Personal Statement:

In 1971 I left a career as a successful chemical engineer and business executive to pursue the study of healing from both the psychological and somatic perspectives.  This led to the successful development of a consciousness process based in the most recently discovered scientific theories and paradigms from physics.  It is my mission to teach and disseminate this process as widely as possible in the healing arts and sciences, to offer as many as possible opportunity to experience or learn this process, and to develop the process and the study of consciousness as a recognized applied science discipline.

Education:

B.A.Sc. Chemical Engineering, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
M.A. Counseling Psychology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
About 25 hours course work towards an MSW at Grand Valley State College. 4.0 GPA.  Incomplete because I had concerns about the program's accreditation and continuance.

Master's Thesis:

"Schizophrenia, Its Extent, Diagnosis, Dynamics and Its Treatment,"
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Certifications:

Transactional Analyst, Gestalt Psychotherapist, Active Listening and Rogerian Therapy Trainer, Hypnotherapist, Drug Crisis Intervention and Counseling, Simonton Imagery Process.

Publications:

[Can be found on Asklepia Home page].

Presentations:

"How Placebos Heal" -- 1997 at The International Human Learning Resources Network (IHLRN) Conference, at Gabriola Island, B.C. Canada.

"Chaos Theory and Quantum Physics in the Healing Arts" -- 1994 at The ILHRN Conference at Longboat Key, Fla.

"Transcultural Perspectives, Creativity, Shamanism and New Sciences in Therapy" -- 1991, IHLRN Conference, Palm Springs, Ca.

"Chaos Consciousness in Psychotherapy: An Experiential Approach and Application to Dreamwork, Creativity and Healing" -- 1991, First Meeting of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology, Saybrook Institute, Summer.

Associations:

Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP)
Association of Transpersonal Psychology (ATP)
International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA)
International Human Learning Resources Network (IHLRN)
Association for Chaos Theory in Psychology (Founding Member)

Psychotherapy:

During my career in psychotherapy, I have worked with a wide variety of conditions, a broad base of clients and in a wide variety of settings, including jails and prisons, county mental health clinics, private clinics and private practice settings.  Beyond the usual family and individual therapy issues, depression and neurosis conditions, I have also specialized in the following areas:

--Major Mental Illnesses:  Since 1973 I have worked successfully with many clients with Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Multiple Personality Disorder and other similar disorders.  My current case-load still numbers several such clients.

--Substance Abuse:  In addition to three years field experience in direct drug crisis intervention work, I have done long and short term psychotherapy with alcohol, cocaine and amphetamine, hallucinogenic and C.N.S. depressant abusers and addicts.  This extends from 1973 to the present.

--Sexual Abuse:  I have done long and short term therapy with the perpetrators and families in the field of sexual abuse.  This includes work with both current and adult victims of sexual abuse.

--Domestic Violence: I have done long and short term therapy with perpetrators and families of violent abusers, both those who are court mandated (Family Offender Program) and those who present for therapy voluntarily.

--Psychogenic Disorders: Using the therapy process I discovered and developed, I have successfully treated a wide range of psychogenic and psychosexual disorders, including Fibromyalgia, allergies, arthritis, etc.

All of the above, when appropriate, have included using a combination of Group Therapy along with Individual and Family Therapy.

Teaching:

--Guest Lecturer: Grand Valley State College, Southern Oregon University.

--Workshops and Courses: Grand Valley State College, Grand Rapids Junior College, Albion College, Rogue Community College.

--Private: In addition to presenting workshops at a variety of professional conferences including the ITAA, AHP and IHLRN, I have offered classes and workshops through Oasis Center, Chicago; Vivation Center, Mexico City; several Unity Churches in Seattle and Southern Oregon, and privately sponsored in Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle; Grants Pass, Medford, Ashland, and Klamath Falls in Southern Oregon; Moab, Utah; Vancouver and Toronto, Canada.

1969 to 1971:

After Graduation, while at Polymer Corp., I developed applications for new and experimental plastics and rubbers and was awarded several Canadian patents for medical and sporting goods applications.  I designed and engineered a golf ball and its production process and got it on line for Ben Hogan Div. of AMF.  Research Director for Faultless Rubber Golf Division of Abbott laboratories.  Three years, General Manager of the Wilson's Sporting Goods Golf Ball Division.

1971 to 1983:

Completed graduate degree in counseling (4.0 GPA) plus training and certification in several psychotherapy modalities.  Personal consultant for small companies for employment interviews, employment problems and other general business consulting.  Adult leader of Fountain Street Church Teen Youth Group, counselor for younger children and adult congregation of about 5,000.  Volunteered as drug crisis intervention and S.A. counselor.  Set up group therapy programs at Kent County Jail and Youth Correctional Facility.  Operated private psychotherapy practice in family, group, and individual therapy.

1983 to Present:

Continued private practice.  Studied variety of spiritual and consciousness processes.  Developed the Creative Consciousness Process (CCP), which I have recently renamed  Creative Restructuring Process (CRP).  Therapist and consultant for Josephine County Family Offender Program.  Organized and cosponsored several N.W. Regional AHP conferences.  Advisor to the AHP Board.  Founded ASKLEPIA FOUNDATION and The Institute for Applied Consciousness Sciences (IACS) of which I am Director.  Founded and operate Aesculapia Wilderness Retreat for residential treatment.  Honored as elder and grandfather by several aboriginal shamans in the Americas and Africa.  Lecture and conduct training seminars in consciousness science, in Mexico, Canada and the USA.  Established a branch IACS Campus in the Puget Sound Area.  Taught courses in new science, healing and psychology at Rogue Community College for 5 years.

Testimonials:

* Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., Dean of Consciousness Studies at Saybrook Inst., Lecturer, Author:

"At a time when it most needs it , Graywolf is providing a viable new model for his profession."  "Your work in Chaos Theory and psychology is a valuable and ground-breaking contribution.  You are working well beyond the Doctoral level."

* Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D., Past President of the Association of Humanistic Psychology:

"Of the many people I have met in this organization [AHP] since becoming its President, Graywolf most represents the essence of what I think Humanistic Psychology is all about."

* Paul DuBois, Past Executive Director of AHP:

"At our lowest time, when all seemed lost and we didn't think we could go on, [Graywolf] showed up and turned it around.  We are still here because of him."

* Victoria Luivano, Ph.D., Mexico City Psychologist:

"I have been using your process with my clients and getting results like nothing before.  This process reaches people at a very deep level."

* M. Ivanov, Ph.D., Director of Cross-Cultural Programs of the Institute for Professional Development and Professor of Psychology at the University of Moscow:

"Your process is something I would like to teach to my colleagues and students.  It is what we are looking for to help shape our emerging psychotherapy profession.  I invite you to come lecture at Moscow University and at the Institute to teach it to Russian psychotherapists, social workers and teachers."

* Linda Chamberlain, Ph.D., Editor of CLINICAL CHAOS:

"I have just completed reading the chapter you have submitted and am delighted at your contribution.  The work you are doing is very exciting to me and I am grateful to have a clearer perspective...it is such a pleasure for me to be working with you."

* Howard Kahn, Ph.D., President of IHLRN:

"Watching you work and having a chance to work with you has been a very moving and beautiful experience.  You have much to offer and teach us.  You do honor to Virginia Satir's work and memory."

* Anonymous attendee at IHLRN:

"Graywolf, you are the natural choice as a successor to Virginia Satir.  Your work is a continuation of hers, and she would have endorsed you and it with great enthusiasm."

* Fred Ford, MD, Psychiatrist:

"Your theories and work in the field of therapy are a taste of its future direction."

* Anonymous Psychiatrist, Houston Texas:

"One session with you has resolved an issue that I have been working on with the best of my colleagues for over forty years.  Your work is completely validated by the healing studies we conducted at the Meninger Clinic in the early seventies."

* Roberta Ossana, M.A., Editor and Publisher of Dream Network Journal:

"Graywolf, you are miles ahead of the rest of the pack."

* Carolyn Mill Kroes, Ph.D., Author and Central Regional Director of  N.O.W., from the Dedication of her book ROSES AND THORNS to Graywolf:

"There are therapists, and there are 'good' therapists. . .This book is dedicated to one of the best."

* Clay Carr, Author and Management Consultant, acknowledgment in his book THE COMPETITIVE POWER OF CONSTANT CREATIVITY:

"First to Graywolf. . .who reminded me that creativity is the wellspring of all life (and not incidently enabled me to halt the progress of a serious illness in the process.)"

In 1971, Fred Swinney was told by his physician that he had, at most, three years to live.  He was suffering from hypertension, heart disease, ulcers, and hypoglycemia.  Seeing a connection between his weakened physical condition and his job pressures as an engineer, he entered psychotherapy. His experience not only improved his physical health but prompted Swinney to enter graduate school in psychology.  He received his clinical certification in Transactional Analysis in 1975, and began seeing clients.

But Swinney's career change was only the beginning of a new life direction.  In 1976 he was traveling by canoe to James Bay in the wilderness of nothern Ontario, Canada.  He was alone and had taken along only his sleeping bag and a few supplies.  One night Swinney fell asleep before his smoldering fire and had a dream in which animal predators emerged from the woods and devoured him.

Awakening in terror, Swinney cast his gaze toward the coals of the fire.  Just beyond he discerned two piercing eyes and the large gray form of a wolf, Swinney's first impulse was to run away but, transfixed by the animal's eyes, found himself unable to move. Surprisingly, a feeling of total surrender replaced Swinney's fear, just as if he were a wolf himself.  In the few minmutes shared, Swinney experienced a deep union with the wolf.  After the wolf disappeared through the trees, Swinney still sensed that he had become a wolf during their brief interaction.

Swinney left the wilderness renewed and grateful to his inner wolf.  He returned to his family and clients in Michigan.  But, he asked himself, how could he use the wolf in civilization?  As the weeks passed, Swinney attempted to forget the episode as it differed so radically from anything he had ever experienced.  He completed his Master's degree in 1980 and avoided any activity or setting that would again evoke his wolflike nature.

Five years later, during a group therapy session held while fire was flickering in Swinney's fireplace, one of his clients expressed extreme anger.  Suddenly, Swinney envisioned Libra, the Greek goddess of justice, holding her balanced scales.  He asked his client if she could relate to this image.  The woman erupted with emotion, telling the group how, during her childhood, her mother had tried to treat her and her sister equally.  When the client did not experience this fairness in later life, it upset her and she could not cope with other people very well.  Upon working through her memories of her early experiences and subsequent expectations, the client was able to accept the inequalities in her relationships.  Eventually, she was able to terminate therapy.  Swinney realized that the appearance of the image resembled his experience with the wolf.  In both instances, he had been brought into direct contact with his feelings, hunches, and intuitions.

Swinney resolved to learn more about wolves.  Two friends gave him books about wolves, even though they knew nothing about his experience in the woods or his resolution.  His reading provided information about shamans and how they often dream about being devoured and reborn during their initiation rites or training periods.  Swinney also learned that shmans were the first professional psychotherapists and that they frequently have" animal guides" that assist their work with clients.  Identifying with shamans because of his own "animal guide," Swinney took the name "Graywolf" and introduced shmanic elements into his work as a psychotherapist.

Graywolf shared these experiences with us over the years, and we all planned to meet at the 1984 convention of the Association for Humanistic Psychology in Boston.  The program had announced a presentation on shamnism by Stanley Krippner and Alberto Villoldo, but Villoldo's airplane was delayed and Graywolf took his place.  Graywolf told his story and led the group in several breathing and imagery exercises that he found useful with his clients.  His contributions were well received by the audience of several hundred people, many of whom told Graywolf that they were inspired by his account.    This response lent confirmation to Graywolf's direction and he continued to develop his unique approach to psychotherapy.  The three of us presented a program on shmanism at another Association for Humanistic Psychology meeting in 1986.  By this time, Graywolf's clients considered him a shaman as well as a psychotherpist.

Shamanism is a 100,000-year-old tradition of knowledge that once permeated all forms of medicine and psychotherapy.  Shamans were the first healer, responsible for the health and well-being of their community.  While today's medical practitioners focus upon clients' physical problems and psychotherapists deal with their mental and emotional difficulties, shmans have always administered to these aspects of their clients' lives as well as to their deep spiritual needs.  By "spiritual" we mean those aspects of human experience that reflect a transcendent quality, e.g. an encounter with God, a feeling of unity with all humanity, a connection with life in general and with the universe's creative processes.  The medicine men and women in North and South America believe that all healing involves an experience of the spiritual, where the ill person  rediscovers his connection to nature and to the divine.  For this, the patient must step out of his ordinary state of awareness and into an extraordinary or ecstatic state where the journey back to health can begin.

(Excerp by Stanley Krippner, from the Introduction to DREAMHEALING):

Graywolf used rituals and ceremonies with his clients, both in individual and group sessions.  He looked for mythic themes, animal "guides," and spiritual symbols in his clients' dreams.  He made use of guided imagery sessions and had clients carve, draw, mold, or paint those images that seemed to possess healing qualities.  He encouraged body awareness through breathing exercises, dance, and movement.  Since that time, Graywolf has shared his experiences with thousands of individuals and dozens of groups.  In addition, he has moved from Western psychotherapy to native shamanism to the dreamhealing tradition of ancient Greece and Rome.  But this is hardly a step backwards, as he has combined this with chaos theory, arguably one of the most vital models of the 21st century.

Chaos theory is the branch of mathematics for the study of processes that seem so complex that at first they do not appear to be governed by any known laws or principles, but which actually have an underlying order that can be described by vector calculus and its associated geometry.  Examples of chaotic processes include a stream of rising smoke that breaks down and becomes turbulent, water flowing in a stream or crashing at the bottom of a waterfall, electroencephalographic activity of the brain, changes in animal populations, fluctuations on the stock exchange, and the weather - either local or global.  All of these phenomena involve the interaction of several elements and the pattern of their changes over time.

Geometric patterns with repetitive self-similar features have been called "fractals" because of their fractional dimension, and because of the sheer  beauty of these forms.  Many chaotic attractors display fractals when sliced, like opening an orange.  Thus, fractal dimensions are one of the many numerical properties used to characterize chaotic attractors along wiith measures of the simultaneously convergent and divergent characteristics which have led many to characterize chaotic attractors as like the stretching and folding of bread dough or taffy.  Rapid Eye Movement sleep (the period of the sleep cycle from which most dream reports emerge) could be chaotic in nature and contain this type of attractor.

Graywolf grounds his work in chaos theory, but he also claims roots in the ancient Asklepian temples.  Here it was the dream experience itself, not the interpretation of the dream, that was felt to heal pilgrims.  One of Graywolf's contributions to the field of dreamworking is his facilitation of a healing effect directly from the dream process itself.  His client's dream experiences are just as carefully nurtured as those provided by the Greek and Roman priests; Graywolf's contrivances range from dream incubation to whitewater river rafting!  Graywolf claims that in some cases only one such intense event may be necessary to produce a lasting postive change in a client's life.  Before dismissing this possibility as wishful thinking or self-deception, one should consider that a single traumatic event can have devastating effects; the power of recovery can certainly be as forceful as the tumult of trauma.  In addition, one needs to examine Graywolf's 8-step process that encompasses this life-changing event, steps that range from "the pilgrimage" to "the re-entry."

Graywolf's Creative Consciousness Process is based on a unique model of the human psyche, and can provide a roadmap for the tribal shaman as well as the dreamhealer.  Both frequently travel into the mythic underworld to find and retrieve the lost souls of their clients.  I have seen contemporary shamans make this perilous journey on behalf of a person whose soul has been absconded by the forces of addiction, depression, or life-threatening accidents.  Sometimes, the soul must be persuaded to return; at other times it does not know it is lost and must be informed; and on still other occasions the soul is held captive by the spirits of cocaine, heroin, alcohol, or other seductive substances.  Most contemporary psychotherapists dismiss the concept of "soul" as superstitious, yet they do so at their peril..  They may treat their clients' bodies, feelings, and intellects, but may never restore wholeness to them unless they explore the spiritual dimension of the psyche.

In Graywolf's model, the shaman/dreamhealer and his or her client emerge from the depths of the psyche through various development levels, beginning with conception and ending with behavior.  The lost soul has been found, retrieved, and revitalized, and this new wholeness is reflected in the client's daily activities.  The source of dreams, according to Graywolf, is located at primal levels of the psyche as the brain experiences itself during sleep.  Like the fractals of chaos theory, brain centers undulate through cycles of firing and rest, processing both externally-generated and internally-generated input, shaping plots and narratives, creating symbols and metaphors.  Once more, order is generated from chaos.

Another one of Graywolf's contributions is to find the genesis of the Creative Consciousness Process in evolutionary theory and ecological psychology.  Rapid eye movement sleep probably seerved an evolutionary function as small mammals formulated strategies of survival during sleep, checking them against the memories of their daily experience.  This was the beginning of the brain's capacity to create stories from the morass of internally-evoked images during the night - stories that would often become cultural and personal myths, themselves imprtant determinants of social survival.  In our time, as Earth itself struggles to survive the onslaught of human exploitation, the Creative Consciousness Process sees its task as reminding individuals and groups of their connection to the rest of Nature, and to awaken them to the fact that the very survival of humankind may rest on honoring this connection, not severing it still further.

Tribal shamans recognized the ecology of consciousness; their techniques often were chaotic yet the disorder produced through drumming, dancing, and mind-altering plants induced shifts in consciusness that led to a new order that could be both healing and life-enhancing.  I have participated in sweat lodge rites, drumming ceremonies, and dancing rituals where the heat was so intense, the music was overwhelming, and the movement so exhausting that the only way to stay with the process was to shift into a state of consciousness where my ordinary limitations were expanded or transcended.  Again, order can emerge from chaos; today's shaman/dreamhealer takes advantage of this knowledge.

Graywolf has facilitated numerous hero's and heroine's journeys for his clients over the past several years, encouraging their departure, validating their discoveries, and celebrating their return.  They realize at profoundly deep levels of the psyche where their growth has been stalemated and how flow can be restored.  By providing sacred internal and external sites for this change to occur, Graywolf has revived the dreamhealing tradition.  Asklepios would be pleased.