My Journey
My life has been blessed with having a soul endowed with enormous creative passion & the ability to never give up. I have been challenged by multiple life long health issues and repeated setbacks. I have experienced many failed purposes & disappointments within all areas of my life. I believe because of my faith, the challenges just seen to make me stronger and more passionately determined to excel.
My humility to learn from mistakes and ask many mentors to guide me and especially my faith in God has enabled me to accomplish a great deal.
As a child I was cut from the baseball team at 8 years old and 9 years old and this felt worse than death itself to me. My brother Jim told me to never give up and he coached me every day. At age 10 years old I was the best pitcher in the league and led the league in home runs and my team to the championship. At age 12 years old I made the All -Star team. This taught me that I had to overcome doubts and fears to succeed. I now see this powerful learning curve as performance intelligence. To overcome hurdles makes one feel like a pillar of strength. There are no mistakes ~lessons only.
In high school I struggled to make the basketball team and was bullied on the baseball team. The academic standards were rigid and the rules strict. I felt lost again and to wanted quit and go to an easier school. One of my coaches and teachers Bill Reger saw my potential. He stood by me an mentored me in sport and school work. My family made sacrifices to send me to a private school. By the last year of school I was awarded The Outstanding Athlete as I excelled in varsity baseball and basketball while maintaining very good grades. While for some this may be easy , for me it took all of my commitment and lots of support to succeed. This confidence enabled me to be successful at university in sport and to complete my degree in business.
After my first my year in the corporate world at Perkin-Elmer Corporation, a fortune 500 company (named One of The Ten Best Managed Companies In America by Forbes Magazine), my boss who hated me, told me I was not catching on. He was right. I was lost and did not have a clue. Arthur Cummings, a 30 year veteran of the company took me under his wing and mentored me. Seven years and four promotions later I was manager of the entire department at five times the salary. The boss who hated me now worked for me. A miracle always seemed to come from out of nowhere.
After relocating from the New York area to Los Angeles, I experienced similar dynamics. I was initially not able to meet the Hughes Aircraft performance standards. I did not like Los Angeles or the company. My morale and health hit rock bottom. Mike Allgeier, a senior manager who I admired took me under his wing. All I had to do is ask for his help. He offered me a great job, coached me and mentored my career and became my best friend, introducing me to many attractive women in the company. I transformed in five years from feeling powerless in a company of 77,000 employees to earning 3 promotions and an award from the President. Never under estimate the power of asking for help!
Concurrently, I met Cathy Martino whose Native American powers of healing and spiritual perceptions were nothing less than miraculous. And my psycho-spiritual & physical health had deteriorated ( shut down) so intensely that it really took a miracle to save my life. Cathy taught me simple truths or laws that dominated life. For one thing , all the answers to my life’s challenges were locked into the life energy (soul ) held within my body’s muscles & cells. All my negative attitudes about life ( conditioning ) and negative beliefs/intentions ( traumas ) were also embodied. Her methods of releasing these energies from the body were confronting, painful & cathartic but actually restored my soul, my body & my passion for life. I felt over time & with persistence , that I could climb Mt. Everest one day & K2 the next. What a feeling of freedom & rejuvenation can be embodied once we live in truth. Cathy taught me that The Truth speaks very loudly and that we cannot sort of live in truth. And that my truth/values were different from other peoples’ and that was okay.
In spite of my strong religious background, I now felt I was in spiritual kindergarden. It took years of hard work , weekly sessions with Cathy , diet & nutritional guidance and study. Cathy and her mentor Robert Sharp , DC taught me about the writings of Wilhelm Riech , MD and how he saw character in the bodies muscles and energy system. The Dark Night of the Soul became my best friend. Feelings of unworthiness, self doubt and shame permeated my existence. At times I thought Cathy was an Exorcist who was meant to release all my demons of self destruction. In time the late nights I was keeping became old & boring. And my life’s aspirations became much loftier and Godly. Instead of living for parties and happy hours I wanted to share what I learned with others.
Cathy’s humility to expose me to other great teachers was inspiring to me. She had no ego in my evolution. She sent me to the workshops of Barbara De Angeles, John Bradshaw, and John Pierrakos. They taught me the amazing power of healing within “group energy”. This blew me away and provided me with a new vision for my life beginning in 1988. I realized that “ people can heal anything if they are shown the way.” “And their lasting transformation must be embodied.”
The Next Chapter
In 1989 at 35 years old I asked for an early retirement package only for those 55 years and above. Mike Allgeier made sure I received it. It pays to ask and also know the right people. Hughes Aircraft gave me $10,000 for personal development of my choice. I took numerous courses on diverse topics but I kept coming back to the power of healing. On December 7, 1989 I facilitated my first workshop entitled Kinesiology & Healing. It was very powerful and the 15 attendees, who loved my passion, became my first clients.
Just at that time California went into its first major real estate recession. Properties I successfully listed as an agent did not sell. It was set up for me to be a workshop facilitator and energy healer. At first it was difficult and slow moving. I had many introductory events that were well attended in Los Angeles and San Diego but I had terror about asking people for money. I felt unworthy and because of my Irish catholic roots, felt I should be doing the healing work for free. People came to my events in spite of this. Eventually I stepped into my power and began filling conference rooms for my talks. The workshops began to fill up , the referrals came pouring in and the private sessions were booking up in Santa Monica and La Jolla. There was excitement in the air and my passion began flowing out to many people. Some of the workshop attendees had told me that I had restored hope in their lives and that they were dusting off their Dreams! I was inspired to keep going!
Back To The Future
In 1993 I met John Pierrakos MD. He was world renown for his scientific & clinical research, along with Riech & Lowen, in human character , the energy of life, and the dynamics of body-mind & spirit. John was well into his 70’s yet still bigger than life and sexually alive and passionate. He represented one of the few left of a dying breed. A spiritual master who was a tyrant , relentlessly confronting students but with a huge heart. John took an immediate disliking to me or so I thought. After the first year of a five year training I felt I learned nothing and was overwhelmed by the complexity and total subjectiveness of the process. I would rather die than face the breakdown of all my defences by this aggressive citadel of transformation. So there I was face done in the mud again. An old familiar feeling. I could not keep up with course reading requirements. I wanted to quit.
My new friend Donna Hamilton challenged me to face my transference ( unresolved parental issues ) with John rather than run. Something in me could not quit. I had sessions with John Pierrakos in New York and California again and again. By the end of the 5th year of the training I went to the head of the class so to speak. I also created, prior to my graduation, the largest community of Body-Psychotherapy in the world. I had a following of thousands of people interested in Core Energetics in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Reno, San Diego, New York, Seattle and in Australia the response to my offering was also mind blowing in Perth, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Melbourne.
I had standing room only at my unique discussion evenings held in La Jolla ( San Diego ) , Cottesloe surf life saving club( Western Australia) , Central Coast of New South Wales and Sydney. People came out of nowhere to promote my events.
By this time John Pierrakos was singing my praises. At my 5th year graduation He told the group” I was an atomic bomb of dynamic energy and that I would inspire the masses. I would carry out his work out with great spiritual powers.” This was the same feedback I received from Dr. Valarie Hunt From UCLA , scientist and researcher of human energy fields.
John Pierrakos came to Australia to massive audiences in 1999 and 2000 to our first training of 41 students. His heatfelt public support of me resulted in even greater momentum & growth of Core Energetics Australia. After John’s death a few months later, I found myself lost & overwhelmed by the huge responsibility. I was the only leader & teacher and therapist of this nature in Australia for all those people while hosting multiple trainings, workshops, lectures and live-in retreats.
The Unexpected
Apparently, I became too tall a poppy in Australia. This means I was standing above the crowd and needed to be pulled down a notch or two ( humbled ). In addition, After John Pierrakos’ death I wanted my students to have the very best teachers in the world. I had learned that from Cathy to gain knowledge from the best.
The first three male teachers I invited were the most senior in the world. I invited them to teach and hopefully mentor me. Well much to my surprise they were {all 3} outraged & threatened by my enormous success. They were also trained by John Pierrakos. So began the competition and the splitting of the training groups resulting in divided loyalties. It became messy & confused. Karyne Wilner PhD , a director from New York mentored me to ground the students and the community. Her loyalty to me was deeply felt by many. Seven other international teachers were also very supportive of me and my program. They all helped me in keeping the trainings alive and passionate.
Lessons In Leadership
Lessons in leadership, learned or not, always seem to relate to misunderstood {or a lack of} communication between leaders and followers. A chronic polarity between humanity and self-righteousness frequently exists. Without equality , the resulting dynamics create projections of our own issues onto the blind spots of others. Also our historical issues with authority get triggered ( in most organizations ) resulting in transference and counter-transference. ( unresolved personal historical issues ). I do not believe former teachers/students or therapists/clients can stand as equals in any organization. The truth remains hidden, denied or unspoken. Even when asked for through direct communication the behaviour remains covert and destructive. Although these dual relationships exist almost everywhere, I do not perceive them as a solid foundation for growth, regardless of the industry or the growth.
My Graduates
I am very proud of the many graduates of Core Energetics Australia and Heart Energetics Training. Many skilled therapists have emerged. Perhaps even more important , as a direct result of the training’s powerful healing, are many solid relationships, marriages, new families and children. This is what makes the world go round. This has made it all worthwhile for me.
The Way Forward
My journey has only just begun. I know the lessons never end. Carl Jung, taught that “we should embrace our successes and failures, strength and weakness’ with equal weight and dignity.” I have learned more from my failed purposes and relationships than I have from my amazing successes. I am willing to accept the highs and lows in life while passionately pursuing my dreams as opposed to playing it safe, risk free and out of harms way. I am now stepping out again with all that I have learned & embodied and intend to bring my wisdom and passion to those individuals and organizations who are ready for a greater life and greater success.
Most Searched Terms: Robert Kirby, Sydney Psychotherapists,
Holistic Healers, Spiritual Counsellors, Health Retreats,
Personal Growth Workshops in Australia, Melbourne Seminars,
Brisbane Personal Development Courses,
Perth Spiritual Development Training.
