Healing your self, healing your soul
Mindfulness-based somatic counseling with David Luce
A loving, non-judgmental space for your journey of healing and growth.
In our lives, we sometimes find ourselves lost in confusion, separation, and pain. Old patterns, beliefs, and habits can chain us to our past and limit our joy and clarity. We may feel stuck and lose connection with the freshness we once knew.
David Luce
I was born in the Bay Area just in time for the 1960s. Like many people, I experienced much suffering in my early life, which culminated in my being orphaned as a teenager after both of my parents died of cancer. In my search for a response to all of my pain, I discovered Buddhism, Taoism, and Plant Medicines at the age of 15. I’ve spent my life since then practicing these intertwining paths as deeply as possible.
My many paths combine naturally with a love of nature, writing, music, language, and travel to distant lands and cultures of many kinds. For me, the work of healing and spiritual guidance is a remembering, an awakening, and—first and always—a path of the heart.
I currently live in the wilds of West Marin in the San Francisco Bay Area.
My Training
After 3 unsatisfying months at an Ivy League university, I made my way back to the Bay Area, where I looked up "Zen" in the phonebook. Soon I was standing on the doorstep of one of the first Korean Zen centers in the United States. I spent 16 years living in Zen and Tibetan Buddhist dharma centers, including 4 years as a Zen monk in Asia. In all, I’ve practiced 7 years of cumulative retreat, including 4 years of solitary retreat in a cabin here in the mountains of Northern California. My practice has been guided by masters of the Buddhist and Taoist traditions.
As part of my medicine training, I spent 3 years in the Amazon training with traditional healers along with a 15 year long apprenticeship in the western approach to medicine work. In 2005, I founded Two Rivers Sangha, a Buddhist 501c3 church dedicated to the intersection of the Buddhist path and earth wisdom traditions.
I am trained in Hakomi mindfulness-based somatic psychology, Acupressure Massage, and Hypnotherapy. I am a teacher in the Hollow Bamboo School of Meditation and have also been given permission to teach meditation by Zen Master Dae Bong Su Nim.
I offer mindfulness-based somatic counseling to explore new ways to see and feel your life and live with greater vitality.
In our work together, I can help you increase awareness of your body sensations, the currents of your breath, feelings, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs, opening a doorway into the basic goodness and unconditional naturalness of your being.
I can teach you how to cultivate this opening so you can further loosen and dissolve the physical, psychological, and energetic blockages that have formed over time.
As these patterns dissolve, you can experience greater spaciousness and clarity in your body, mind, and heart.
As loving-presence for yourself and others grows, many things become possible.
Life can become more workable, with less suffering and more ease. Loving well and becoming more confident, at ease, joyful, confident, and resilient as you navigate life’s challenges: these are a few of the possibilities.
My work flows from 50 years of walking my own path of psychological and spiritual healing, extensive study with many skilled and insightful teachers and healers from a range of psychological, shamanic, and Eastern Wisdom traditions.
I am available for sessions at my office in West Marin, California, and over Zoom.
My specialties are:
Healing Developmental Trauma
Healing Grief and Loss
Navigating Intimate and Family Relationships
Finding your Purpose and Life Path
Preparation and Integration for Psychedelic Journeys
Embodied Mindfulness Meditation Training
If you would like to explore the possibility of working together, I invite you to contact me for a free initial consultation.
Contact
Interested in working together? Fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.