About Me 
Dreams, and paying attention to dreams, have always been a big part of my story. In fact I believe my earliest memory was a dream. It is still a popular misconception that dreams are reactive and reductive but I think the ancient Celts had it right -- the day begins with sunset; likewise it is from darkness that consciousness springs. Dreams not only connect us to our earliest personal memories, but they also awaken us to the memories of our culture, our people and of our Mother Earth. Without memory there is no way forward at all, but dreams are also teleological, that is future-oriented, opening doors that otherwise remain invisible.
I had just matriculated at Hampshire College back in the ‘70s when one very powerful dream let me know that it was time to take responsibility for my life-path. Almost overnight I found myself commited to a decades long exploration of the works and thought of C.G. Jung, as well as to my own individuation through dreamwork, active imagination and analysis.
Not too many years later (1989), again, it was a couple of dreams that significantly cleared the way for my move to Vermont. Once settled in the Green Mountains I gravitated toward Native American spirituality, spending my free time communing with the woods and animals, periodically Vision Questing.
Inevitably I found myself turning to shamanism, reading everything I could get my hands on, attending intensive workshops and extended programs in shamanic techniques and practices, applying what I was learning to my life and relationships. . . making room in my consciousness (and Weltanschauung) for shamanic experiences, always wanting to go deeper.
Through shamanism I was able to personalize my spiritual path. Also shamanism helped explain many early life-experiences that had made me feel different growing up. . .I was anxious to integrate all of my story! But this was far from an easy process.
I had been working full time in the public school system for 16 years. Quitting that job with the intention of retooling and re-educating myself for a new career as shamanic practioner / counselor was one of the biggest decisions of my life. I knew that, for the first time, I would have to proceed without a map. Sure enough, the following year I was basically on my own, shamanically speaking, with my books, my medicine bag, the woods and the weather. There were days when everything made sense and days when absolutely nothing cohered. Toward the end of that watershed year, as a result of my wife, Shirley’s, loving prodding , I applied to Goddard College’s Master of Arts program in Health, Arts and Sciences where I studied (with a passion I could never have antipated) ecstatic voice in poetry and shamanic practice. And, likewise to my surprise, I began to write ecstatic poetry.
My first year at Goddard was a year of sorting and integration on multiple levels, the second year was a year of synthesis. I felt that it was important not to squeeze everything that I was learning into a neat package but to let my experience be the teacher. My thesis is reminiscent of the magic mitten in a childrens story by Jan Brett, where the weave of a hand-knitted mitten keeps expanding to accommodate a mouse, a hedgehog, an owl, a badger and a bear, until of course the bear sneezes.
I now find myself at a point where I want to share what I have learned, combining this with a modified Jungian approach to dream-work and therapy. For now I call this work transformational counseling.
I see this website as a more than adequate vehicle for working with big dreams because they can be discussed and interpreted without face-to-face contact. I am, however, also available for one-on-one counseling in either of two locations: Rutland, VT at Pyramid Holistic Wellness Center (Pyramidvt.com), and my home in Middletown Springs.