About James
I'm a healer, a teacher, a group facilitator, and a practitioner at heart. I work with the body in order to access the unconscious — to get directly to the core of what causes people to suffer. And beyond that, to help them discover what's been waiting underneath the suffering all along.
My work is to help people heal so they can grow up, wake up, and serve fully in their lives. I am working to initiate people into their own power and wisdom — and ultimately into a deeper truth about the nature of their being.
Based in Lincoln, Vermont, I work with individuals, couples, and groups in person and online.
Nepenthe is my name. From the Greek: "that which takes away suffering." It's also my life's work.
My Path
I started sitting silent meditation retreats at 15 and became consumed by one question: what actually resolves suffering? That question took me to Central America at 18, where I spent a year working with at-risk youth in Honduras. It shattered everything I thought I knew about the world and about myself, and set me on the path I'm still on.
I dedicated my twenties to intensive practice — long silent retreats, ordination as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, plant medicine ceremony in Peru, and a deepening conviction that healing and awakening are not separate endeavors. They are one path. I trained under Rodney Smith at the Insight Meditation Society — one of the few Western teachers who spoke explicitly about the reality and accessibility of awakening, not as theory but from his own direct experience. Rodney eventually empowered me as a dharma teacher. His teaching became the backbone of my contemplative path. The body is the gateway to the truth that lies beyond our neurotic mental activity, and spiritual transformation isn't possible when the nervous system is still at war with itself.
In my early twenties, I discovered somatic work and it changed everything. After ten years of talk therapy, my first Somatic Experiencing session showed me what's actually possible when you work with the body directly. The amount of energy it unlocked, the material it resolved — it was a stark contrast to everything I'd done before. I immediately began training.
Since then, I've trained extensively in Somatic Experiencing, Dynamic Attachment Repatterning, Radical Aliveness group process, Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training, the Yoga of Intimacy, and intensive shadow work through The Initiation. I now serve as an assistant trainer in several of these modalities. But the modalities aren't the point. The point is what they give access to — the core of a person's suffering, and the ground of who they actually are beneath it.
What I Bring Into The Room
I'm highly trained and I continue to train. I receive regular sessions myself. I've sought out the most reputable teachers I could find and have been taken on as an assistant by many of them — not because I need the credential, but because depth and integrity are a priority for me in a field where many people offer this type of work without either.
I live an extremely grounded life. I have a relationship that is thriving and legitimately works — in a world where most people struggle to function in relationship. I maintain a healthy, fit lifestyle. I'm passionate about being embodied, being present, and letting that aliveness come through in how I serve.
Training & Credentials
SOMATIC & TRAUMA HEALING
Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP) — 3-year professional training
Ongoing Mentorship under SEI Faculty, Debra Clydesdale (since 2021)
Somatic Experiencing International — Training Assistant (since 2022)
Crisis Stabilization & Safety (CSS) — Lead Trainer, SE International
Dynamic Attachment Repatterning (DARe) Levels 1 & 4; Assistant Trainer — Dr. Diane Poole Heller
Radical Aliveness — Ann Bradney
Somatic Coaching — The Strozzi Institute
Embodiment Lab with Ann Bradney— Year-long training (2024–2025)
Lead Resiliency Trainer — Project HOPE (Hurricane Ian disaster response)
Principles in Healing Collective Trauma (2020–2021)
Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness — David Treleaven
MINDFULNESS, MEDITATION & DHARMA
506 days of silent retreat, including three 3-month retreats, and two 6-week retreats (Insight Meditation Society & Forest Refuge)
Empowered Dharma Teacher — under Rodney Smith
Ten Fetters Process of Classical Awakening — under Christiane Michelberger & Steffi Mania (ongoing)
Former Ordained Buddhist monk — Sri Lanka (Venerable Dhammajiva, 2015)
Certified Mindfulness Teacher (CMT-P) — Engaged Mindfulness Institute, IMTA-accredited (2015–2017)
Nonviolent Communication — 3-year training (2015–2018)
MMFT Lead Trainer — Dr. Elizabeth Stanley; trained military psychologists & first responders in Ukraine
Advanced Teacher of Presence Training — Eckhart Tolle
Convergent Facilitation Training
The Work That Reconnects — Earth Leadership Cohort
RELATIONSHIP & SACRED INTIMACY
Yoga of Intimacy — Assistant under Justin Patrick Pierce & Londin Angel Winters
Daily sacred intimacy practice — Alpha/Omega polarity framework
GROUP WORK & FACILITATION
The Initiation (formerly The Event) — Assistant to Fleet Maull (since 2019; most recently Feb 2026)
All Kings — Initiate and Assistant; initiatory quests & trainings with justice-impacted men
ManKind Project — IMPACT Course for Young Men, Lead Trainer (2019–ongoing)
Brother's Hearth — Lead Facilitator, Young Men Awake (2020–ongoing)
iBMe — Youth Mentor and Mental Health Support
MMFT Ukraine Project — active-duty military and psychologist training (2022–ongoing)
Lead Instructor — Youth Opportunities Program
Mindfulness Director — Mindfulness Director Initiative (now WholeSchool Mindfulness)
ACTIVISM & SERVICE
At-Risk Youth Facilitator — Hogares Crea, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Standing Rock Resistance Camp, 2016
Anti-Racist Lead Facilitator — Farm & Wilderness, VT (2016–2017)
Crisis Counselor — Hurricane Ian, SW Florida
Engaging Whiteness Through Critical Contemplative Inquiry — Senior Honors Thesis, UMass Amherst Commonwealth College (2017)
UMass Divest — Successful campaign (2016)
Student Mentor & Anti-Oppression Educator, UMass (2016)
UMass Student Mindfulness Facilitator & Program Lead (2015–2017)
Reclaiming Indigenous Cultural Heritage Institute, Penobscot, ME (2017)
Overnight Staff, Craig's Door Shelter (2018)
Ongoing pro-bono Somatic Experiencing sessions for people without financial means
Ongoing mentorship for young men
Want to Work Together?
Book a free 20-minute call. I'll listen to where you are and we'll figure out if this is the right fit.