Age: 55. Birthplace: Lander, WY. Profession: Holistic educator. Organization: Prime Wellness Institute. Significant other: Dianna Tenney. Languages spoken: English and Spanish.
Current project: The Prime Path to Wellness. Making our class and program available to anyone with an internet connection. What’s been your big (or biggest leap)? Closing our physical office. We are now 100% on the road, teaching our program across the US. Hobbies: Basketball, watching movies, playing games with my kids and babysitting my first grandbaby. Recent travel or adventure: My wife and I went and watched the Barcelona soccer team at Camp Nou in Spain.
Personality profile: Open, upbeat, love to laugh. What one word would your closest friend use to describe you? Funny. How do you define a perfect friendship? Trust and openness. How do you define an ideal business relationship? Having each other’s business as the priority. What is your greatest joy? Spending time with my family.
What was your first paying job? Stock boy at a local health food store. What was your favorite college course? Anatomy and Physiology. What book have you repeatedly read? The Body Keeps the Score, by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. What movie have you repeatedly watched? The Secret. What’s prominently featured on your home or office wall? A framed poster of the Hippocratic Oath and a vintage anatomical chart of the spine. Besides your parents, who has had the greatest influence on your life? Dr. David Palmer, “The Developer” of chiropractic. What personal circumstance has had the greatest influence on your life? My own battle with weight and chronic pain in my forties.
What is your big idea?
Bring personalized wellness coaching into every primary care practice.
What change are you working on to effect in your profession or field? Building systems to help retired health professionals become wellness coaches. What change would you like to see in the world? A shift from weight loss as punishment to weight release as healing. What message do you want to send out into the world? Your body is not broken. It’s doing its best with what it’s been given. Work with it, not against it. What widely held belief do you reject? That “calories in, calories out” is all that matters for weight loss. That belief is far too simplistic for a system as complex as the human body.
What title would you choose for the movie about your life? Adjusted for Life. What actor would you choose to play you in the movie about your life? Mark Ruffalo. He’s got the right balance of compassion and grit. Who would you like to spend an evening with, in heaven? Fred Rogers. I’d just love to sit on a bench with him and talk about kindness. As a kid, what did you first want to be when you grew up? A magician. After your loved ones, what object would you first save from your burning home? My leather-bound journal of patient stories and personal reflections. How would you choose to spend tomorrow, if you knew it was your last day on earth? In a quiet cabin by a lake with my wife and daughters. Good food, warm drinks, no phones, just stories, laughter and stillness. What advice would you give your younger self? Stop trying to be impressive. Just be useful.
Personal mission: To help people reclaim their health and identity through kindness, knowledge, and consistent action. Personal motto: Heal the root, not just the symptom. Favorite quote: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better” (Maya Angelou). Desired epitaph: He listened. He healed. He loved.
