I grew up in a small town in southern Louisiana near Lafayette. As a young boy, I was accustomed to the freedom of country life: fresh air, quiet nights and great food. We grew our own vegetables and stocked our own meats.  I have great memories of playing in fields and exploring nature with my younger brother and cousins. Our parents instilled in us many values, in particular, compassion, generosity, and good ole’ southern hospitality.

Growing up I was especially close to my grandmother.  My favorite time of the year was spring when we tilled the soil and prepared it for planting. When I look back, I see her influence weaved throughout my life. The most valuable gift she imparted was her wisdom of working with the earth. She understood the importance of fertile soil and knew how to enrich it so that it produced good and sweet fruit. After leaving the comforts of home, my early adult years were full of struggles, addictions and death of family members. Through it all my grandmother’s influence pulled me through and taught me unconditional love.  I wanted to share this with other people, which lead me to the next phase in my journey.

Thinking that ministry was my calling in life, I attended Notre Dame Seminary in Louisiana, where I was ordained. After a year of parish work, I was given the opportunity to further my education and received a Masters degree in Spirituality and spiritual direction from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. The instructors that I resonated with were spiritual directors who also practiced some form of physical medicine. I was introduced to cranio-sacral, massage therapy and herbal medicine. With the exposure to herbal medicine, I once again realized the importance of the soil.

Eventually, I recognized that in order to help people in the way I had envisioned, I would need to step out of ordained ministry and pursue medicine.  My grandmother’s teachings about the foundations of life were like a gentle muse leading me on to new fields. The calling to medicine led me to the great North West where I attended Bastyr University and received a Masters of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine.  I have since studied in Switzerland at Paracelsus Klinik under the guidance of Dr. Thomas Rau. Before coming into my own practice, I was an associate and mentee of Dr. Paul Anderson, a well-known physician in the North West who works with oncology and chronic disease. Since coming into my own practice, I have been privileged to work under the guidance of Dr. Nasha Winters, ND, LAc, FABNO who has enriched my sense of terrain centric medicine.

What I discovered to be my passion all along was working with a person’s terrain, the foundation of their health, their “soil,” so to speak. I honor my patients’ uniqueness because that is how I approach their treatments, with individualized personal care.

This is my opportunity to share my story in the hopes that you will gather a glimpse of who I am. Each one of us has a unique personal story of where we grew up, what the people are like in our native land, and how we have evolved to who we are presently. I am excited and passionate to hear your story.