As a young girl, I was quiet, artistic and most content when building or creating something. It was the feeling of joy that was so compelling, simply being absorbed in the moment, free to be myself without reserve. The sculpture and design projects grew in size as I grew older, with staff, budgets and deadlines. Though I considered myself very fortunate to make a living while making art, I often felt empty and longed for further alignment of purpose in my life. I wanted to make a hands-on difference in the lives of people in new and deeply meaningful ways – yet I had no idea what was in store for me when I decided to attend the More To Life Weekend in 1985.

This weekend was nothing less than pivotal. I witnessed people letting go of years of fear and anger. And as I began to drop my own layers of protection to reach out to others with more openness, the joy I knew as a child reemerged. I had come home. This was how I wanted to live, no matter what happened to or around me.

I could not know then that years later my world would turn upside down through the loss of our child. Everything I had learned about being open to whatever Life brings would be called into play. Thank goodness for the tools and people connected with this program; they have offered tremendous healing. Rather than living in devastation, I have miraculously found a deeper awe and appreciation for my life, and today, a life far richer than I thought possible.

Being a Senior Trainer has offered me the privilege of being present in a training when someone suddenly breaks through into a new way of being – alive, fresh, with an inner knowing of what is solid and true. Cherished moments, when we get that we are all students and teachers for each other. I envision a world in which moments like these, when we awaken to our highest and most noble selves, are not only happening in training rooms, but occurring frequently in boardrooms, government meetings, schools and homes everywhere. In reality this vision is already in motion around our planet. We are each a part of this shift in consciousness, the ripple effect of people in all sorts of places calling for a more connected and loving world.

Background
Elaine Alpert is a More To Life Senior Trainer and has been an active student and leader in the program since 1985. She was Atlanta More To Life Center Director in the 1990s. Originally educated in Fine Arts & Textile Design in New York City, Elaine founded a women's wear manufacturing company, selling nationwide to department stores and boutiques under her own label. As an artist and designer, Elaine is commissioned to create large-scale sculpture and paintings for corporations, public spaces and private collections. These days she loves to play in the dirt by sculpting in clay. Elaine is currently a Holistic Health Practitioner working with adults and children. Her intention is to support the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of her clients, from young to old, through a variety of rapid-change modalities and nutritional programs. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband of 21 years, Tom, and their teenage son. Recently, in her son’s middle school, Elaine co-led the creation of the Community Service Curriculum and is a coordinator of the Social Inclusion Program for students in Kindergarten through eighth grade.

Elaine is a confessed bookaholic with a penchant for research, particularly in the field of health and healing. She loves walking her dog, art and theatre, hiking, river rafting, adventure travel and spending time with girlfriends. All that said, Elaine will tell you that learning more and more about living life as authentically as possible is her deepest passion. She is a co-writer of ‘Being Seen’, a blog focused on the value of support relationships.

Pascale Ascher qualified as a psychotherapist at the Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy in London, and has been a More To Life Senior Trainer since 1996. Pascale acted as our UK Program Director for 10 years and she is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the More To Life Foundation, with special responsibility for strategic planning. She also works as a coach and Trainer for InterAction Training Consultants, focusing on leadership development for a range of international companies. Pascale lives in London and in her spare time enjoys art, running and spending time with her daughter and her wider family.

I think of being a trainer in the More To Life program as being both a privilege and a gift. I first took the More To Life weekend in 1981, the third training ever held. I had chosen to take it at that time because resentment and negative beliefs were causing problems and distance in my relationships, including with my mother and my husband. The work I did allowed me to let go of all of this, and my relationship with my mother and husband transformed.

I am a couple and family therapist by profession, and at that time I was in private practice. The experience of this course was especially exciting because I saw people having breakthroughs in three days that would often have taken months of work in my office. It has been a privilege to work with people in this way, and see their lives being transformed as a result. I see people’s faces shining by the end of the Weekend and, because they go away with tools to continue the work, I know that they can recreate those breakthroughs whenever they want to. I feel proud to be trusted by them and privileged to be working with people who want the best for themselves and have the courage to go for it. I have grown tremendously myself from doing this work over time. I am no longer a person who tends to hang back from challenges, but risk showing both my strength and my vulnerability. Today I play full out without pretense.

My husband died last year and I miss him terribly. But I am grateful to have these tools so that I could love him unambivalently and help to create the closeness that we both desired.

Toward the end of each course I have witnessed a palpable connectedness and a sense of spirit in the room. To me it expresses the kind of community that is greater than any one of us alone, and it is my hope that this work will spread that spirit among people in a way that helps to bring peace and justice to our world.

Background
Anne Brown PhD is a Senior Trainer and has been involved in More To Life course work since its inception. She is a former Director of the Institute for Human and Family Relations in Los Gatos, California and is a university lecturer in Family Therapy. She has two Master’s Degrees (in US History and Social Work) and a PhD in Marital and Family Therapy. Anne has published papers in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry (1986) and in the journal Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Development (1991). She has worked as a therapist in private practice for the past 30 years, counseling individuals, couples, families and groups. Anne was married to the late Dr. K. Bradford Brown, co-founder of the More To Life program. She lives in Northern California.

As soon as I took my More To Life Weekend training in November 1986, I knew that I wanted to be involved with this programme. Soon after, I went to work with Pascale Ascher in the London Centre, took several more courses, and trained as a Mentor of The Power of Self Esteem and The Power of Purpose.

I was just 21 and still had my career to forge, but although my participation with the programme waxed and waned, it was always a part of my life and its practices enabled me to align myself with some big goals and dreams in my career. Later in life, when tragedy hit due to the untimely death of my husband, the tools of this programme got me through a period that, at times, I really did not think I’d be able to get through.

Using the practices and experiencing the impact they have had, both on me and those around me, has proved to be a way of being with life on life’s terms, of dealing with what life deals out, and of helping me to achieve my biggest goals, dreams and visions.

As a young child when people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, the answer was always to help people. I see it as a natural expression and fulfillment of who I am in this world – to train this programme, and help others achieve their best and bring themselves to life moment by moment. It seems a natural path for me to walk, and it is a privilege to be able to work with and love people to the depth we do.

Background
Degree in Social Anthropology and Religious Studies, University of London. Took More To Life Weekend in November 1986. Became a Mastery Teacher, Mentor, and then an Associate Trainer with More To Life. Was a television and radio broadcaster for the BBC in England for 10 years. Set up OneVision Productions, making short programmes for television. Established Write To Life, a creative writing forum which I co-led with novelist Nigel Watts, who was my late husband. Have been an Associate Trainer and Executive Coach with InterAction UK for the past 10 years. Currently writing and dividing my time between UK, USA and Canada.

Sophie Sabbage has degrees in English Literature and Psychology and a Change Management Diploma. She is a Senior Trainer with More To Life, as well as a Co-Founder and Director of InterAction, a training consultancy which she helped to establish with Brad Brown and Janet Jones in 1996. InterAction applies More To Life principles to the corporate sector, and the company won the prestigious Guardian MCA Gold Award for Change Management in 2004. Sophie is also a writer of fiction, some of which has been broadcast on BBC Radio, and she is passionate about literature and poetry.

I decided to become a MTL trainer because I had been a prisoner of my survival mind and I was shown the path to freedom. Once free, it mattered to me that others be free to rekindle their dreams and ignite the torch of connection and for-ness for all. To be free to embrace reality as it is, not as I insist it should be. And the more I shared this with others in my life, from the grocery store checkout clerk to a large training room full of people, the deeper my faith, the broader my vision and the greater my self-acceptance became.

Before this adventure began in July 1984, it was as if I had been dwelling in a dimly lit room with lightning flashes awakening me just enough to keep my hopes alive. Somewhere deep inside of me I trusted, in retrospect, that who I had been was merely a glimpse of what was available to me and to us all. Then I met my models for living, Dr. Brad Brown and Ann McMaster, both with feet of clay that they owned just as much as their powerful wings of transformation.

They became my mentors, my friends and my pathmates. They inspired me until I could let life directly infuse my soul with all its love and pit-bull course corrections and could fully partner with them with my unique part. Each time I train or coach, I am present to the fact that I am a spiritual being having a human experience, faithful to life as it is now, and here’s another now, and...

Background
William is an Associate Trainer and has been involved with More To Life course work for over 20 years, having helped to establish our London Center in 1984/1985. He has degrees in science and psychology, and was the founder of the Meta Institute for motivational psychology in California, where he pioneered and developed in-depth techniques for performance coaching. He currently works as a partner, business coach and trainer for TriVergent International, which takes the More To Life principles into businesses and organizations. William lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and life partner, Adriana, who is from Mexico City. His hobbies include singing and playing the guitar, a remnant from his professional past as a stage performer.

Through a series of serendipitous circumstances, I stumbled upon the More To Life course while I was living in Dallas, Texas in 1984. My experience of the course was profoundly moving and applicable to almost everything in my life where I wanted to make changes but hadn’t really known how. I knew soon thereafter that I wanted to become a trainer of this powerful and practical work. I was working as a geologist at the time and enjoyed the analysis and detailed subsurface investigation. But as a dear friend of mine pointed out, I was now called to help others with a different kind of ‘subsurface investigation.’ What followed was a five-year, intensive journey to become a trainer while still holding executive positions in the business world: parallel careers, as it were. In 2001, I joined the administrative team in Knoxville as our Gifts and Grants Director, soon moving to the Operations Director role and now serving as the Executive Director. Serving in this way is truly an honor and privilege. This role, combined with my work as a Senior Trainer, fulfills – in ways I could hardly imagine – my deepest longings to stand alongside others, to make a real difference with my life, and to respond creatively to what Life offers me.

Simply put, my passion about passing on this work has to do with the future of our children. I want my children, your children, all of our children to have their best shot at loving and being loved. It all comes down to that for me.

Recently, I was a proud parent at my older son’s 6th-grade choir concert. Watching those adolescents – eighty of them - fresh-faced, maturing yet awkward, moved me to tears. As they sang a particularly poignant song, Hope Is a Hidden Star, I thought to myself - I am so blessed to know about genuine hope and to have the ability to help others discover and rediscover their deepest life purposes so that our world benefits from the best we each have to offer. I believe hope was not meant to be hidden but, as the song continues, to shine down upon us all.

Background
Peggy Jarrett holds a Bachelor of Science degree in English and Speech Education and did post-graduate work in Business Administration and Geology. As environmental manager for a large consulting firm, she was responsible for the assessment and cleanup of contaminated properties, as well as the supervision of environmental scientists and engineers. Peggy has been a More To Life student since 1984 and served as Center Manager in San Jose, California and Houston, Texas. She is a Senior Trainer and Executive Director at our Administrative Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Peggy lives in Knoxville, where her primary focus at home is her two sons, Caleb and Cameron. She also enjoys gardening, hiking, traveling, and reading.

I am a Trainer for this program because it is the best way for me to give back for all I have been given. My life has been transformed significantly since I took my original Weekend back in 1982. I am proud of the man, the husband, the father and now the grandfather I have become by continuing my own learning as well as facilitating courses worldwide. When I experience the personal and group breakthroughs of so many from all over the world, I am re-inspired, energized and touched to my core.

I have always been a student of life and have gained knowledge and understanding from many sources. But I must say, I have not seen or experienced any other program that goes so deep and helps deliver people to their best selves so consistently, time and again. The practices of the program enhance our abilities to partner with life no matter what is happening and empower us to create the lives we truly want. I am honored to be a part of such a valuable effort.

Background
I have been a student of our program since 1982, and am now a personal coach and More To Life Mentor, as well as a Senior Trainer. My work has included facilitating More To Life courses in the federal prison system. I was Associate Professor of Music at Sonoma State University for 23 years, and continue to run my own sound studio, The Banquet Studios, where I produce music albums, books on tape, sound-tracks and commercials. I have been nominated for two Grammy awards. I am happily married to my best friend, Lisa, and we have recently become grandparents. I enjoy road biking, racquetball, bodysurfing, scuba diving and have participated in three triathlons. Lisa and I are proud owners of a tandem bicycle which we enjoy riding through the vineyards of Northern California.

Two words sum up my motivation: Freedom and Love. As a German woman born in 1956, it became very clear to me as I grew up that our past influences our future. Even though the war was over and my family and people in my country were re-building their lives, there was a veil of guilt, of silence, of secrets that contaminated our freedom to be like everyone else.

I realised that freedom was not just an external experience, but an internal one, first of all. No matter how free I was, how free my generation was, with our fresh start, in my mind and in the minds of many other people in other countries I encountered, the Germans were ‘guilty’ and had to prove that they were now ‘good’ people and trustworthy with human lives.

I became a nurse and a counsellor because I wanted to literally heal wounds. It was indeed a vocation, but I was also driven by guilt and fear, which I discovered when I took the More To Life Weekend which changed my life and my path forever. I have liberated myself and helped thousands of people to liberate themselves since 1987. It is a liberation that is not dependant on the outer circumstances of anyone’s life, but is a profound shift in perception and state of being, no matter what situation we are facing.

The second word that sums up what motivates me is Love. As a nurse I witnessed life and death, and everything in between, as a daily experience. I realised that sometimes there is nothing left to do, and at that point one’s state of being comes into play at it's most profound depth. Loving was often the most real and most significant contribution I or the families of the patients could bring. To love it all, to love the human being unconditionally. TO LOVE.

It includes the tough love that is found in truth-telling, the love that frees us up to forgive and to move on, as well as gives the courage to face the uncertainties of the future. So I do this work because I am motivated by a vision of our world, where we pull together as a people to assist nature in sustaining the planet and all that exists on it, especially the diversity of human beings and human life. I believe that freedom and love are our basic human rights and will live my life to restore them when they are lost and enhance them when they are present.

Background
Briggy Kiddle is a qualified nurse and a counselor specializing in learning disabilities and terminal illness. She teaches counseling skills at college level and has been a Senior Trainer since 1998. As a native German speaker, she translated our short courses into German, led our first training for Mentors in Germany and, in 2008, led the first Germany More To Life weekends in German. She has been a Field Director for our program in South Africa and the US, and now serves as Advanced Course Director. Briggy is also a 1st Dan Kung Fu Instructor who taught her own classes for 18 years. She lives in the north of England and has four grown-up children. Her hobbies include yoga, walking and horse-riding.

Straight after experiencing the basic course in June 1996, I knew that I wanted to become a Trainer in the More To Life program. The rich experience of being empowered by practical, real-life skills in shifting away from separation to connection blew me away.

At the time, I was new in a ministry that worked with supporting sex workers to step out of the sex industry and find sustainable alternatives to selling sex for an income, using spirituality as a resource for encouragement and hope.

The work was very challenging and without big results, and I did not notice that I took it on myself to prove that God loved all and that there is hope. The MTL courses helped me to shift away from these huge demands I was putting on myself, find a way to stop trying to prove something and really connect with my own humanity and that of others in each connection I made. I got to experience that working from a connecting space made all the difference. Currently I am full-time involved in a ministry called Inclusive & Affirming Ministries (IAM) that works with faith communities in finding a way to be with the diversity around sexual orientation that brings people together and stops the fear and separation.

I also found a way to deal with the resentments I was carrying towards my faith community and culture in the part they played in designing and implementing the regime of apartheid. The relief I had in finding a way to not carry ill-will inside of me, but rather using my energy to work towards healing and reconciliation in South Africa, is beyond words. Since then, being a Trainer in the More To Life program in South Africa has given me ample opportunities to share and pass these life skills on and encourage fellow South Africans to use them towards healing and reconciliation in this beautiful country of ours.

Background
Judith Kotzé has qualified as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, with a Master’s degree in Theology from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her thesis focused on the development of a dialogue model to stimulate discussion around sexual orientation within faith communities. Since 2000 she has worked with Inclusive & Affirming Ministries (IAM) to engage mainline church denominations in dialogue around the issue of sexual orientation, and empower and support people to start integrating their spirituality with their sexuality. Judith has been a student of our programs since 1996 and became our first South African Senior Trainer in 2002. She lives with her partner near Cape Town, loves South Africa dearly, and enjoys creating braais (barbecues) at home.

When I was 16, I used to wonder why I was born, what my mission in life was. I was clueless for the next 12 years. Then my husband and I became legal guardians for a 14-year-old girl, and we went to counseling to integrate her as consciously as possible into our family. That clinched it for me. I wanted to facilitate the restoring of people and systems to wholeness.

Then in May, 1982, I went to California with 3 other psychotherapists. We went to satisfy the Continuing Education Units required for our licenses, and to take advantage of the Training being in the Bay Area – we went to play. I had no idea I would gain so much from one weekend. At the time, I was a very successful therapist, working with individuals, couples and groups. The More To Life Weekend showed me how to make more of a difference by educating a roomful of people how to effect their own transformation. The teaching is experiential, so they get the learnings for themselves. It’s exciting and inspiring to be a part of their change process. I also am changed in that process, becoming more of who I am when I am at my best, as they become more of who they are. As we become more of the best in us, so do we affect the people around us. And even more exciting, as we all evolve, so we add to the conscious evolution of humankind – in specific and in general.

Looking back on my life - as the eldest of 8 children, a student tutor, a volunteer in a terminal cancer ward, a mother, a psychotherapist, a Senior Trainer, a business consultant – the pattern emerges clearly. I love what I do. In my soul, I am an artist, and my medium is the human spirit. The More To Life program offers me the most profound and effective way to ply my artistry – whether it’s in a public forum or in a business setting. It works.

Background
Ann McMaster has a degree in Social Work and Psychology, a Master’s Degree in Behavioral Science, and is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has practiced as a psychotherapist since 1978. Currently she is a partner in InterAction US TriVergent International, teaching the principles and tools skills of More To Life in the business sector. She has been a Senior Trainer since 1985, working with groups in the US, England, Scotland, New Zealand and South Africa, where she lived for two years. She has also done extensive training for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Ann enjoys white-water rafting, canoeing and camping, and is a mother and grandmother.

When a friend recommended the More To Life weekend to me, I had been working for an international financial consulting company for about 8 years. At 29 I felt dissatisfied with my career and my life in general but uncertain about what I wanted to do with my life.

After the Weekend I was amazed and excited about seeing that I was creating the uncertainty because of what I was believing and demanding of myself, creating conflicting thoughts that went unchecked. I was blown away by the practical tools that helped me not only find these beliefs and demands but find the truth amidst all this and discern what it was that I really wanted to do. A multitude of possibilities began to open up. As I continued to apply the tools in the follow-up support classes, I found a new trust in myself and my abilities that led me, six months after the course, to resign from my job and start a financial consulting company.

I now have connected with and follow a lifelong passion for personal and collective growth and transformation. I have found the tools taught by the More To Life programme simple, dynamic, widely applicable and depth-chargers! I have immense gratitude for what I have learnt and how it helps me daily find and live my passion and express it in a way that fits for me, especially when challenging things happen in my life. I am humbled to now, as a Trainer, pass these tools on to others.

Background
Joanne Marx qualified as a Capital Markets specialist trading in bonds and currency before starting a financial consulting business. She is an Associate Trainer with More To Life and has been a student of our courses since 1999. Joanne was a Field Programme Director coordinating our course work in three South African cities and is a Mentor teaching courses to individuals, in schools and in business. Her core business now includes life and personal coaching, as well as diagnostic, change management and training work with corporates, NGOs, government and other organisations. Joanne is proud to be South African and is passionately committed to the process of social transformation in her country. In her spare time, Joanne enjoys reading, gym, squash, walking, entertaining friends and recently learnt how to alpine ski.

I grew up in a small farming community in West Texas in the 1950s and 1960s. Our family, which included my maternal and paternal grandparents, parents, two older sisters and I were integral members of Hamlin’s First Baptist Church. From this experience in the church, I grew to believe that I was called to serve others, and I committed my life to this intention. During college, however, I lost my vision, becoming increasingly apathetic and cynical. In truth, I lacked the confidence that my life mattered.

When I participated in a More To Life Weekend in 1985 in Austin, Texas, the calling I felt as a young girl reawakened. While before I thought myself inadequate, I now saw possibilities and I began to take risks, two of which changed my life. I enrolled into Montana State University’s counseling program, and my husband and I invited our friends and acquaintances to participate in a More To Life Weekend, the first of many trainings in Bozeman, Montana. I subsequently graduated with a Master’s Degree in Counseling, opened a counseling practice, and voluntarily supported the production of the More To Life program in Bozeman. Out of these choices came many opportunities to serve others and grow myself.

In 1996 I made another important decision: to become a More To Life Trainer. As Trainers, we all facilitate people to become more authentic, loving, and human, and empower them to make their unique contributions. When I witness people released from their accusations, demands, fears and resentments and freed to be themselves, I am awed. It is as though a flower were unfolding or a life being birthed. I am giving to others and to Life itself. And it is all giving back to me.

This program holds countless stories about human resilience, courage and personal responsibility, and serving as a Senior Trainer is both an honor and a transformative experience. It is more than I could have hoped for, dreamed of or imagined, even as a child who heard a calling to serve.

Background
Jan Matney is a Senior Trainer and works with More To Life centers as part of our support team. She is a licensed clinical professional counselor with a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling, and was co-founder of Aspen Counseling Services in Bozeman, Montana where she practiced as a therapist for fourteen years. Jan enjoys the creative arts, having received her first degree in music. She and her husband, Claud, have three children together. They brought More To Life course work to Bozeman, Montana in 1987, and Jan was centrally involved in the growth and development of programs there. They now split their time between Austin and Bozeman, and also enjoy traveling abroad.

When I participated in the More To Life Weekend training in 1991, I knew then that I wanted to become a trainer. I’ve been fortunate to have had many, many people in my life who’ve contributed to me in different ways, and in becoming a trainer, it was a way for me to contribute to others’ lives. The way I see myself doing that is to be ‘for’ others as best I can with the aim that they reach for the best inside of themselves and fulfil the dreams and aspirations that they have for their lives.

My father, after taking the MTL Weekend in 1993, said to me “Thanks, son. I’ve turned my life around.” Here was my Dad, in his early 60s, having struggled with alcoholism for the greater part of his life, beginning to recreate a life for himself. He went back to college, got his own flat and could see a way of life that had significant meaning for him. It’s this ‘turning around’ that so excites me, not only in others, but in myself as well. Every time I train, or participate on one of the courses, I always ‘get’ more than I ‘give’. I never set out to do this; however, it inevitably emerges this way. I learn more about my own thinking, my own behaviours and the effect of both on myself and others. With these insights, I’m able to change how I relate to myself, others, and life. It’s this growth that has me coming back for more and more, as well as the absolute joy of hearing from others as to what they’ve realised and how they’re doing things differently in their lives and experiencing new ways of being.

Background
Guy Meyer is the founder and managing director of an award-winning film marketing agency and is an Associate Trainer with More To Life. He teaches our practice courses and coaches continuing students in London, and is a Power of Self Esteem Mentor. He was also a long-term member of the London Centre Steering Group. Originally born in Cape Town, South Africa, he left in 1979 because his values and vision for humanity were fundamentally different to those who led his country during the apartheid years. Guy now lives in Lewes and is a dedicated father to his two teenage daughters, Naomi and Freya. He loves the outdoors and is a keen swimmer, kayaker, biker and hiker!

I’ve known from the time I was quite young that I wanted to contribute to the world in some big way. My childhood dreams and fantasies were all about helping others, helping the world, and having great adventures while I was doing it. I suspect that was what inspired me to become a nurse in my first career and, later, to go back to university for advanced degrees and a second career in environmental research. I’ve always had a big world view and a sense that in some way what happens to each of us impacts all of us. But I never fully had the sense that what I was doing in either my nursing work or later environmental work was impacting the world in a way that was deeply satisfying.

In 1996, I was introduced to the More To Life Weekend by one of my colleagues at the research laboratory where I was working. What I experienced that weekend profoundly changed the course of my life. I found a way to lay down resentments and self-limiting beliefs that had dogged me for years and, in doing so, freed up my energy, creativity, and boldness. I had no idea where this turn of events would take me, but it became clear to me soon after doing the Weekend that I wanted to be a part of offering this transformational experience to others.

I have been involved with this life-changing programme ever since, and have had the privilege of delivering trainings in many parts of the world. When I am involved in this work I am fulfilling that calling in me to contribute to the world in a way that is deeply satisfying and humbling - helping others to wake up to their own creativity, break through their own self-limiting beliefs, and take ownership of their own responsibilities as stewards of this precious planet. I get to have more of me in the process of challenging others to have more of themselves. And in the midst of this, I get to take part in one of the greatest adventures of all - liberation of the human spirit.

Background
Gerry Moline has a doctorate in Geohydrology and a Master’s Degree in Geophysics, and for 10 years was involved in environmental research. She has also worked in the fields of psychiatric nursing and substance abuse counseling, and provided consultancy assessment and change management training for businesses. Gerry is a Senior Trainer with the More To Life program and has been actively involved with the program since 1996, participating in leadership roles for the More To Life Foundation in Knoxville, Tennessee, and coaching leaders of our centers in London and Scotland. Gerry lives in London and also works as a consultant for InterAction Training Consultants, which applies More To Life principles and practices for corporate clients.

Wilson is the Chief Executive of a group of eight colleges of education in South Africa. He has been involved with the development of integrated strategies for education and training at national, provincial and local levels for many years, and has been a college head in KwaZulu-Natal since 1995. He is a More To Life Associate Trainer and teaches our primary courses in tandem with his own work. Wilson is a former youth activist and is committed to training and educational development as a way of encouraging socio-economic growth in South Africa. He is married with three children, and has a black belt in karate.

As a teacher and a school counselor, I was very intent on helping children and their families create the best for themselves. I learned how to work with angry kids who were seen as a problem in the school system. What I learned was that when I listened to them fully, their anger would subside, even when I later pointed out the mistakes they were making and how it was affecting them. Some of them lived in difficult, violent situations, yet once they were heard and understood, there was a shift in them. And, listening to the parents helped as well. It was a slow process, yet I could see the results.

When I took the More To Life course, I was amazed at how quickly we all could see how we created our difficulties, and how we could use the tools we were given to shift our lives. Within two months of having taken that course I realized that I could have more of an impact as a Trainer and that I was willing to step forward and discover what was possible. It worked for me and for many others. I am grateful to have been gifted with this program.

Background
Sue Oldham is a Senior Trainer with More To Life and has been working closely with its founders since its early days. She leads seminars, trains new Trainers, and was for eight years CEO of the More To Life Foundation. She also teaches our short courses, has held workshops on child abuse for public school teachers, and was a presenter at the California State Counselors Conference. Sue has a background in education, working as a teacher and a guidance counselor specializing in the problems of teenagers and their parents. She is also a pioneering swimmer who won the US National Synchronized Swimming Championships ten times, was inducted into the Helms Hall of Fame, and later taught the sport internationally. She is the mother of a son and twin daughters and has eight grandchildren.

When I was a young man I decided that I wanted to be a part of supporting human beings to heal themselves of the unnecessary pain that can accompany the natural course of living, and in doing so be able to live out their dreams, hopes and aspirations in life. I took the path of becoming a psychologist in order to do this. Although this was a valuable way to support people in their own growth and development, it was often limited in its scope to one-on-one interactions.

When I took the More To Life course in 1988, I knew immediately I had found an organization and a setting that would affect more people in profound ways. There was a set of tools that went very deep into the process of freeing people from the unnecessary chains and fears that held them back from charting a course in their life to fulfill their dreams, as well as helped people open to a deep level of spiritual awakening to find their way to contribute to the lives of others and to the evolution of humankind.

I am motivated as a Trainer by that desire that resides in each of us to contribute to our fellow human beings... to create a world in which our children and our children’s children will be able to thrive and grow into their best selves... and through which we can connect and honor each person’s journey toward their noblest and highest self.

Background
Richard Perry, PhD., is a Senior Trainer and a psychologist who worked in the public mental health system for many years. Since 1989 he has run his own private practice in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He has taught classes in psychology at the undergraduate and graduate level, served as a consultant to both private and government organizations, and currently acts as a Consulting Psychologist at his local Mental Health Center. Richard married his high-school sweetheart in 1976, and together they have three sons. He enjoys snow-skiing, golf, walking and running, and whatever activities he can engage in with his family.

I chose to become a More To Life Trainer as a form of accelerated learning. What I gained as a student from the practices of this programme seemed to be drawing me into a realm where sharing myself with others kept revealing more of what I needed to learn myself.

The training room offers an experience of mutual enlightenment that intensifies my ability to become more of who I want to be, even as I serve life’s mysterious agenda of evolution and growth.

I know of few other places, outside a theatre or a place of transcendent natural beauty, where a more intense encounter with the truth of things can be found.

For me, the journey of each course is a journey of self-discovery for all involved which evokes our common humanity, reaffirms our interdependence, and reminds me that I am blessed to be alive in this moment with a never-ending connection to infinite wisdom and infinite forgiveness. For me, this is the most fun you can have with all your clothes on.

It also allows me to connect with and be inspired by the everyday heroism of ordinary people’s lives. Together I see us as part of that ever-growing wave of creative energy that allows us to reclaim our social nature and grasp the levers of social change in a way that can challenge the ways of the world, without adding to its suffering.

Background
David Templer is a Senior Trainer who has been working with individuals and organizations through More To Life since 1984. He helped to establish our London Centre, was part of the More to Life Foundation Executive Team for ten years, and is a former member of the More To Life Foundation Board. David has a background in communications, and has read widely in philosophy and psychology. He gained a Masters Degree in English Literature from Cambridge University and has worked as a writer and an independent film maker. He has been an editor in the publishing industry and currently helps to run Lifetimes Press, which publishes books and other material presenting More To Life principles.

As a scientist in Cambridge, UK in the late 1980s, I was inspired by the promise of what could be possible for our world. I was a keen environmentalist and active campaigner. I wanted to increase awareness of our interconnectedness with the planet so we’d cease the activities of destruction, war and change our ways - but how to make a difference?

Then I took More To Life. I was fascinated right from the start. I had never seen anything like what happened in that room. People changed; I changed. Here was my answer. Here was a way to engage with individual change at a deep and lasting level. I wanted to be able to do what my Trainer, Ann McMaster, was doing in assisting people to shift their perception of the world and see things more clearly. Since moving to New Zealand in 1990, my vision of a world where we respect and honour each other and our Earth has remained vividly with me. Isolation, abuse, unhappy workplaces – all can be transformed. I know it because I have been a part of many such transformations.

I am a Trainer to enable me to be the most skilled I can be as I walk alongside others who are also seeking a more connected world. My vision is to enable healing of individuals, families and groups so we are all able to bring forward our unique gifts with more creativity, wisdom and love to live our lives with more passion, lightness, joy and love – more connectedness.

Background
Clare Vivian-Neal has a degree in Biological Science and careers as a bio-technologist and then heading a design team in the outdoor industry. She has studied Gestalt and Hakomi body-centred psychotherapy and other therapeutic methods, and has been teaching More To Life course work regularly in New Zealand and Australia since 1991. She organised the first More To Life courses held in New Zealand, and is a Senior Trainer and Business Director for the More To Life Foundation. Clare lives in Golden Bay, New Zealand with her husband, and loves the wildness of the South Island. She is interested in reducing her carbon footprint and living more sustainably. Clare enjoys hiking, sea-kayaking, gardening and adventures with her family and friends (and dog).

It is the mixture of being both challenged and rewarded at the same time. There is something about stretching to be all I can be at any moment, while training others to do the same, that is both exciting and satisfying. It is also unpredictable, the way life is itself, which requires me to be on my toes and living in the moment. Having said all of that, what got me interested in being a Trainer in the first place is still a strong motivating factor for continuing to train: It is the impact it has on people’s lives and therefore how people are in relationship to each other.

Having grown up in South Africa, where separation of one human being from another was written into the statute books, I had become despondent about my own ability to impact what I saw as this incredible injustice. Through becoming a Trainer, I saw a way for myself to impact directly and intimately in changing this dynamic, so that the possibility of people to connect as human beings became a reality. There are so many things that separate us, all over the world. Training people to connect means I too am required to look at what separates me from others as well as my more noble self, so that I too can connect more with others, the reality of life as it is, and also with myself and my deepest wants as a human being, and to go after realising these too.

Background
Brocas Walton has a degree in Architecture and spent the early part of his career in research and development work to establish land rights, housing, and public facilities for displaced communities in South Africa. He has published several papers about development and the environment. Brocas was instrumental in bringing More To Life courses to South Africa in the late 1980s, where he taught our short courses to people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. He is a Senior Trainer and served as Area Coordinator for South Africa. His many adventures have included piloting airplanes and sailing a catamaran across the Atlantic Ocean. As well as training for More To Life, Brocas trains in organisations. He lives with his wife and two young daughters in East Sussex.

I have long been fascinated with the possibility of human performance and human potential being released to its fullest expression through the simple act of awareness. This has to do with being awake, moment to moment, instead of asleep on our feet, a slave to our automatic thinking and its subtle but strong conditioning effect.

The capacity to lift performance to another level - at work, at home, at play - has captured my attention since childhood. My own desire for this development - and my interest in exploring this transformative effect in all parts of human life - has taken me on a varied and enriching professional journey that has included parish ministry, pastoral counseling, contemplative and meditative practices, human development training, management of an international organization, human potential research, and my current areas of focus: executive coaching, team-building, culture change in local and multi-national organizations, and the role of awareness in transforming athletic ability.

Along the way, I have learned the value of freely and openly sharing the insights, experiences, and explorations that advance our common understanding. I am who I am because of the people I’ve known and been known by. It was my friendship and collaboration with Dr. K. Bradford Brown that led to the launch of the human development program now known as More To Life.

Background
Roy Whitten, PhD., is the co-founder of More To Life together with Brad Brown. He trained as an educator, consultant and counselor and is an ordained minister of the Episcopal Church. Roy has been a long-term student of Eastern and Western spiritual practices, and his doctoral thesis at the California Institute of Integral Studies focused on the theme of mindful awareness in everyday life. Roy is a Senior Trainer and a member emeritus of the More To Life Foundation Board. As a consultant for InterAction UK, he also works as an executive coach with a number of international businesses, and he is a qualified mediator. Roy is author of Simply Being Happy and I Think My Mind Is Tricking Me, written with his son. He is also a dedicated cook who loves to read, write, and hike. Roy and his wife, Jeanne, have two children, Jessica and Joshua.