What is a Health/Recovery Coach

After 27 years as an addiction counselor and practicing Tibetan Buddhist I am shifting my focus to life and health coaching using basic Buddhist principles to promote happiness.  My focus is loosening the grip on attachments and aversion which lead to issues with, food, substances, and unhealthy relationships with others and self.  I directed one of the first eating disorder units and have expertise in all types of food attachments.  I love working with family members who struggle with detachment of a loved one with compulsive attachment to substance or behavior.  I work with a variety of MD’s who can evaluate the occasional need for medications to help on the path of developing a happy healthy life style.  

Many people have a desire to attain health by being sober from chemicals and by being moderate with food and relationship choices.  I have worked with many clients who had a strong desire to loosen the grip on their attachments but were uncomfortable with 12 step groups.  Many don’t feel comfortable in group settings, some have issues with the spiritual component.  I can coach you on an individual basis once you find your recovery to keep your recovery and promote your health through balance between body, spirit and mind.  The Buddhist principles that I use are very basic and are embraced by those who are non religious, Christians and all other Religious affiliations.  

Relationship health is also very integral to our personal health.  Relationship affords us the opportunity to learn more about who we are as people and it tends to bring our character challenges in to very clear focus.  Codependency as Pia Melody defines it is a lack of healthy relationship with self.  We can utilize the the problems we have in our relationships to learn how to be healthy in our relationship with ourselves and others.  Setting boundaries mutually, communicating directly with compassion and negotiating with each other are skills I coach.    

Shifting my focus

After 27 years as an addiction counselor and 10 years as a practicing Buddhist I have retired my license and shifting my focus to recovery coaching and mindfulness counseling using Buddhist principles to promote happiness. I help with loosening the grip on attachments and aversion which lead to issues with food, substances, and unhealthy relationships with others and self. I directed one of the first eating disorder units in the country and have expertise in food attachments. I love working with family members who struggle with relationship with a loved one with compulsive attachment to substance or behavior.

If you are in recovery and having difficulty with life on life's terms but don't feel comfortable in group settings I can serve as a recovery coach to help you through issues that can cause relapse. I work with MD's if additional help is needed for issues that benefit from medical intervention.

I have been in recovery for 34 years from food, substance and codependency. The Buddhist principles I use are very basic and compliment Christian thought as well. Additionally I use the medifast program as part of my own food plan. If you desire l addiction counseling I am happy to refer to competent counselors.

where to find my book

If you are looking for my book Shadow Story/Enlightened Truth just go to Amazon Kindle...

Tara Meditation

Tara Meditation

Sundays at 5:00

Reno Buddhist Center
This is an English version of the original concise practice.  It involves text reading in English, mantra, silent meditation and some chanting.  Tara is the diety which is a manifester and magnetizer.  Join us downstairs for the practice hosted by Steve Flack.

Obstacles and Obscurations

In the Buddhist way of thinking, we are all The Buddha. The Buddha is the state of being fully awake and enlightened. The reason most of us do not express this Buddha Nature is because it is obscured by attachment to the ego or the "monkey mind". The ego is a double edged sword. On the one hand, as Freud said, it is the "reality principle". It keeps us grounded and responsible. On the other hand the ego "edges God out". It is deluded and self important and wants to be in control at all times. The egos need to control is what keeps us from enlightenment and ultimate health and happiness.

So what creates these obstacles and obscurations? As I just explained, the egos tendency to think it knows gives rise to attachment and aversion, two of the primary causes of suffering. The other reason for obstacles and obscurations is Karma. Karma is the result of the egos insistence that it is in control. Whether Karma ripens from this life's past misdeeds or from previous lives misdeeds is not important. What is important is that the simple cause and effect from Karma creates obstacles and obscurations to our true Buddha Nature. Karma can ripen as illness, emotional disorders, accidents or any other less than enlightened condition.

Our job as humans who desire to be enlightened is to clear away these obscurations. We do this through discipline. Our effort is to transform everything to compassion. We first train our mind to let go of our tendency to grasp so that we can convert our poisonous emotions(mental illness) to compassion. Just the intention to this discipline reaps immediate rewards. For instance jealousy and envy are transformed to admiration and respect. Anger is transformed to sorrow which warms the heart to self and others.

Another, even more potent method is through practice such as meditation and specific practices handed down from previous masters. There is a meditation practice called Tonglen (http://www.edsdeadbody.com/c-tonglen.html) which has a very powerful effect of clearing away obscurations. In Tonglen we breath in suffering and breath out love, thereby purifying the whole universe as well as ourselves. There are other daily practices called Sadana's that are also very potent. If you are a Buddhist a qualified Lama can teach and recommend these practices.

If you are not a Buddhist you can still clear away obscurations and obstacles by practicing the Golden Rule or as the Dalai Lama recommends, make your religion kindness. We must actively set our intention to be ethical and kind every day. We must actively reign in the selfish concerns of the ego. It is best to find a qualified teacher or a mentor who might be a therapist to aid us in our commitment to clear away our obscurations so that we can come closer to our Buddha Nature and achieve happiness and well being.

Be Well

Radio show from 4/29- fear

In this hour long segment we talk about fear and anger as it relates to the flu epidemic or should I call it the "cable news flu". I think the fear is more contagious than the flu.

New interview on Blue Roots Radio on Spending Addiction

in response to the credit crisis, Chris Johnson asks me about money and spending addictions, specifically credit card abuse.