About Patrick

I had some challenges growing up. This informs my therapeutic approach.

In 1971 when I was seven, I awoke around 6 a.m. to rocking and rolling. My parents were worried we could drown because a dam had broken in Northridge CA. The car was running at the curb and they urged me to get out of bed and get to the car. 

I didn't know then, what may happen when a child thinks: The Ones You Depended Upon Can't Keep You Safe. The dam did not break that day but the cracks were a concern for weeks. My Dad decided to move our family quickly to a logging community in Oregon. We moved again partway through my 3rd grade to Washington, and partway through my 4th grade to Salem Oregon, where I began to feel safe after 5 years making some friends. We moved again in 1977 to another logging community in Washington.  

At age 11 and 12 Two of my good friends told me how hard it was to be around me, one said he had to stop being my friend because of my cutting sarcasm. I was expelled from a soccer game for rudeness. By 14 I had become reckless and impulsive, including numerous motorcycle accidents and head injuries. I got knocked out cold during a football game, again snow skiing, and in two fistfights. After the snow skiing concussion I didn't know who I was for several hours. Two of my accidents required knee surgery. That did not slow me down from cliff diving, motorcycle roadracing and other risky behaviors. I began drinking and using drugs at age 13. I often did things I later regretted with lots of shame. 

I had planned to become a Math teacher but flunked out of college. Following my Dad's footsteps I became a construction worker. On construction jobs I had several injuries and two near-death close-calls: me at the bottom of a 20 foot deep hole with a concrete truck revving above, after a crane had removed the shoring, and the second, my head being nearly missed by a track-hoe bucket reaching over a wall blind, that ticked my hard hat. These incidents made me screaming mad with a sense of injustice. 

Injustice became a constant battle. Unable to tame the thoughts and behaviors within, I blamed others including my romantic partners. The frustration contributed to grinding teeth, bad breath, neck pain, back pain, knee pain, foot pain, skin eruptions, boils, tumors and not least, unhealthy coping behaviors. In 1986 I tried to kill myself but surprisingly awoke the next day. 

The Miracle of Birth

 

I found out we were pregnant in 1988. My first reaction was anger at my partner. Within a month or two I began changing, wanting to be the person that a new person needs. I did my best to be a good partner, good citizen and began studying spirituality more intensely. Not intensely enough to prevent more poor choices, but the corner had been turned. 

Switching to a Healing Career

My first wife had three injuries from car accidents, causing her chronic pain. After a few years she began receiving treatment from Randy Nakasone, P.T. who provided her the only relief she had found. Between construction jobs, I asked if I could watch a session and Randy said sure! I observed several of their sessions. I was amazed with the Osteopathic Techniques he did with her fully clothed. With Randy's advice, in 1993 I began at the most Anatomy-Dense massage school in Seattle. Before even finishing school I began attending Continuing Education in Craniosacral Therapy and another Osteopathic Technique. I left construction after fifteen years and made a career transition to massage therapy. I have been providing licensed bodywork therapy continuously since 1994. 

In Washington, as a Licensed Massage Practitioner I was a Preferred Provider for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Arizona, Providian and Group Health. 

After our family of 3 moved to Arizona in 1999, where insurance does not cover massage, I worked at The Spa at Gainey Village for several years doing 30 massages per week. During all this practice I developed the Melting Muscles method. The spa director told me I was the Most Requested Therapist in 2001/2002.

In 2007 I received an Osteopathic treatment from John McRae PT who asked, When did you get your head injury? I told him, You're wrong, I don't have any head injuries. But over the next two weeks I began recalling and listing 20 head injuries I had from age 14-20. From my Counselor Stephen Bruno I learned that I have PTSD or something like it, most likely due to the 1970 earthquake and precursors. 

PTSD TBI head injuries affect a person's interpretations, choices and behaviors. It turns out that, if PTSD cannot exactly be cured, it can be as if it is gone during those moments we are focused on serving others. This is one reason getting a dog can help people with PTSD: the person with PTSD is serving the dog daily, hourly: feeding it, taking it for walks etc. There is a commitment to serving. Now I sort of specialize in helping other people who have head injuries and traumas, in addition to other specialties like the head and neck. 

Meanwhile, a spiritual path gradually emerged

I was introduced to meditation in 1977, again in 1982 and 1986. I began calling myself a buddhist and around 1991 became a member of the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle, where I received empowerments from Jigdal Dagchen Sakya, Dagmola Sakya and Tenzin Gyatso also known as the 14th Dalai Lama. I gravitated towards the practices of Unconditional Giving and Taking, called Tong Len, Exchanging Self and Other, and Equalizing Self and Other. My first published article was about these three practices, sold to Massage Magazine for $150 in 2000. 

In 1996, while working at Natural Essence, a healing center in North Bend, Washington, I met a counselor and energy healer named Stephen Bruno. Stephen wasn't a buddhist but he did teach similar things like unconditional compassion, patience, presence and nonjudgment. I attended many of Stephen's workshops for writers, for personal discovery, healing energy and embracing your essence. He became our family counselor. From 1996 to this day (with some gaps) I continue regular phone sessions with Stephen including therapist supervision. 

Feeling like I had succeeded in becoming a spiritual person, I stopped having sessions with Stephen in 1999. Later that year I got arrested for driving drunk. Consequences included 25 hours in the King County Jail, a year of addiction counseling and more shame. I stopped drinking and using drugs for good in 1999, and my life bounced back. 

In 2000 I took Reiki training from Stephen and began teaching Reiki. I think the Reiki jump-started something because in 2002 and 2003 I published two influential articles in Massage&Bodywork magazine and Massage Therapy Journal. These articles generated interest and I began teaching Melting Muscles to therapists in 13 states. The success went to my head and I quit working for the spa. My fourth article was rejected because I sounded too arrogant, they said. Ups and downs! I resumed having phone sessions with Stephen around 2003. 

Since 2020 I have also been teaching Math and Construction Trades at the Community College in Tucson. So even though I never got that degree, I still get to be a math teacher.  

I met my wife Traci in 2007 when she was reading her poetry and memoir at a coffee shop in Phoenix. Together Traci and I began Monsoon Voices, a live literary magazine with poets, memoirists, fiction writers and musicians. Special guests included poets Shawnte Orion, Susan Vespoli, David Chorlton and Jefferson Carter. 

Traci teaches writing workshops online and in-person. My daughter became a musician and counselor. 

The importance of Nature and Being Natural

In Oregon I was in Boy Scouts where we went on a campout once a month, rain or shine. At age 11 and 12 I went on two 50-milers and did cross-country orienteering off-trail at 13. 

Over 60, I still enjoy hiking off-trail with my Nikon D4 camera. In Arizona  I have encountered a Black Bear, Bighorn Sheep, White-Tail Deer, and curious little Coati who came near me. In our yard in Tucson, where I have a home-office for treatments and workshops, we have seen numerous Bobcats, Coyotes, Great Horned Owls and Harris's Hawks which hunt as a cooperative family. 

Some of my nature photography is posted on Flickr and some on Facebook.