Leading Shinrin-Yoku Forest Bathing Walks for individuals, custom, private and public groups as well as at your event, festival or for your business.    

Gregg combines his training in Shinrin-Yoku Forest Therapy, nearly three decades of Wilderness Guiding and Instruction, Nature Therapy and wildlife rescue with his experience in medicine as both a Paramedic and a Nurse RN combined with training in Hypnotherapy, Somatics, Neurolinguistic Programming, interchange Counseling, Hakomi and more to get you more deeply in touch with the natural world, with yourself and with others. Helping you to be In Connection.

Kayaking under the Golden Gate Bridge outside San Francisco Bay.

Gregg has a passion for the sciences, nature, wellness and healthy lifestyle practices. He enjoys sharing his passions with others and continues to do so in his roles as a nurse, a wilderness guide and instructor, a Shinrin-Yoku practitioner and as a docent at several locations such as Edgewood Park, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, Terwilliger Nature Guides and more. He is also a former docent for the touch tank with California Academy of Sciences and tide pool docent with their partnership with the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Reserve.

As a certified kayak instructor, for over 2 decades Gregg has worked as a wilderness guide leading trips from a few hours to a few months while also teaching the skills that allow one to be physically, mentally and emotionally safe outdoors. As a nurse everywhere he has worked around the country the nurses always end up gravitating towards him for nutrition and exercise advice. He is always seeking to expand his own personal knowledge on those topics as well as desiring to support others in their personal journeys.

Gregg has written a variety of articles for local, state and national magazines on kayaking, nature, and ergonomics. In the past decade, he has focused more intention and attention on adding mindfulness practices and meditative practices to his regime. In the last Two years ago he began incorporating the art of Shinrin-Yoku focus on deepening after becoming certified as a forest therapy guide through the practice of Shinrin-Yoku. A heavily studied Japanese practice of taking people on walks in the forest with techniques that have been shown to reduce blood pressure, elevate immune function through increased lymphocyte count and enhance mood and more.

MEDICAL

  • In addition to diverse nursing experience, formerly wound care certified with extensive pre-hospital (ambulance) emergency and non-emergency medicine experience.
  • Ancillary training and experience in Wilderness Medicine, Search & Rescue and Lifeguarding as well as extensive work as a Wilderness Guide.
  • Medical Support for multiday/multisport Costa Rican Adventure Race. Collaborated with local ambulance service while being transported around the country for racers where needed.
  • Strong background in teaching Emergency Medicine topics (i.e. BLS, BTLS,   PALS, Wilderness Medicine, HIV/AIDS, and Preventing Disease Transmission).
  • Studies in Hypnotherapy, Nonviolent Communication, Neurolinguistic Programming and Counseling.

ADDITIONAL LIFE INFO

GUIDING / INSTRUCTING: MULTIDAY SEA KAYAK TRIPS AND PADDLING TECHNIQUE FOR SEVERAL COMPANIES IN:

  • The Florida Everglades and other locals around the state
  • Prince William Sound Alaska
  • Lake Superior
  • California coasts and whitewater rivers
  • When guiding duties including route planning, meal planning, procurement and preparation, camp logistics and safety. Instruction included everything from forward stroke and race technique to kayak surfing, rescue technique, rolling, camping skills, how to go to the bathroom at sea and much more.

 

TAUGHT AT SYMPOSIUMS INCLUDING:

  • Alaska Sea Kayak Symposium
  • Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium
  • Sweetwater Sea Kayak Symposium - Florida
  • California Paddlefest
  • Lumpy Waters Sea Kayak Symposium - Oregon
  • San Diego Sea Kayak Symposium
     

WRITTEN NUMEROUS ARTICLES FOR VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS INCLUDING:

  • Coastviews Magaizine
  • California Paddler Magazine
  • Sea Kayaker Magazine (including one article dissecting a rescue published in the 2nd edition of the book Sea Kayaker Deep Trouble)
  • various websites, blogs and club publications
  • (Topics included - medical perspectives on outfitting your kayak for comfort and ergonomics, the use of fear in improving your skills, kayak surfing technique, rescue techniques, a real life rescue dissection and paddling with whales.)

 

COMPETITIONS:

  • 3x in Everglades Challenge - a 330 mile kayak adventure race
  • Tandem class of Cal 100 - a 100 mile race in sea kayaks on a river to support clean rivers
  • Tsunami Rangers / Reef Madness big water race
  • numerous smaller sprint style races

 

VOLUNTEER:

  • Bay Area Sea Kayakers -  Provide on water instruction and curriculum support for numerous Stroke Clinics teaching things like torso rotation and paddle finesse in a variety of applications, Rescue Clinics teaching a wide variety of techniques, Navigation workshops, Lead organizer and designer of the curriculum for the surf zone portion of the annual club Skills Clinic, Designed a lead a Kids Paddling Clinic
  • Sierra Club in Florida- I lead numerous 2 - 3 day kayak camping trips in places like Everglades National Park / Ten Thousand Islands, Merrit Island National Wildlife Refuge / Cape Canaveral, various meandering Florida rivers and more. (I also lead caving, hiking and cycling trips for Sierra Club)
  • Adaptive Paddling: I've worked or volunteered with a few organizations (Shared Adventures, Environmental Traveling Companions) taking folks paddling with various handicaps including blindness, para and quadriplegia, mental or emotional limitations and more.

 

MARINE ECOLOGY / NATURAL HISTORY:

  • Fitzgerald Marine Reserve - naturalist - I lead school groups on trips through the tidepools exploring the  diversity there as well as roving to answers questions from the general public when not leading a tour
  • Marine Mammal Center - pinniped rescue and public education
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium - sea otter rehabilitation - two years working with sick or injured otters (including abandoned pups) that we rehabilitated and rereleased
  • California  Academy of Sciences - tidepool program - monitoring of the intertidal area and answering questions at the academy touch tank
  • Wildcare - song bird rescue - caring for sick and injured song birds to be rereleased
  • Terwiliger Nature Guides - taking inner city school kids on hikes at various state and county parks to let them experience nature immersion and connection
  • Several years teaching with Roger Schumann on the Prescott course in California
  • Various college courses on ecology, ornithology, marine biology and extensive personal study and small courses / workshops on various aspects of natural history

 

PERSONAL EXPEDITIONS:

  • 2.5 weeks paddling down the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula starting in San Diego
  • 3 months solo on the Inside Passage Skagway, Alaska to Prince Rupert, Canada
  • Paddling the fjords of Northwestern Iceland
  • Kayak surfing in Bocas del Toro Islands, Panama
  • Lost Coast, Northern California, and various other personal journeys on the sea or rivers in various locals around the U.S.

 

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT / LEADERSHIP / EMPOWERMENT:

  • A series of Stanford courses on achieving and promoting Happiness
  • Mindful Meditation workshops through Stanford Buddhist centers.
  • Interchange -https://www.interchangecounseling.com - a year long coaching / counseling program where we work on our own personal struggles as well as learning how to counsel others on theirs
  • Palo Alto School of Hypnotherapy - empowering others through hypnotherapy
  • Improv Classes - communication skills
  • Workshops with the Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education - learning different skills on nature awareness and how to impart that knowledge in a variety of ways
  • Tracking Workshops - teaching awareness and connection to and with the world around us
  • Shinrin-Yoku - the Japanese practice of Forest Bathing or immersing oneself in nature. Numerous studies in Japan and around the world showing the effects of the practice of nature connection on physical and mental health.

 

CURRENT CERTIFICATIONS:

  • Level 5 ACA Coastal Kayak Instructor
  • RN, ACLS, PALS, BLS
  • WALS - Wilderness Advanced Life Support
  • Extensive training in the BCU personal skills and instructor systems and ACA whitewater instructor training

 

FORMER CERTIFICATIONS INCLUDE:

  • National Association of Search and Rescue
  • Paramedic
  • EMT
  • Lifeguard
  • Ropes Instructor at a rock climbing gym
  • Various medical instructor certifications including CPR, First Aid, Wilderness First Aid, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Trauma and more