About Sequoia

I love my work: helping people deepen their connection with their body, health, heart and soul through yoga, meditation and massage. and through Transformational Life Coaching, harnessing people’s innate creative visioning capacity to facilitate their building their optimum lives.
I am deeply grateful to have felt guided by my own heart’s yearnings and intuitions to do this very fulfilling work. Here is a summary of the major steps in my professional journey:

• 1972, my explorations in holistic health began in Berkeley. I moved there after being a US Air Force pilot in Vietnam…knowing my soul wanted a completely different life, and wanting to live someplace where I could feel utterly free to follow my heart. I was immediately drawn to explore yoga, meditation and massage.
• 1976, had the great blessing of being initiated into Siddha Meditation by Swami Muktananda, who was visiting California from India. 
• 1980, completed yoga teacher training at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco and Certified Massage Training at the Institute for Psycho-Structural Balancing in San Diego.
• 1983, received certification by the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America.
• 1986, earned an M.A. in East/West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, with a pioneering thesis on the effects of stress and its management in living with HIV/AIDS.
• 1985, continued my study of yoga under the tutelage of T.K.V. Desikachar of Madras and also at the Kripalu Yoga Ashram in Massachusetts.
• 1989, developed an innovative program of stress management for people affected by HIV/AIDS under the auspices of the AIDS Committee of Ottawa.
• Since 1987, have been organizing and conducting Men In Touch retreats which offer men an opportunity to explore nurturing ourselves and one another through traditional body-mind healing practices, including yoga, tai chi, breath-work and simple, healing touch. These retreats have been held in British Columbia, Ontario, New York, Washington, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and North Carolina.
• 1990, moved my private practice to Vancouver, B.C.
• 1992, received funding from Health Canada to conduct a 2-year study on stress management strategies for people living with HIV, entitled Growing Positively Healthier. 
• 1985-2005, I deeply explored the ancient Taoist and Tantric principles of integrating the erotic and the spiritual, through The Body Electric School, and with Dr. Rudolf Ballentine, including a pilgrimage to India in 2001. For 20 years, I have been sharing these ancient teachings with interested clients, both individually and in workshops. I believe there is enormous healing potential in this sacred-erotic alchemy, which is at last gaining recognition and respectability in the west.
• 2006, trained in Personal Life Coaching, which incorporates the latest research in psychology/neurology, at Erickson College in Vancouver, and through the Coach Training Alliance in Boulder.
• 2012, created Sacred Touch Yoga: a free on-line course teaching simple touch techniques that anyone can easily learn and share with friends and family.

My Transformational Life Coaching builds upon the holistic East/West perspective I learned in the 80s. I draw on all those body/mind skills in assisting people to tap into their own deepest wisdom to find guidance in creating their own “path with a heart.”

“Over the years, I have found the sensuous peace and relief that one finds under a big tree …. The quality of your presence, and above all your caring in dealing with others, has always been consistent and nourishing. Your teachings are subtle yet profound, respectful yet eloquent, humble yet inspired. You have created an awareness and a delight in my body, mind and soul that I am savouring every day, and that I humbly hope to maybe pass on to others on my path.”      [from a long-time client/student upon moving away from Vancouver in 2003]