About Dave M.Sc., Ph.D., T.I.Y.T.
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Welcome to my little corner of the multiverse! This project is the culmination of nearly two decades of education, training, research, practice, and professional experience in a wide range of theories and modalities related to the neurophysiology of health, healing, and well-being. For a brief biographical sketch of this project's background, please read on!
I began college as a music major before transferring schools and changing my major. I earned my bachelor's in psychology from the University of Northern Colorado (UNCO), studying with the brilliant Dr. Doug Woody and wise Rosann Ross, among many other excellent professors and advisors. At UNCO, I served as a confidential peer-advocate for the Sexual Assault Survivor's Program, which was one of the first and is one of the most developed college campus-based sexual assault advocacy centers in the U.S.
After college, I completed one year of a master's program in the philosophy of religion before beginning my doctoral work at Syracuse University. At Syracuse, I was awarded a University Doctoral Research Fellowship and I earned a Masters of Science and Ph.D. in the Cultural Foundations of Education, a social justice and inclusive education department. During my doctoral coursework, I taught undergraduate and graduate students in my home department as well as the department of Women's and Gender Studies. My Ph.D. dissertation addresses contemporary uses of mindfulness practices in educational settings through a radically new/old theory of the deep continuity of life-mind and autopoietic theory of living and cognitive systems. This framework is couched within a comprehensive paradigm shift currently occurring in the life and mind sciences. My doctoral research incorporates theories, methodologies, and insights from the following field and disciplines, among others:
- process ontological autopoietic biology
- psychology
- cognitive science
- neuroscience
- neurophilosophy
- quantum systems theory
- complexity theory
- the polyvagal theory of trauma and emotional dys/regulation
- biosemiotics
- biotensegrity
- endocannabinology
- behavioral medicine
- process pragmatism
- swarm intelligence
- clinical psychology
- developmental systems ecology
- evolutionary theory
- dynamic systems theory
- ethnopsychiatry
- experimental and clinical psychopharmacology
- neurophenomenology
- neuropragmatism
- neuroquantology
- ecological psychology
- embodied linguistics
- somaesthetics
- enactive cognition
- ecological epistemology
- phenomenological cognitive science
- process philosophy
- psychosomatic medicine
- social epistemology
- sociology
- systems biology
I am also trained and certified in Trauma Informed Yoga Therapy; trained in trauma-sensitive mindfulness; and have extensive experience in yoga; in Eugene Gendlin's "Focusing" method; in intergroup/interfaith dialogue; and in nonviolent communication. After owning and operating a private psychotherapy practice in Denver from 2018-2020, I spent some time exploring new potentialities unleashed by the disruptions of the pandemic. I now own and operate a trauma-informed yoga therapy practice in Santa Fe. My clinical practice is called: "Somatic Attunement™"
For questions, feedback, etc., you can reach me at: dave@somatic-attunement.earth