I was recruited internationally to work at Fred Hutchinson and Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institutes; my thesis work was published in a peer-reviewed journal in my 20’s… but I was a nervous wreck.

I personally have a hard time trusting the benevolence of a facilitator who promises (or requires) calm, instead of scientific self-observation of first-hand experience. I find behavioral and imagination-based approaches upsetting. I had huge issues with both psychoanalysis and woo-woo stuff. Shit creek, shittier paddles.

But then…! I gladly left labwork behind forever when I learned a far more invigorating way to make discoveries and make a difference to humanity: detailed scientific inquiry into subjective experience!

Within weeks, this work had freed me from so much anxiety that people hardly recognized me. I felt like the best version of myself, capable of living my values like never before. 

To test my mettle and not just turn around to evangelize “this anti-therapy is the best thing since sliced bread” (even though it totally is), I instead purposefully took on far more challenging work and relationships: with confidence in who I truly am, I became free.

I only turned around and offered it to others 20 years later because the world needs more scientists with EQs that match our IQs!