. This course focused on the application of spiritual principles to achieve joy and material success in life and business. Also in 2019, I learned how to better let go of fear in Marie Manuchehri’s course, Fear the Final Frontier. This class taught us how to live your life from a non-fear-based (love) perspective.
Finally, in 2019, I attended a meditation retreat led by Jack Kornfield at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in the Bay Area. We focused on practicing many different types of meditation: sitting, walking, eating, and of course, focusing on the breath.
In 2020, I attended another class by Alan Cohen that focused on the core principles explored in his new book, A Course in Miracles Made Easy.
Later in 2020, a trusted friend encouraged me to explore an exciting new tool for healing called Brainspotting. I attended my first brainspotting training and learned what amazing healing can happen when we tap into the brain’s power to heal itself and combine that with the healing presence of a trusted practitioner.
In 2021, I pursued both Phase 2 and Expansion Brainspotting training where I learned that this modality can be beneficial for so much more than just trauma treatment. It is a powerful instrument for coaching, growth, spiritual support, as well as guidance when working through challenges.