MEET MARK

 

I have had the joy and blessings of a life of varied experiences.

• 25 year career as a woodworker and furniture maker
• I was comissioned to build a sailboat
• I switched careers and trained to teach, coach, and consult in the domain of somatics
• For 18 years I worked through Strozzi Institute under the guidance and mentoring of Richard Strozzi-Heckler
• I took up Aikido in 1992 and have the rank of second-degree blackbelt
• Since 2005, I have been studying, practicing, and participating in indigenous/traditional ceremonies and ways of being as guidance for my life
• I have a thriving primary relationship since 1978

The combination and accumulation of these experiences has offered insight and expertise in human behavior, relationships, organizational performance, and spirituality. The time spent in each of these area has also offered insight and expertise in what it is to develop Mastery in life. I am not perfect, never expect to be, and have a love/hate relationship with my own humanness.

 

Read further for more information:

Woodworking:

I spent 25 years working as a woodworker building kitchen cabinets, store fixtures, and very high-end residential furniture, cabinetry, and millwork. My college engineering background contributed to this as I could produce detailed plans and drawings for all the different shops where I worked. I also ran my own woodworking business for six years, culminating in fulfilling a commission for building a sailboat.

During the last five years of that career, I began feeling a strong desire for something different, something that involved more people and a wider exposure to the world. I had no sense of what that would be, but knew I had to be doing something different, a different way for me to express in the world. It was also about this time that I began to do some serious personal work, and my sense of dissatisfaction with woodworking fully manifested. Now, I am fortunate and grateful to have the skills of woodworking, to play in the dust and be creative. I have a full shop at my home – my sanctuary and respite from stress and worry.

Aikido:

About this same time I became involved in the men’s work that was happening in the late 80s, early 90s. Aikido was prominent inside the movement, and through that I began my Aikido practice. Serendipitously, it was also how I met Richard Strozzi-Heckler and began to study with him. Richard is the Sensei at the Aikido dojo where I practiced since 1992, having earned the rank of Aidan, second-degree black belt. A couple of years after beginning training with Richard, I shifted my personal work to work directly with him.

Somatics:

It is through this relationship I became acquainted with somatics. My first course in somatics was through the Lomi School, co-taught by Richard Strozzi-Heckler and Robert Hall. My intention in that course was to find a new career, and it was not originally my intention to do somatics, but guess what! My second course was through Strozzi Institute and it became clear to me that my path was to be a Somatic Practitioner. I made plans to shift from woodworking to Somatic Coaching, and in the middle of my third course with the Institute, I was offered a position at Strozzi Institute. It was also during this time that I spent a year working with Robert Hall learning his style of somatics and gestalt processing.

Strozzi Institute:

I continued to work and teach full-time through Strozzi Institute for 18 years. I have had the honor and pleasure to teach publicly-enrolled courses in the US, the UK, China, and Singapore. I have also coached many individuals and couples through organizational work and through public courses.

During these years I was taught and groomed by Richard Strozzi–Heckler to become a Strozzi Institute primary teacher in their public courses, a master somatic coach, and a teacher of somatic transformation in organizations. I spent hours, days, weeks, and years watching, studying, and learning with Richard. It is truly my good fortune to have spent two decades with a real master of somatic transformation, to have been shaped by his care and mastery, and to have inherited the depth of this discourse in an organic way. I feel fortunate to have spent years working in the purest aspects of the possibility of somatics.

Indigenous Practices:

This is a touchy subject, and understandably so. Many people over time have appropriated the ceremonies and practices of first nation peoples in ways that do not honor them or hold their dignity as unique human beings. I have always been leery of those “claiming” to be medicine people or shamans, seeing over and over that the old ways were changed to fit them. When I became acquainted with Arkan Luswala, I wanted to be sure I was not connecting with something new, but with something old. Once I saw that Arkan had full permission of elders from both South and North American indigenous peoples to be leading ceremonies, I became involved. Since 2005, I have been participating in and supporting traditional ceremonies practiced in alignment with his training and direction from the elders, and I can feel and sense in my bones the direct correlation between the ills of the modern world and the loss of the old ways in contemporary society. I bring this awareness into Ecosomatics.

During this time I have fully embodied somatic work and am now innovating into my Ecosomatic offer. There is a direct link between somatics, the practice of Aikido, and indigenous wisdom, all of which look to shape individuals to live in alignment with all life. Combining mastery in a somatic tradition, principles of Aikido, and a dozen years practicing and studying indigenous ceremonies and practices, Ecosomatics has come to form.