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Frequently Asked Questions

Preparation

Preparation is the foundation of this work. The day of transformation does not begin when you arrive — it begins now, in the way you prepare yourself. How you set your intentions, how you reflect on what you want to release and what you long to invite, how you care for your body and mind leading up to the session, all of this shapes what unfolds. This FAQ is here to guide you in understanding what preparation means, why it is so important, and how to ready yourself for the journey ahead.

I’ve read through your site, and I’m curious… what are the stages of this kind of work?

Over the years I’ve come to see that the work really has three stages. The first is preparation. That’s where we slow down and take time to clarify what’s bringing you here, what your intentions are, and how to create the right conditions for you to feel safe and open. Preparation is about building the ground so you can step into the experience with a steady heart.

Then there’s the experience itself. That’s the part most people think about first, but it’s only one piece of the whole. The experience is where you meet what is alive inside you — maybe old stories, deep emotions, or parts of yourself you’ve kept at a distance. Sometimes it feels expansive and full of light, sometimes it’s raw and heavy, sometimes both in the same breath.

And then comes integration, which is really where the gold is. Because an experience, no matter how powerful, will fade unless you take time to live with it, to weave what you’ve seen and felt into the way you move through your life. Integration is where the insights become real, where you begin to embody new ways of being.

All three matter. If you skip preparation, you may feel unsteady. If you skip integration, you risk losing the meaning. My role is to walk with you through all three stages — to create and hold a safe space, but also to guide and interact with you so you can meet what’s arising with awareness and compassion. That’s how real transformation happens.

I’m wondering… what’s the setting like? Where does all this take place?

The setting is really important. It’s not just about having a comfortable space, it’s about creating an environment that feels safe on every level — emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and physically. When you arrive, you’ll be on a redwood deck in a hillside garden. There are winding paths through oak and redwood trees, the smells and sounds of the forest, birds, maybe even deer moving quietly through. The space itself is private and held in nature, so you don’t have to worry about interruptions or being overheard.

The chair you’ll rest in is a zero gravity recliner, so your body is fully supported. You’ll have eyeshades for the inward times, and then we’ll also spend time with your eyes open, connecting outward, noticing the world around you, really grounding in the present moment. Music is part of the setting too. I curate a playlist that’s matched to your intentions, so it helps guide and support the experience.

Sometimes the work brings up difficult emotions, old memories, or heavy thoughts. That’s expected. The setting makes it possible to allow those things to arise and be met with openness and compassion, rather than pushing them away. The measure of success isn’t what you see or feel in the moment, but the degree of inner peace that begins to settle in you as you meet what comes. My role is to hold the space with you, to guide you, and to keep you steady in that process.

How do I clarify my intentions and aspirations for the session?

One of the most important parts of preparation is getting clear on what you want to change about yourself. I ask everyone I work with to write this down. What do you want to release. What do you want to invite. This is what I call Freedom From and Freedom To. Freedom from the old patterns, the habits, the ways of thinking or reacting that keep you stuck. Freedom to step into new ways of being, into qualities that feel more true to who you really are.

Writing this out may sound simple, but it is a powerful practice. When you see it on paper it begins to take shape in your mind and in your heart. It becomes a compass for the day. The clearer you are about your intentions and aspirations, the more the session can align with them.

This is not about forcing an outcome. It is about creating a direction. Maybe you want freedom from constant anxiety, or from the grip of anger, or from the feeling of not being enough. Maybe you want freedom to trust yourself more, to open your heart, to feel peace, to live with more presence. Whatever it is, naming it begins the process of change even before the session starts.

So when you prepare, take the time to sit quietly, reflect, and write down both your Freedom From and your Freedom To. These intentions will guide your journey, and they will also support the integration that comes afterward. It is one of the most important steps you can take to prepare for deep transformation.

What should I do with my fears or worries before the session?

It is natural to feel nervous. Almost everyone does. You may have fears about what will come up, about whether you can handle it, about your body, or about how you might react. None of that is a problem. In fact, it is part of the preparation.

What I encourage you to do is bring those fears into the open. Write them down. Speak them out loud if you can. Share them with me when we prepare together. When fears stay hidden they tend to grow larger. When they are named, they lose much of their power.

Your worries are not signs that you are not ready. They are simply part of the journey. By looking at them directly you are already beginning the practice of meeting what arises with awareness instead of resistance. That practice begins before the session ever starts.

So do not push your fears away. Let them come forward. Acknowledge them with honesty. Trust that even your uncertainty has a place in this process. Bringing your whole self, including your worries, is one of the best ways to prepare for the day of transformation.

How do I prepare my body, mind, and environment before the session?

The way you prepare yourself in the days leading up to the session makes a real difference. Think of it as tending the ground so the seeds of change have the best chance to grow. The more care you give your body, mind, and surroundings, the more open and steady you will feel when the day arrives.

For your body, keep it simple. Rest well. Eat clean, nourishing foods. Drink plenty of water. Move in ways that feel good, whether that is stretching, walking, or light exercise. Avoid things that clutter or agitate the body, like alcohol or heavy indulgences. A clear body helps create a clear mind.

For your mind, begin to slow down. Spend a little time each day in quiet, meditating, breathing, or just sitting without distraction. Notice what comes up. Notice how your mind wants to race or plan. This is part of the preparation. The more you practice being still, the more comfortable you will be with whatever arises in the session.

And for your environment, do your best to create space around the session. Clear your schedule so you are not rushing in or out. Let the people close to you know you will need some time. Create a sense of support, so you can enter the day without unfinished business pulling at your attention. And, most importantly, have the day after as completely free as possible, away from distractions, make the day after a vacation that you are giving yourself.

This Preparation is not about being perfect. It is about giving yourself the gift of arriving rested, present, and open. When body, mind, and environment are cared for, the day of transformation can unfold with much greater ease.

What role does trust play in preparation?

Trust is at the center of all this work. Trust in me, yes, but even more, trust in yourself and in the process. Without trust the mind keeps trying to control and protect, and that control is what makes it harder to let go. With trust, the heart can soften, and the healing can begin to unfold.

Trust does not mean you never feel doubt. It means you are willing to step forward anyway, to let yourself be held by something larger than your fear. Trust grows as you prepare. It grows when you write down your intentions, when you name your fears, when you take care of your body and mind. Each of those steps is an act of trust.

On the day itself, trust is what allows you to surrender. It is what helps you face whatever arises without fighting it. Trust in your inner healing intelligence — that natural wisdom in you that knows how to move toward wholeness. Trust in the space we create together. Trust that whatever shows up is part of the process and has its place.

So preparation is not only about getting ready on the outside. It is about building a foundation of trust on the inside. That trust is what will carry you through the session and help the changes take root afterward.

I don’t quite understand. How is deep emotional or behavioral change even possible in just a short time?

That’s the heart of what we’re doing here. The Practice is really just a way of describing the work we’ll be doing together. With your intention for change, and with me guiding you through several hours of interactive meditations, we create the conditions for real transformation. These meditations are tailored directly to you and to the shifts you want to make in your life. But to understand why change can happen so deeply and so quickly, you have to look at how the mind works.

Who you are today is shaped by your past. Every experience you’ve had has left an imprint. Most of the time you’re not even aware of how much those old imprints guide the way you act, speak, and feel. They form unconscious patterns, almost like invisible programs, and those programs run in the background of your life. They were created long ago, sometimes in moments of pain or stress, and they keep playing out every time something in the present triggers them.

When those old programs get triggered, you often become so absorbed in the emotion of the moment that the pattern just repeats itself. You don’t take in new information, and nothing changes. That’s why so many of us feel stuck in cycles of reaction that never seem to end. What The Practice does is interrupt that cycle. By bringing unconscious material to the surface in a safe, guided way, and by learning to meet it with awareness instead of reactivity, you begin to reprogram those old patterns.

That’s how change becomes possible. The Practice helps dissolve the conditioning that creates suffering, and it supports new patterns of awareness, compassion, and choice. What once felt automatic and unchangeable slowly loses its grip. And in its place, you discover a freedom that has always been there, waiting beneath the layers of conditioning.

What does it mean to honor my inner healing intelligence before the session even begins?

Every person who comes into this work already carries within them a deep wisdom, an intelligence that knows how to heal. You see it in the body all the time. If you cut your skin, it begins to close and knit itself back together without you doing anything. The mind and the heart have that same kind of intelligence. They are always moving toward balance and wholeness when we allow them.

Honoring your inner healing intelligence means beginning to trust that part of you. It means remembering that while I am here to guide you, the real work is being done inside of you. It is not about me fixing you or even about you fixing yourself. It is about creating the space for what has always been in you to come forward.

You can start honoring this before the session by listening closely to yourself. Notice what you need — more rest, more quiet, more time in nature, or even just a few deep breaths during the day. Trust those signals. They are your inner intelligence speaking.

The more you practice listening now, the easier it will be to recognize that wisdom during the session. And the more you recognize it, the more you can let it guide you, not just in the work we do together, but in the life you live afterward.

What changes can I expect from this work? How does it actually help me in daily life?

One of the first things people notice is that they become less reactive and more responsive. Instead of being swept away by an emotional trigger, you start to feel space open up between the stimulus and your response. That space gives you more freedom. You have greater self-control, clearer thinking, and more choice in how you show up. Relationships shift too. You begin to listen more deeply, communicate more honestly, and respond with more awareness and compassion.

But the real magic of this work goes even deeper. During our day together, when you’re not so captured by the intensity of a trigger, you get the chance to observe yourself more closely than usual. That observation gives the unconscious new, real-time information. The old reactive patterns — fear, anger, shame — don’t get reinforced. Instead, they start to reprogram themselves in the direction of who you’re becoming.

As the mind grows quiet, the deeper conditioning that shapes personality can surface. Much of it comes from past experiences that left strong imprints, sometimes so long ago that you hardly remember them. Those old programs might have served you once, but now they keep you stuck. Together, through guided meditation and presence, we create the conditions where those imprints can finally be seen, felt, and released.

That’s why the change can feel so profound. We’re not just working at the surface level of behavior. We’re going to the roots — the unconscious patterns that shape how you act, think, and feel. As those patterns loosen, you’ll notice you are less reactive, more resilient, and more alive to the present moment. Over time, it’s not just habits that change, but your very sense of who you are

What is the deepest transformation that can come from this work?

The most valuable effect of this work is that it can shift the way you see yourself and reality at the most fundamental level. Most of us move through life believing we are separate selves, and that our happiness or suffering depends on what happens around us. That belief feels like common sense, but it is actually a misperception born of conditioning. In The Practice, as your thoughts, feelings, and memories are seen more clearly, you begin to notice that they are always changing, often contradictory, and not as solid as you once believed.

When this insight begins to settle in, the constant drive to avoid pain and cling to pleasure loosens. You discover that it is that very drive that keeps suffering alive. Letting go of it opens the possibility of a peace that is already here, one not dependent on circumstances. From that place, your actions naturally become more balanced, compassionate, and grounded in what serves the whole.

You do not need to take this on as a belief. Skepticism is healthy. What matters is your own direct seeing. Questions like “Am I my thoughts. Am I my feelings. What remains when they pass” can be lived, not just thought about. The Practice creates the conditions for those questions to unfold into real insight.

Over time, this changes not only how you feel but how you live. Old patterns of reactivity lose their grip. There is more clarity, more presence, more connection. This is what I mean by the end of suffering. Not the end of life’s challenges, but the end of being trapped by them.

What is the deeper possibility of this work? What does it all lead to?

Under the right conditions, this work can open into something that people across cultures and throughout history have called mystical. Words will always fall short here, but people describe a sense of unity, of sacredness, of knowing something more real than ordinary life. Time and space can dissolve into the present moment. The heart opens into awe, tenderness, and joy. And often there is a sense of encountering the very ground of reality itself — what is really real.

These kinds of experiences aren’t just passing states. They can change the way you live. You may feel less bound by the small, separate self you thought you were. You may discover a bond with something larger, a living presence that infuses everything. You may feel a deep reverence for life, a sense that all of it is connected, sacred, and worthy of love.

People often say afterward that they touched infinity, or eternity, or a reality that cannot be spoken. They know they cannot put it into words, yet they carry the certainty that they encountered something profoundly true. That knowing doesn’t fade. It lives in them as a compass, a reminder of what they are and what life really is.

This is the heart of it. Beyond relief from pain, beyond changes in behavior, the deepest gift of this work is the possibility of touching what is beyond words — to taste for yourself the mystery that all the great teachers and mystics have pointed toward. And when that is touched, even for a moment, life is never quite the same again.

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