The picture above was taken at the end of my first seven day sesshin, probably in 1973. I’m the scruffy looking one standing at the far left.
I was at ZCLA for 4-1/2 years before meeting my wife-to-be. After working as a stagehand for a month I visited ZCLA for a Thursday night talk and moved in across the street the next day, to stay for 28 years.
Within the first year I started in therapy with Pat Sutton, which continued for six years. I did one quarter at UCLA to start on a long path toward being an environmental lawyer, but decided instead to train for a career as a psychotherapist.
Received lay ordination just before starting a job as a Psychiatric Nursing Assistant on an adolescent ward and then as a Houseparent at a residential treatment center for pre-adolescents. This led to the 9-month program at Antioch LA where I got my BA in a self-designed program called Buddhism and Psychotherapy. At the end of the program I had run out of money, so I went back to work as a stagehand. That’s what I was doing when I met Mary.
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