About Mike
Living in many different worlds kept leading me back to the same questions.
Before teaching and coaching became my full-time work, I spent years in technology management and consulting. I’ve also spent three decades training in Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and Qigong, and I continue to teach at the martial and healing arts studio I opened in 2007.
I studied psychology at the University of Chicago and have explored contemplative and spiritual traditions. Across these different parts of my life, I kept returning to the same questions: What shapes our experience? What does change actually require? What becomes possible through practice?
My life looked good. But I was living for weekends and vacations.
I had good jobs, a beautiful home, and many of the things I thought would make life feel successful. By most measures, I had built a good life.
I often imagined leaving everything behind and beginning again somewhere else—not because my life was terrible, but because my everyday experience didn’t feel fully alive or connected to what mattered to me.
That disconnect made me curious. What was I looking for? What was missing—and would changing my circumstances change my experience?
The path
My questions took me through ancient traditions and modern approaches.
Over time, I integrated ancient wisdom traditions—including martial arts, meditation, and Chinese medicine training—with modern approaches drawn from psychology, neuroscience, somatic practice, and emotional conditioning.
These were not separate interests to me. Each offered another way to understand what shapes our experience and what can be developed through practice.
For years, my days moved between corporate environments and teaching at my martial and healing arts studio.
At the studio and through my coaching work, I’ve spent years working closely with people and learning what supports lasting transformation.
Why practice
Practice changed how I understood change.
A powerful idea, conversation, or experience can change how you see something. But seeing differently in one moment does not guarantee that the same understanding will be available later.
Over time, I kept noticing the same thing: understanding what to do is different from being able to do it. We develop ability through practice—by trying, noticing what happens, adjusting, and trying again.
That understanding now shapes how I approach inner work, relationships, and change.
I don’t need you to see the world the way I do.
I’ve spent much of my life around people with very different beliefs, interests, backgrounds, and ways of living. That range has taught me to listen for how someone experiences their life—not fit them into the way I explain mine.
My work does not require spiritual language or a particular belief system. We can explore your inner experience deeply without separating it from the life you are living.
I create space for you to slow down, look inward, and put words to what you find. I may ask a question you have not considered, offer another way of seeing something, or challenge you when I believe it will serve you.
The aim is not to make you more like me. It is to help you decide what you want to create and train what will help you move toward it.
Experience and training
My background
- Founder and Sifu, Boulder Kung Fu Academy — established in 2007
- Three decades of training in Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and Qigong
- BA, Psychology — University of Chicago
- MS, CIS — Northwestern University
- Coursework in Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, herbs, and moxibustion — Ruseto College
- ACIBM six-month coaching program for Highly Sensitive Entrepreneurs — 2015
- Formerly registered as a Psychotherapist and Massage Therapist in Colorado—not currently practicing in either role
Ways to work with me
Choose a structured training program or explore private coaching.