vice president of clinical services: sunstone center

“As daughters and sons of Pachamama, our birthright is a marvel, and it is ours for the claiming. We can live upon the planet as radiant wonders of loving beauty and do so in peaceful balance with All Our Relations. Our walk in life can be a dance of magic and mystery. Our cosmic lineage is to be incarnations of animated soul, enacting a passionate consecration of breath and body. Our inheritance is a calling to take our place as intrinsically unique miracles within an infinitely diverse and interconnected living reality. We are all these things and more. It is in our nature.”

As an embodiment of the wounded healer, David is passionate about sharing the power and beauty of shamanic practice and integrated psychotherapy. With the excitement and intensity of one who has experienced deep healing himself, his goal is to help others recover their own innate wholeness.

In his own life journey, he long hungered for a spiritually based healing practice that was both transformational and practical. David knows well the challenge of living as an embodied spirit yearning to align with cosmically infused purpose. Ultimately accepting the struggles inherent in living heartfully as one among many, he learned to intentionally honor the sacred necessity of diversity and interdependence. David wears the mantle of one who seeks to serve as an active agent of peace and reconciliation on both personal and planetary levels. For this reason, he has devoted himself to walking a sacred path, which he seeks to express in his daily efforts to “grow corn and potatoes,” as well as in his roles as teacher, healer, and guide.

David was born in Japan near the sacred Apu (mountain) Takeo but was raised in his family’s hometown of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Having been exposed during his formative years to the energies of these two powerful medicine mountains, he was drawn to the spiritual qualities of the natural world.

Though raised and educated in traditional Judeo-Christian environments, his heart gravitated toward native spirituality and shamanism. He has experienced first-hand the power of the unseen world to transform life. First exposed to Turtle Island pipe and sweat lodge ceremonies while attending seminary, David eventually found strong resonance with Heart Island shamanic traditions. As he navigated his own initiatory struggles, he was blessed to work with a trained shamanic practitioner who was also a licensed psychotherapist. Over the course of about ten years, this relationship and the techniques used brought great healing and solace. It was then that he sought out formal apprenticeship opportunities.

Following the example of his therapist, David undertook a shamanic apprenticeship and completed formal training in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition (PMT). In the years since, he has completed numerous advanced apprenticeship trainings offered by don Oscar Miro-Quesada, sanctioned PMT teachers on both coasts, and the Qollasuyu Council. David now regularly participates in local and regional ceremonial gatherings and maintains a home-based medicine lodge. He finds practical and meaningful ways to integrate earth-honoring ritual arts into his daily life as he furthers his own transformational healing and shares this medicine with others.

In addition to his shamanic lineage training, David holds a Master of Theological Studies degree in Medieval Spirituality from Emory University and a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Prescott College. He is a licensed professional counselor in Georgia and a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina, with certifications in clinical supervision and trauma.

David’s professional background includes service as the Director of Counseling for a wilderness-based residential treatment program for adolescents, as an Adjunct Faculty Instructor at North Georgia College, as Vice President of Operations for a faith-based social service organization, as Program Director for a large nonprofit home health and case management agency, and as the Director of a community mental health center near Atlanta. He is currently in private practice, offering psychotherapy and shamanic ceremonial healing.