Director
Mark Olson, Ph.D., LMT has an M.A. in Education and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, specializing in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuropsychology and Neuroanatomy from the University of Illinois where he studied memory, attention, and eye movements. He is the owner and director of the Pacific Center for Awareness & Bodywork in Kaua`i, the former director of the Massage Therapy Program at Pioneer Pacific College in Oregon, and a former instructor of massage, anatomy, and neuroscience for numerous bodywork and yoga programs in Hawaii and the West Coast. He is also an aquatic therapist, lomilomi instructor, a published author (including recent articles on Pain and Trauma-informed Bodywork), and a NARM® Practitioner. He volunteers on the board of Kauai Path, at the Kauai Food Forest, and formerly on the board at Alaka`i O Kaua`i Charter School. In his classes, Mark integrates his knowledge of the affective neuroscience and somatic psychology with his desire for a more peaceful and compassionate world.
Faculty
Derek Gill, DO-MTP, Certified Advanced Rolfer®, LMT
Derek is a graduate of the Osteopathic College of Ontario, the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute®, and The Florida State University (B.S.). He is an active member of the International Association of Structural Integrators (IASI), and currently serves on the IASI Education Committee. He is also the founder of Global SI™, an IASI-approved SI school whose primary focus is to spread the work in developing countries. He has taught in India, The Philippines, and the US. In 2019, he graduated a group of 17 Physical Therapists who became the first-ever IASI-qualified Structural Integrators in India.
Prior to manual therapy, he was a Fortune 500 Corporate Consultant who specialized in Process Reengineering and Systems Integration. After receiving his first Structural Integration 10-Series in 2003, his life began to shift in dramatic ways. As part of his own healing journey he has taken deep dives into psychotherapy, yoga, Advaita Vedanta based Self-inquiry, indigenous medicine ceremonies, and various body centered healing and movement modalities. As a practitioner, he discovered that there were profound effects when manual therapy and inner Self-inquiry techniques were used together. He now enjoys training other practitioners to use this model and facilitate transformation with their hands, heart, and presence.
Brad Kammer, MFT, LPCC, SEP, NMP, is a somatic psychotherapist, consultant, educator, and college professor living in Northern California. Brad is on faculty as a psychology professor at Mendocino College and the graduate psychology program at Sonoma State University. He is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) and NeuroAffective Relational Model Practitioner (NMP), as well as consultant and teacher in both of these models for working with trauma. He has been involved in bringing Somatic Experiencing to various communities around the world, including survivors of Hurricane Katrina, mainland China, and a year working with refugees in Asia. Brad’s current passion is in bridging the fields of Somatic Psychology and Interpersonal Neurobiology, where he teaches internationally on the integration of working with shock and developmental trauma. Brad’s focus on working with developmental-attachment-relational trauma is informed by the years he worked in community mental health with at-risk youth and their families, working internationally with populations of transgenerational trauma, and in his private practice with individuals, couples, and groups. Brad is inspired by the spirit of human resiliency and views trauma healing as a vehicle for personal and social transformation. www.body-mindtherapy.com
After almost 20 years of study Michael Polon still has the same beginner’s excitement when it comes to exploring the art, science, theory and practice of Rolfing® Structural Integration. He began studying at The Rolf Institute in 1998 and began teaching in 2001. Through consistent curiosity and study from within and outside the field of Structural Integration, Michael is passionate about updating the understanding of how anatomy, physiology, movement, posture, pain, therapeutic alliance and healing all come together in our work.
I’ve taught anatomy, research literacy, and technique in Seattle and around the US for the last 12 years. I’ve served as a committee chair, trustee, and conference presenter with the Massage Therapy Foundation. I serve as clinical director for a busy medical massage clinic, and sometimes I publish articles on massage therapy and fascia research. When not moving in these capacities, I make music.
With a BA in Astronomy and Philosophy and an MA in Philosophy and Religion with a focus on Cosmology and Consciousness, Daniel Alexanyan brings an informed and well rounded perspective to the classroom. Having studied Rosen Method, Sports Lomi Lomi, Cranio Sacral and all that PCAB has to offer a couple times over, Daniel’s style is a holistic blend of slow deep bodywork informed mostly by structural integration and neuromuscular trigger point and a massive dollop of presence. For more information on Daniel please go to evolveawareness.massageplanet.com.
Eve Dion is a certified Structural Integration practitioner, a Hawaii-state licensed massage therapist, and a PCAB grad. She specializes in therapeutic bodywork that addresses the interconnectedness of the body as a whole and fluid entity, as well as the interconnectedness of the body-mind-spirit. Her passion for the bodywork she practices and teaches stems from her own personal transformations, those she witnesses in her clients, and her constant awe at the depth and intricacies of human embodiment.
Other loves include: being underwater, softness of the heart, surfing, buddha dharma, and silliness. Her greatest joy is the feeling of connectedness — to others, to nature, to self. She is quick to cry, quick to forgive, and hard-pressed to pass up an opportunity for a talking muffin joke.
Paul L. Linn MA, LMHC has been teaching and offering therapy to groups and individuals in numerous forms for 32 years. He attended graduate school at the California Institute of Integral Studies, after training in Gestalt and body centered psychotherapy. Paul has a long standing interest in dharma studies and an extensive training practice in the insight meditation tradition (Florida Vipassana website).
For the last 40 years he has been guiding meditation groups and residentials. The TsomT system developed as a dynamic synthesis of therapeutic and meditative methods. In combination, the streams that feed this synthesis emerge as an engaged, practical and immediate opportunity for relief from what can be ailing within the human/existential condition, while simultaneously inviting realization of the creative wonder that abides within all that is occuring.
Adam Persinger is a practitioner of Rolfing® Structural Integration, and a student of Vajrayana Buddhism, the Diamond Approach (an intensive somatic inquiry path), yoga, qigong and the gyrotonic method. Adam started his career as a licensed massage therapist in 2004 in Portland Oregon. Besides his love for meditation, movement, and somatic embodiment Adam writes and performs music as Body Holographic. All this informs his unique approach into embodied presence.
Lynn Ablondi, L.Ac., is an Acupuncturist certified Nationally and licensed in California and Hawaii. She is an herbalist using traditional Chinese herbal medicine. She has 30 years of Shiatsu experience which includes training, teaching, and writing massage curriculum for schools in the California Bay Area.
Education and Professional Service – Masters Degree, Five Branches University in Santa Cruz, CA, 1998. CA Licensed Acupuncturist. Nationally Certified Diplomate of Acupuncture (NCCAOM). Administrator and faculty member at Five Branches University. Dean of Education, faculty member and curriculum writer at Trinity college in San Jose, CA.
