Influences

Before I enlisted in the Navy, I didn't really know what I wanted to study in college, much less what I wanted to do with my life. I was feeling lost, making choices I wasn't especially proud of, and looking to things outside myself for direction.

I began going to the library and finding my way through books by Wayne Dyer, Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins, and others. I listened to audiobooks, read whatever caught my interest, and slowly started to see things differently. These writers didn't hand me a set of answers. But at a time when I needed some grounding, they helped me ask better questions about the person I wanted to become.

That curiosity came before the Navy and long before my clinical training. Reading became a bridge into a lasting interest in the human mind, the inner life, and what gives a life meaning. Eventually, that curiosity found a home in psychology. It still shows up in my work today—in the questions I ask, the attention I pay to people's experiences, and my willingness to learn from more than one way of understanding a person.

The people here haven't all influenced me in the same way, and I don't agree with everything any one of them has said. This is a collection of voices, books, and ideas I've encountered at different points in my life, and have found worth returning to.