Hi, I’m Gary

I’m the founder of 2nd Ascent Coaching — a space for people who are tired of performing their worth, tired of self-help that bypasses real pain, and ready to return to something more honest.

I don’t coach people to fix themselves.

I walk with people as they remember who they are beneath the noise — beneath the perfectionism, the shame, and the pressure to keep holding it all together.

This isn’t about chasing a shinier version of yourself.
It’s about human reclamation.

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My story started 18 years ago...

My story started 18 years ago. I walked out of a psychiatric facility after a long, painful battle with alcohol. I was 38, newly sober, and felt like I was standing on shaky ground with nothing solid beneath me.

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While I remained sober, I struggled for 15 years to find my true path. Then I wrote the book I wish they had handed me when I left the psych ward: Rewilding Your Soul: A Rebel’s Guide to Being Human in a World Gone Wild. That book changed everything — for me, and for the people who’ve since read it.

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Along the way, I trained as both a Trauma Recovery Coach and a Deep Health Coach.

That training allows me to:

• Work at the root causes beneath surface-level habits and coping.

• Understand how the nervous system responds to stress and change.

• See the bigger picture of well-being — physical, emotional, relational, environmental, and spiritual.

• Hold a grounded, safe space for honest conversations that lead to real, sustainable change.​

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So whether your story involves severe trauma or simply the quieter weight of pressure, burnout, or perfectionism — this work applies. It’s not just trauma recovery. It’s about reclaiming your full humanity.

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My work lives across four paths:

• Rewilding Your Soul – A deep journey of healing from disconnection through nature, story, and soul-aligned practice

• Heroic Kids – A family-based mentorship and storytelling experience that helps children grow into emotionally grounded, connected humans

• Leading Along the Edge – My work leaves people actually being leaders, not just knowing more about leadership. 

• Coaching & Courses – For anyone ready to stop circling their truth and start living inside it.​

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You’ll also find me on The Rewilding Your Soul Podcast and on Substack, where I share raw reflections on perfectionism, shame, the inner critic, and what it means to be human in a world gone wild.

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The 2nd Ascent School

The school I set out to build is already here: the 2nd Ascent School. It lives through the courses I create on LearnWorlds — each one designed to help people return to themselves, break cycles of disconnection, and reimagine what growth can look like. From Rewilding Your Soul to Heroic Kids to Leading Along the Edge, the 2nd Ascent School is where all of my work comes together. It’s not about formulas or quick fixes. It’s about building a community of learning that heals, and creating a living curriculum for what it means to be fully human.

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And a little about my life...

I live with Tess, the love of my life—my first love, in fact, reunited after 35 years apart. We’re building a small farm in Pennsylvania where we’ll host rewilding retreats and create a living expression of everything we teach: reconnection with animals, land, self, and each other.

 

​I play pickleball, walk in the woods, read things that challenge me, and spend every week learning from my 8-year-old Little through Big Brothers Big Sisters.

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This isn’t just my work—it’s my life.

I have a school that heals.
I help people return to themselves.
I am creating a world where we all remember:
We all belong.