More About Silas

I began my work as change maker back in the 1990’s, and a fiery one at that. It was supposed to be the ‘turn around decade’, when awareness around sustainability, the end of the cold war and emerging new technologies like the internet were supposed to launch humanity into a new golden era. The times seemed urgent. I gravitated to activism around old growth logging, food security and international development, working as a program lead and educator in a number of not for profit organizations

By the end of the decade the stress of full time advocacy, in combination with my own internal demons, started to take a toll on my health. I was good at ignoring the warning signs and soldered on, until I couldn’t. A traumatic injury to my right eye triggered an acute autoimmune condition that stopped me in my tracks.  The mysterious nature of this dis-ease defied allopathic treatment. To my great surprise I found myself mired in chronic inflammation of both eyes.

The sudden interruption of life forced me to turn the gaze inward and be more introspective. I discovered meditation and Buddhism, first through books then later studying with kind and wise teachers and mentors. From there it was a short leap to the holistic vision of Chinese Medicine. With my vision still impaired by inflammation, I began in earnest formal studies in acupuncture five days before the Twin Towers came down on 9/11. The world, at least for me, had irrevocably changed.

As a registered acupuncturist I followed my social impact instincts and partnered with a classmate to open a community acupuncture clinic on campus at a local university. It was here that I cut my teeth as a budding entrepreneur. I also volunteered with a street level detox clinic providing treatments for harm reduction and found my passion. This eventually blossomed into an opportunity to start a public funded Acu-detox program through the health authority and hire a team of acupuncturists. Over the years this clinic has served thousands of people at different stages of recovery.   

Working with clients with intractable conditions like chronic pain and addictions taught me a lot about how the unseen and unacknowledged parts of ourselves including trauma, haunt us and create tremendous friction in life. For this there is no magic pill fix, real change is always an inside job. At a certain point doing the necessary deep work becomes unavoidable. This is as true for larger systems and organizations as it is for individuals

I began to pursuit coaching initially as an adjunct service in my acupuncture practice because it was a powerful way to support motivated clients in the process of healing. There is nothing like an ambitious goal to call forth both hidden forms of resistance and the internal resources and courage needed to step boldly towards what we really want.

I sought training accreditation in health coaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and executive coaching certification at Royal Roads University. I am also a meditation instructor in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage. In 2020 I retired from acupuncture to start Awake In Relationship and support social impact leaders, entrepreneurs and creators to do the work they know is possible.