Be the difference that makes a difference. I joined the military after high school out of a desire to serve and make a difference in the world. I did two deployments to Iraq where I was injured and medically discharged in 2009. After my military service I set on a path to learn Yoga and mindfulness to help with PTSD and spine injuries, which led me on a path of continued selfless service to make a difference in the world. I spent several years traveling volunteering and teaching in over 20 countries. My now 20 year old daughter has been to 12 countries with me and is in school in is collage pursuing a doctorate of physical therapy with a mini in psychology and natural medicine. Her dream is to join doctors without borders. I find great joy in helping and serving others, leading by example and making a difference in the world. My personal Moto that I adopted many years ago is, "be the difference the makes the difference". I have been in many situations where I was the right person at the right time to help and save someone's life. There are several people still alive today because I was there to help. I have a 3 year old son and another on the way. My children are are also my legacy and will continue to help others, save their community because of the values that I embody and pass on. My partner and I are involved in many community events, we help and offer to help many people in our community through teaching, opening our home, hosting travelers, being part of community actions, potlucks. Part of our core values are connection to nature, sustainability and wholistic well-being. I am currently enrolled at Naropa University in the Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling program to become a professional counselor. There are not many male veteran professional counselors, mental health is so important to everyone. I want to continue to serve and help others to the best of my ability. I love working with children and veterans, both of which need healthy male role models and counselors. Veterans are an underserved population, the VA continues to fail to adequately support veterans. I have lost friends that I served with due to suicide and/or addictions. I have experienced and seen the affects of trauma to service members and their families. From my point of view the majority of the trauma in the military is not from the event itself, rather it how we are treated by toxic leadership and the lack of support that we get. I retured to school and did my undergraduate at Naropa using up my GI Bill at the age of 34. No I am 40 years old continuing on at Naropa. This scholarship will help alleviate the finical burden and hardship of being a full time student and father and will help cover education costs so I can continue at school.

Be the difference that makes a difference. I joined the military after high school out of a desire to serve and make a difference in the world. I did two deployments to Iraq where I was injured and medically discharged in 2009. After my military service I set on a path to learn Yoga and mindfulness to help with PTSD and spine injuries, which led me on a path of continued selfless service to make a difference in the world. I spent several years traveling volunteering and teaching in over 20 countries. My now 20 year old daughter has been to 12 countries with me and is in school in is collage pursuing a doctorate of physical therapy with a mini in psychology and natural medicine. Her dream is to join doctors without borders. I find great joy in helping and serving others, leading by example and making a difference in the world. My personal Moto that I adopted many years ago is, "be the difference the makes the difference". I have been in many situations where I was the right person at the right time to help and save someone's life. There are several people still alive today because I was there to help. I have a 3 year old son and another on the way. My children are are also my legacy and will continue to help others, save their community because of the values that I embody and pass on. My partner and I are involved in many community events, we help and offer to help many people in our community through teaching, opening our home, hosting travelers, being part of community actions, potlucks. Part of our core values are connection to nature, sustainability and wholistic well-being. I am currently enrolled at Naropa University in the Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling program to become a professional counselor. There are not many male veteran professional counselors, mental health is so important to everyone. I want to continue to serve and help others to the best of my ability. I love working with children and veterans, both of which need healthy male role models and counselors. Veterans are an underserved population, the VA continues to fail to adequately support veterans. I have lost friends that I served with due to suicide and/or addictions. I have experienced and seen the affects of trauma to service members and their families. From my point of view the majority of the trauma in the military is not from the event itself, rather it how we are treated by toxic leadership and the lack of support that we get.

Be the difference that makes a difference. I joined the military after high school out of a desire to serve and make a difference in the world. I did two deployments to Iraq where I was injured and medically discharged in 2009. After my military service I set on a path to learn Yoga and mindfulness to help with PTSD and spine injuries, which led me on a path of continued selfless service to make a difference in the world. I spent several years traveling volunteering and teaching in over 20 countries. My now 20 year old daughter has been to 12 countries with me and is in school in is collage pursuing a doctorate of physical therapy with a mini in psychology and natural medicine. Her dream is to join doctors without borders. I find great joy in helping and serving others, leading by example and making a difference in the world. My personal Moto that I adopted many years ago is, "be the difference the makes the difference". I have been in many situations where I was the right person at the right time to help and save someone's life. There are several people still alive today because I was there to help. I have a 3 year old son and another on the way. My children are are also my legacy and will continue to help others, save their community because of the values that I embody and pass on. My partner and I are involved in many community events, we help and offer to help many people in our community through teaching, opening our home, hosting travelers, being part of community actions, potlucks. Part of our core values are connection to nature, sustainability and wholistic well-being. I am currently enrolled at Naropa University in the Nature-Based Transpersonal Counseling program to become a professional counselor. There are not many male veteran professional counselors, mental health is so important to everyone. I want to continue to serve and help others to the best of my ability. I love working with children and veterans, both of which need healthy male role models and counselors. Veterans are an underserved population, the VA continues to fail to adequately support veterans. I have lost friends that I served with due to suicide and/or addictions. I have experienced and seen the affects of trauma to service members and their families. From my point of view the majority of the trauma in the military is not from the event itself, rather it how we are treated by toxic leadership and the lack of support that we get.

I am the first person in my family to complete a Bachelors degree and the first to be going for a MA. I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Living in long term fight or flight situation in a war zone combined with a toxic masculine environment causes the sympathetic nervous system to constantly being activated in flight or fight which long term activations causes a persons baseline arousal to then become much higher. Due to the heightened baseline arousal making it much more difficult for veterans with PTSD to feel calm or at ease even when back in the safety of their home. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. I have a 19 year old daughter that's off to collage as well and a 2.5 year old son that I have most of the time. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. I have a 19 year old daughter that's off to collage as well and a 2.5 year old son that I have most of the time. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification in May of 2024. My partner at the time became pregnant while I was in school. During my studies I took developmental psychology, developmental movement and other psychology classes so I could better understand my child development and support his needs and he grows. During my second to last semester in the fall of 2023 I separated from my partner to get away from a very toxic and abusive situation. I became a single father and had my son most of the time. During that fall 2023 semester I received no help from his mother when I had class or work. I couldn't afford the expensive childcare rates out of pocket, the cheapest full-time daycare in my area is 2000$ a month, private babysitter in the are charging 30-50$ an hour as well. So I ended up taking my son with me to class nearly every day that semester until I got approved for the Colorado Childcare Assistance Program (CCAP) and found a daycare that had an opening. I also had to stop working because his mom wouldn't help me when I had clients. I was planning on relocating after school as the area I live in is very over saturated making hard to build clients and the cost of living is very high here. However my son's mom wont let me relocate. Last summer she told me she was leaving and not coming back, that our son could come find her when he is older. I was devastated but eventually made peace with it. She took off to New York last summer for two months telling me she wasn't coming back, she did. She now takes him about 50% of the time but she is very unreliable and unstable. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others. The last three years every summer I have ran a kids outdoor education, wilderness survival and bush crafting program around Colorado for kids ages 6-14. I have extensive experience in the wilderness and working with kids. I want to be able to continue to do this type work as a licensed professional counselor helping adults and children spend time in nature, learning outdoor skill and healing.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Living in long term fight or flight situation in a war zone combined with a toxic masculine environment causes the sympathetic nervous system to constantly being activated in flight or fight which long term activations causes a persons baseline arousal to then become much higher. Due to the heightened baseline arousal making it much more difficult for veterans with PTSD to feel calm or at ease even when back in the safety of their home. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. Fight and flight are just a few of the responses that are wired into our nervous system that keep us alive and safe during dangerous and threatening situations. There is a hierarchy built into our body on how it handles threat and trauma, which is not just mental/emotional but also physical. We feel these things in our body and during life threatening situation the prefrontal cortex and limbic system shut down to divert energy to the lizard brain and fight or flight. Later after the threat is gone the body needs to release this energy in the form of shaking, movement, crying to disperse the energy. However most men are told not to cry or shake, to show emotion. This actually causes the trauma to get stuck in the body. Once the threat is gone and person is safe to disperse these emotions it allows the prefrontal cortex and limbic systems to come back online, the next part of the process is that the person needs to be with supportive friends and community to talk about it which is processing and integration. However most of this for veterans and men does not happen trapping the trauma in the body. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Living in long term fight or flight situation in a war zone combined with a toxic masculine environment causes the sympathetic nervous system to constantly being activated in flight or fight which long term activations causes a persons baseline arousal to then become much higher. Due to the heightened baseline arousal making it much more difficult for veterans with PTSD to feel calm or at ease even when back in the safety of their home. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. Fight and flight are just a few of the responses that are wired into our nervous system that keep us alive and safe during dangerous and threatening situations. There is a hierarchy built into our body on how it handles threat and trauma, which is not just mental/emotional but also physical. We feel these things in our body and during life threatening situation the prefrontal cortex and limbic system shut down to divert energy to the lizard brain and fight or flight. Later after the threat is gone the body needs to release this energy in the form of shaking, movement, crying to disperse the energy. However most men are told not to cry or shake, to show emotion. This actually causes the trauma to get stuck in the body. Once the threat is gone and person is safe to disperse these emotions it allows the prefrontal cortex and limbic systems to come back online, the next part of the process is that the person needs to be with supportive friends and community to talk about it which is processing and integration. However most of this for veterans and men does not happen trapping the trauma in the body. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Living in long term fight or flight situation in a war zone combined with a toxic masculine environment causes the sympathetic nervous system to constantly being activated in flight or fight which long term activations causes a persons baseline arousal to then become much higher. Due to the heightened baseline arousal making it much more difficult for veterans with PTSD to feel calm or at ease even when back in the safety of their home. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. Fight and flight are just a few of the responses that are wired into our nervous system that keep us alive and safe during dangerous and threatening situations. There is a hierarchy built into our body on how it handles threat and trauma, which is not just mental/emotional but also physical. We feel these things in our body and during life threatening situation the prefrontal cortex and limbic system shut down to divert energy to the lizard brain and fight or flight. Later after the threat is gone the body needs to release this energy in the form of shaking, movement, crying to disperse the energy. However most men are told not to cry or shake, to show emotion. This actually causes the trauma to get stuck in the body. Once the threat is gone and person is safe to disperse these emotions it allows the prefrontal cortex and limbic systems to come back online, the next part of the process is that the person needs to be with supportive friends and community to talk about it which is processing and integration. However most of this for veterans and men does not happen trapping the trauma in the body. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Living in long term fight or flight situation in a war zone combined with a toxic masculine environment causes the sympathetic nervous system to constantly being activated in flight or fight which long term activations causes a persons baseline arousal to then become much higher. Due to the heightened baseline arousal making it much more difficult for veterans with PTSD to feel calm or at ease even when back in the safety of their home. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. I have a 19 year old daughter that's off to collage as well and a 2.5 year old son that I have most of the time. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.

I am 100% disabled US Army Veteran, I served two tours to Iraq where I was physically injury, as well and mentally and emotionally injured and have lived with PTSD for over 15 years. I have seen many of the people I have served with turn to pills, drugs and alcohol, self isolation, and other forms of numbing to cope with PTSD with not much help from the VA. My squad leader from my first deployment SGT Beihl committed suicide in 2012 and I have had others that I served with attempt it. I have seen many of the people that I have served with as their mental and physical health decline due to PTSD. I myself become addicted to pills while serving so bad that I overdosed and died in 2009. Since then I have stopped taking pills all together, I sought yoga and spending time in nature to help heal and manage the symptoms of PTSD, which took me on a journey to becoming a yoga teacher. I have traveled around the world teaching and helping others as well as have taught with both active duty and veterans. I spent the last 4 years at Naropa University completing a Bachelors or Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on psychology and yoga studies, including my 1000 hour yoga teacher training certification. Living in long term fight or flight situation in a war zone combined with a toxic masculine environment causes the sympathetic nervous system to constantly being activated in flight or fight which long term activations causes a persons baseline arousal to then become much higher. Due to the heightened baseline arousal making it much more difficult for veterans with PTSD to feel calm or at ease even when back in the safety of their home. Practices like Yoga, breathing techniques and spending time in nature help to stimulate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system activating rest and digest. Studies over the last few decades (since 9/11) on Yoga have shown that mindfulness based practice are far more effective at treating PTSD than pharmaceutical medication. Fight and flight are just a few of the responses that are wired into our nervous system that keep us alive and safe during dangerous and threatening situations. There is a hierarchy built into our body on how it handles threat and trauma, which is not just mental/emotional but also physical. We feel these things in our body and during life threatening situation the prefrontal cortex and limbic system shut down to divert energy to the lizard brain and fight or flight. Later after the threat is gone the body needs to release this energy in the form of shaking, movement, crying to disperse the energy. However most men are told not to cry or shake, to show emotion. This actually causes the trauma to get stuck in the body. Once the threat is gone and person is safe to disperse these emotions it allows the prefrontal cortex and limbic systems to come back online, the next part of the process is that the person needs to be with supportive friends and community to talk about it which is processing and integration. However most of this for veterans and men does not happen trapping the trauma in the body. I am enrolled at Naropa to continue my education getting a MA of Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy and Clinical Mental Health Counseling. There is a sever lack of male therapist and even less veteran therapist. My goal is to bridge that gap to be an able to continue to serve and help others.