About Jeffry

I grew up in Minnesota within a family that primarily pushed academics and intellectual perspectives.  As a very cross-eyed and obese child, I was targeted, humiliated, and bullied for years (and the thick black glasses did not help either).

My father, a professor, supported my mother who had kidney disease from my birth, every 12 hours she had to go to the hospital for dialysis treatment. On February 14^th, 1973, my mother died when I was 11.  I did not deal with that grief and loss until I was 28, I know about protracted grief and mourning.

I intimately know about poor body perception and giving yourself away for love, while also protecting your heart out of fear of more loss. I learned to engage others so as not to be rejected. 

Through a severe addiction to exercise, I learned to harden my body so that the heart doors could not let in vulnerable love connections, and that my esteem might grow.

Because of people with narcissism, I have suffered with being marginalized, disregarded, and scapegoated by those I called “family.”

I have been searching for what rests at the heart of authentic living, along with self-confidence, and the sense of acceptance and connection with spirit. My longing for connection, self-care, self-love, and real shared co-independence has led me to immerse myself in the teachings of numerous psychological, philosophical, and spiritual texts / paths. 

Over the years, the collective wisdom distilled from multiple cultures has illuminated my path, opened the door of my heart, supported faithful connection with self and others, and provided a soulfully aligned purpose that nourishes my practice as a healer / teacher. These gifts have helped me soar like the Phoenix bird… arising from the ashes of angst into a vibrant new type of thriving.

Gratefully, I have had an amazing life…

• I have lived abroad
• I am fluent in three languages
• At age 16, I was the Best Man at my father’s second wedding
• I was a fitness trainer with professional athletes and a college women’s gymnastics coach
• I have been a Physical Therapy Aid working with inmates in two local minimum and medium security prisons
• At age 28 I created, organized, and led a small public memorial service to complete my grief about my mother’s death – held in the same room as her funeral many years prior
• I have been an admin employee of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles alongside my grandmother, the 1932 Olympic Lead Secretary
• I have been an assistant professor twice at Concordia University in St. Paul (teaching Racial and Ethnic Minorities Class, and Adolescent Psychology)
• I have been a published author several times over
• I am a successful business owner
• I have been an ECFE Instructor for At-Home Dads
• I have been a keynote presenter and have testified at the Minnesota State Senate on fatherhood
• I delivered my first son at Woodwinds hospital
• I have been a celebrated and professional photographer (including a piece for a show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art), an initiated and ordained shamanic priest, an initiate of Kriya Yoga, a certified Laughter Yoga Leader, and many other things along my life path