I’m a certified peer supporter, and I’ve walked through loss, addiction, and starting over myself, so I’ll never pretend to hand you a map through your storm. What I can do is sit beside you, hear you completely, and help you find your footing again. Feeling stuck is lonely, but you’re part of the herd now, so let’s heal together.
You start by being heard. No judgment, no fixing, just someone who sees you completely.
You are the expert on your own life. Together we put the choices back in your hands.
Healing is not a straight line. We notice and honor every step up out of stuck.
When the storm clears, you choose where to go next. I help you walk it.
The teaching behind the name
When a storm rolls in, most animals run from it. The buffalo turns and charges straight into it, because moving through the storm is faster than trying to outrun something that covers the whole sky. This is Tatanka wisdom, a living teaching of the Lakota Dakota Nakota Nation. It comes from them, not from me.
I was living this long before I knew its name. As a veteran and peer supporter in long-term recovery, I charged through my own storms, then turned back to walk beside others in theirs. When I asked permission to carry this teaching, Ambassador Bunny Sings Wolf Engberg told me it had walked toward me.
As Bunny Sings Wolf shared with me, the buffalo carries its medicine in its own body: a great head that burrows through deep snow, a strong hump of muscle that carries it through, and small, sure-footed hooves that plant seeds wherever they step so new growth can rise in spring.
That is why I named this work HERD. No one charges the storm alone, and that is the whole point of a herd. Heart, Empowerment, Rising, and Direction are the four words I walk by. You will be heard here, and you will never charge alone. Horns forward.
Tatanka wisdom shared with gratitude by the Lakota Dakota Nakota Nation.
Join the global circle at IndigenousHealing.io.
Join the Herd
I offer individualized peer support and coaching for anyone who feels stuck, whether you’re healing from loss, rebuilding after a hard season, or in recovery.
Sessions are offered on a sliding scale, because cost should never be the reason someone faces a storm alone.
Please say hello if you would like to join the herd. I look forward to meeting you.
Peer Supporter & Fellow Storm Walker
Hi, I’m Tu. I’m a certified peer supporter, an Air Force veteran, and someone who has been stuck more times than I can count. I’m also the guy who gets way too excited about a good sunset, a weird piece of driftwood, or a pot of something simmering on the stove. I started herd. because nobody should have to face the hard stuff alone.
Before all this, I served in the Air Force, and I’ve worked about as many jobs as a person can: deckhand on a commercial salmon boat, farmhand, line cook. More recently I’ve spent a lot of time in shelters and out on the street, serving meals and sitting with people on some of their hardest days. Those rooms taught me that most folks are doing the best they can with what they were handed.
I’m in long-term recovery from substances and alcohol, and I got here by finally feeling what I’d spent years numbing. It wasn’t pretty, and it’s the best decision I ever made. That’s why I do this as a peer and not as an expert. I don’t have a map through your storm, but I’ve walked through mine, I know what the feelings feel like, and I’ll walk beside you through all of yours.
“You are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to do with what happened to you.”
When I’m not doing this, you’ll probably find me under the stars with a camera, beachcombing, or helping a Dungeness crab get back into the water. I’ve been known to pick up a moon jellyfish (or two), and I make a seriously good sous vide New York strip. I also love tinkering with technology, and I’ll talk your ear off about it if you let me. Come say hello. Let’s heal together.
Here you will find nuggets of wisdom, and resources as I find them:
I stumbled upon this blog/podcast from Britsh Author, Dating Coach, and YouTuber Matthew Hussey. It changed my life in so many ways.