Chelsea Javier, actor, writer, and filmmaker, has always been a creative person and visual artist. But she was also risk averse. She stayed in jobs that were close to what she wanted rather than the real thing – until she did the Hoffman Process in May 2018.

In her early to mid-twenties, Chelsea went through what she calls a dark period.* During this time, she moved back to her family home and sought the help she needed. As she began to transition to a new life, in one of those ‘sliding door’ moments as she calls it, she met her now-husband, Paul. He had, just two days prior, completed the Hoffman Process.

Two years later, Chelsea did the Process. There’s a beautiful back-and-forth between Chelsea and Drew about the Process itself, and the experience of trusting yourself. As Chelsea shares, through her work at the Process, she discovered that there truly is no limit to how deeply you can feel, heal, and live. She knows how to handle rejection with strength and resiliency and she’s not afraid to reach for what she wants.

Chelsea is also a past Hoffman Mandala contest winner. The 2024 Mandala Contest is currently open until February, 29th. If you’re interested in submitting your art, check out the Mandala Contest theme, rules, and submission guidelines.

*Content warning, please use discretion:

In this episode, our guest speaks about her history of depression and periods of suicidal ideation. We understand that this sensitive topic may not be right for all listeners. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please reach out to a local mental health hotline or emergency services. Remember, you are not alone, and there is help available.

Chelsea Javier is an actor, writer, and filmmaker living in Los Angeles with her husband Paul Sprangers, their rescue bunnies Hammy and Yoshi, and their giant sulcata tortoise Lou. They co-run their production company American Lagomorph and released their first feature film, Smile or Hug, (starring Chelsea opposite Danny Trejo, directed by Paul), on Amazon, Apple TV, and Tubi, last year. Chelsea recently appeared on the CW show Walker and dreams of being a series regular on a dramedy TV show like Six Feet Under (her favorite show!).

Chelsea completed the Hoffman Process in 2018 and was not working in entertainment (aka following her dreams!) before doing the Process. She previously worked as an art teacher and often writes about art and teaching life in her scripts now. Outside of work, she loves spending time with family and friends at the beach, roller skating, traveling, and conversing about mental health.

Follow Chelsea on Instagram.

Hoffman Q2 Intensive: Beyond Mom & Dad

Lou:

Hoffman Process teachers mentioned:

Couples Coaching:

Brené Brown on joy being the most difficult and terrifying emotion to feel.

Graduate Groups:

Danny Trejo in Chelsea and Paul’s first feature film, Smile or Hug.

We kick off season 8 of the podcast with an uplifting, truth-telling conversation with  Brooke Baldwin. TV host, documentary director, journalist, bestselling author, and Hoffman grad, Brooke finally shares the truth of what happened when she left CNN and the transformational journey she embarked on shortly thereafter.

When Brooke left CNN, her heart cracked open and she set off on a transformational journey. She found her way to the Hoffman Process in January 2023. Brooke describes her experience at Hoffman as the Big KaBANG of her transformation. Now, she can see that things happened, and are happening, for her rather than to her.

Just shy of two months after Brooke left Hoffman, she traveled to the Dominican Republic to shoot her new reality TV show, The Trust. With her Hoffman experience still fresh, Brooke showed up with Light streaming from her chest and found herself bringing the language of Hoffman and patterns directly to reality TV.

One lovely highlight of this episode is how, together, Brooke and Sharon explore and reframe recurring patterns in Brooke’s life. Listen in as Brooke beautifully reframes her patterns in real-time with Sharon.

Welcome to season 8 of the Hoffman Podcast. We hope you enjoy this dynamic episode.

**Please note that this episode is marked explicit because it contains a couple of F-bombs and might not be right for everyone.

Brooke Baldwin is a TV host, documentary director, journalist, bestselling author, and Hoffman grad. Brooke most recently hosted a TV series called The Trust which you can currently watch on Netflix. For over a decade, she anchored her own live daily news show on CNN. She was renowned for her versatility, authenticity, and humanity at the news desk. Brooke is also the author of the bestselling book Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power, redefining the ‘huddle’ to explore how women lean on one another to provide support, empowerment, inspiration, and the strength to enact meaningful change.

Brooke splits her time between New York City and Los Angeles. She is a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a dual degree in Journalism and Spanish.

Follow Brooke on Instagram and TikTok.

CNN

Dominican Republic

The Trust, Netflix

Brooke’s Book, Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power

Brené Brown

For our season 7 finale episode, we’re taking you behind the scenes with co-host Drew Horning and executive producer Julie Daley. The idea came about when Drew and Julie met in person for the first time the day after Thanksgiving – over three and a half years after starting this podcast together. It’s pretty amazing that people can work together so closely to create something near and dear to them, and have never met in person.

But the real story is why the podcast came into being, to begin with. It has to do with you, our listeners, graduates of the Process. In the first few months of the pandemic, the podcast was just one of a slew of new projects initiated by the Institute in service of staying connected to and supporting our graduate community. Along with others, Drew and Julie came together to brainstorm how to create the first Hoffman Institute podcast in April 2020. Sound engineer, Walt Hubis, joined us and in the middle of May 2020, after releasing our first three episodes of the Podcast, we were off and running with the release of our fourth episode. In time, both Sharon Mor and Liz Severin joined as co-hosts. We’d found our team.

We hope you enjoy learning a bit about how all this came together and the “why” behind what makes doing this so meaningful for us. Happy New Year to you and yours. The Hoffman Podcast will return with season 8 in February 2024. We look forward to sharing conversations with a whole new group of graduates with you.

Drew Horning is a former licensed private practice psychotherapist with a Master’s in clinical work from the University of Michigan. He is trained in EMDR, Mediation and Dispute Resolution, Gottman Couples Counseling, and Brené Brown’s Daring Way. He also hosts a podcast on relationships and coached high school basketball. Drew published his book, Grappling: White Men’s Journey from Fragile to Agile, in May 2021.

Drew values his role in calling forth students’ courage and supporting them on their healing journey. He recalls how amazed he was at the speed of change during the week of his Process. “Sure, there was work to do once the week was over; but I was able to tap into parts of myself and what I wanted for my life in ways that I had never experienced before … despite years of therapy.”

Drew lives in Boulder, CO with his wife of over 20 years, Genny, and their two children.

Julie Daley is the executive producer of the Hoffman Podcast. It is her great joy to work in support of the Hoffman Process. Julie did her Process in August 2002. There, she experienced deep, abiding love and boundless joy. Julie left knowing she had been deeply transformed.

A graduate of Stanford University, Julie is also a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and a certified teacher of Creativity in Business, a course originally taught at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Julie loves supporting others in coming home to their Essence and finding their courage to share this essential, creative nature with the world. Julie enjoys artistic expression through writing prose and poetry, dancing, painting, and photography. She is the author of Here: Poems, Prose, and Photography.

Julie lives in the Bay Area and is a grandmother to six beautiful, treasured human beings.

Walt Hubis, Sound Engineer for the Hoffman Podcast

Sharon Mor, Hoffman Podcast co-host

Liz Severin, Hoffman Podcast co-host

Jason-Aeric Huenecke, Hoffman Process Graduate, and Podcast guest

Jack Rafferty, Hoffman Process Graduate, and Podcast guest

Ian Salvage, Hoffman Process teacher, and coach; Hoffman Podcast 100th episode guest

Hoffman Essentials 2-Day Virtual course

Sadie Hannah, beloved Hoffman teacher and coach, shares with us her experience of profound transformation in the Hoffman Process as well as navigating the transformation she has continued to experience since. Her story reveals the richness, beauty, and possibility available on the other side of suffering.

Content Warning: this episode contains sensitive content that details the near death of a child. It may not be suitable for all listeners.

As a 31-year-old mother of two when she came to the Hoffman Process, Sadie felt broken. She’d experienced the life-changing near death of her four-year-old son and her resuscitation of him by doing CPR. As she tells us, her son survived, but the experience shattered her sense of self as a mother. In one pivotal moment during the Process while deep in her expressive work, Sadie experienced the profound realization that no matter how angry, uncontrolled, and messy she got, the Light remained. Regardless of how upset and disappointed she was with herself, she knew she was worthy of love and knew she remained connected to the Light.

Sadie connects her realizations about the nature of suffering with her early days of training to be a nurse practitioner. Then, she hoped to avoid feeling others’ suffering. Now, through the transformation she’s experienced, she opens to the suffering in our world as a conscious decision. As a Hoffman Process teacher, Sadie guides her students with the same vulnerability and love she so clearly embodies in this conversation. We hope this heartfelt conversation with Sadie and Drew opens you to a more conscious relationship with what lies on the other side of suffering.

Sadie Hannah holds a Master’s in Science from the University of California, San Francisco. After a 20-year history in Western medicine, she is committed to helping clients move beyond their most fundamental challenges (learned behavior). Sadie is a member of the teaching faculty at the Hoffman Institute and the medical staff at Stanford Children’s Hospital. Sadie is a licensed Nurse Practitioner and a member of the medical staff at Stanford University with a background in pediatric oncology, pediatric end-of-life, and children’s cancer research.  

Sadie’s unique blend of experience allows her to meet others in their fundamental urge to grow, heal, and transform in a truly authentic way.  Where neuroscience meets heart, Sadie works with individuals and groups, guiding her clients not outward but inward, toward the depths of their being, as they navigate important transitions in life, relationship, career, and culture.

In her most important work, Sadie enjoys being a mother to her three young children.  She loves exploring the edges of her physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual capacity through exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, and embodiment practices.

Stanford Children’s Hospital Pediatric Oncology

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Costa Rica

Hoffman Institute teacher training

Today, we change things up a bit. While we usually focus on the full Hoffman Process, today’s episode illuminates our 2-day Hoffman Essentials program. Join Drew and Jessie, Tiffany, Katy, and Marta, for this in-depth reflection on their journey through the Hoffman Essentials program. They each have a moving story that brought them to the Essentials program and each came for different reasons. What you will hear from them is how this powerful virtual work brings profound gifts of healing we hadn’t yet heard articulated in such beautiful ways.

In the early days of the Pandemic, Hoffman faculty and staff got to work creating. We were clear that the work of transformation afforded by the Process must continue even as the world was shutting down. But, after over 5o years of the Process being done in person, could elements of the Process and the promise of transformation they hold, work in a virtual setting? Could people, strangers in real life, come together and, after two days, realize how much they have in common and lean on the essentials of the Hoffman Process and their commonality for personal inner growth? As you’ll hear Drew say, the answer is a resounding, YES!

Our guests speak to many of these. They mention the Quadrinity and how to access each of the four parts. They share how they’ve transformed conditioned ways of reacting and thinking. Self-compassion is a key piece to this weekend of learning and growing. Some speak of the healing they found in the specific places in their home where they did the course, or outside during the Self-forgiveness guided exercise they were given. You can hear self-kindness and self-acceptance in their stories. There is a clear sense of love for where they are in their healing journey and their lives.

Hoffman Essentials is a live, virtual 2-day Hoffman Essentials program where Hoffman teachers guide students through experiential activities, individual assignments, and engaging discussions to bring more understanding, love, and aliveness to your life. The experiences and learning from this program are designed to provide useful tools and practices you can carry with you for a lifetime. As Marta shares, the Essentials program is a “great way to ask for help.”

With a consistent 5-6 month waiting list to attend the week-long Process in the US, our Hoffman Essentials program supports those who cannot or don’t want to wait to begin the work of change. We are grateful to our guests for sharing their stories of transformation through this program.

Discover more about the 2-day Hoffman Essentials virtual program.

Dr. Jessie Wei is a mother to two amazing sons. She’s also an integrative and functional medicine doctor and a former OB/GYN who had the great privilege and honor of taking care of thousands of women over seventeen years. Jessie is the author of two books about returning to wholeness and true love.

Rev. Tiffany Komasara, J.D., M. Div. is a non-profit professional with over 25 years of experience leading, advising, and working for religious and social service groups, schools, and arts organizations.  Tiffany currently serves as pastor of Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Grandview Heights, Ohio. There, she regularly uses mindfulness practices, self-awareness, and cognitive therapies in her ministry.

Katy is a mother of two adult daughters and is married to her high school sweetheart. She lives in Hawaii. Five years ago, Katy lost both her lower legs and seven fingertips to septic shock. Katy now shares her story to spread sepsis awareness.

Marta Campanella, whose friends describe her as sunshine, is a mom to her 10-year-old son. She loves her job selling Real Estate in Naples, FL; her other passion is teaching and practicing yoga. Marta is always up for adventure and travel, and if she can bring her sweet dog Harold along, it’s a bonus.

A Medium article by Duncan Riach where he mentions the Hoffman Process.

Sepsis and Amputation Information (shared on Katy’s website).

It takes 90 seconds for an emotion to pass.

Compassion fatigue during Covid in the caring professions.

Tibetan Buddhism

Pema Chödrön

Hoffman Tools

The Quadrinity – The intellect, emotional self, body, and Spiritual Self.

Left Road/Right Road – Making a choice (download the PDF).

Hoffman’s Cycle of Transformation

Morning Quad Checks and Evening Appreciation and Gratitude: Join us on Instagram for a daily Quadrinity Check at 8:00 a.m. PT and an Appreciation & Gratitude practice at 6:00 p.m. PT.

Recycling – a tool to transform a negative pattern into a positive alternative.

Guided Imagery – words and music to bring forward imagery to bring about some beneficial effect.

The Hoffman App: Hoffman Daily Practice Meditations and Visualizations

Hoffman webclass calendar

The Parenting class mentioned by Marta:

Stella Horgan, beloved UK Hoffman Process teacher and so much more, shares with us this wide-arching, panoramic view of her singular life. Stella calls upon us to heal and find our full glorious potential as human beings, reminding us we are valid and that we are in the driver’s seat of our lives.

Content warning: This episode contains explicit material and may not be suitable for all listeners.

Stella takes us across time, lands, cultures, and the many lives she has lived all in this one lifetime. She begins in South Africa, her beloved homeland in the painful years of apartheid and the way those years shaped her.

Stella travels to Australia and shares with us a bit about her ten years living there. While there, Stella found the Hoffman Process. She came to the Process in the early ’00s with a desire to heal. Stella shares with us the powerful, transformational apex of her Process when she experienced knowing she is loved and valid exactly as she is. She left the Process knowing she wanted to become a Hoffman teacher, which she did there in Australia, beginning her journey to be a part of the healing of this world.

We then journey with Stella back to her beloved South Africa and the majestic white lions, women’s healing and empowerment, and permaculture education. Since becoming a teacher, Stella has taught the Process in Australia, the UK, Canada, and the US.

Stella shares stories about the era of apartheid in South Africa and how it affected her and her future life trajectory. She has dedicated her life, personally and professionally, to healing trauma and shame. You will be deeply moved by Stella’s stories and words of hard-won wisdom about the inherent worth and validity of every human being.

Stella Horgan is an artist, Director of South African impact NPO Zingela Ulwazi Trust (ZUT), a Senior Supervising Facilitator of the Hoffman Process (UK), a board member of the Australian wildlife advocacy group For the Love of Wildlife, and a coach, facilitator of groups, and workshops. She lives between the UK and South Africa.

In 2022, Stella and the ZUT team created the first Centre for Women’s Independence in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, South Africa, offering learning experiences to rural women in Food Security (permaculture/regenerative practice), Livelihood Security (small enterprise development), Personal Security (self-defense skills to respond to and prevent harassment and assault), all woven through with Stress Reduction techniques. They formed a thrilling partnership in 2022 with American Zach Bush and his Farmer’s Footprint addressing food security, nutritional diversity, and regenerative practice, through permaculture and planting a food and medicine forest of 2000 trees in a denuded local village.

Stella has worked with dozens of Civil Society organizations in urban and rural contexts addressing environmental and human rights issues. She is fuelled by her love of nature and guided and enriched by her work with the Hoffman Process. Her main mission is to find ways to rebalance human life with nature to create regenerative, happy ways of living where all may thrive.

Enjoy Stella Horgan’s artwork here. Discover more about Stella and Zingela Ulwazi Trust (ZUT). Follow Stella on Instagram and Facebook.

Stella has taught the Hoffman Process in Australia, the UK, Canada, and the US. (Pictured is a US Hoffman teaching team with (bottom row, L-R) Lecia Arye, Stella, Amy Thompson, Aerin Lim, Searl Vetter, and Drew Horning (top).

Johannesburg, South Africa

Apartheid

White Supremacy

Christian Nationalism

Bright Blue “Weeping” Original Music Video

Hillbrow, Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa

The Anti-Apartheid Movement in the 1990s

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The Soul’s Code, by James Hillman

Thembisa, South Africa

Hoffman Process Australia Team

The Dandenongs (and the old-growth forest) outside Melbourne, Australia

Bob Hoffman

School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), Australia

Hoffman Teacher Training

Interspecies Communication

Global White Lion Protection Trust

Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, South Africa

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Calico fabric, Embroidery thread

Baboons of the African Bush

Drakensberge (Dragon’s) Mountains:

The Blyde River Canyon

Zingela Ulwazi Team (ZUT):

Hoffman Institute, UK

Horgan: “… is a surname of Irish origin. The origins of the name lie in County Cork, Ireland; the name translates to Warrior or Champion.”

David Fishof is an American music producer, sports agent, and the founder and CEO of Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. Listen in as David weaves his stories, shares his big heart, and guides us through his Hoffman Process transformation.

In 1999, David came to the Process to understand why he couldn’t “keep his marriage.” He was successful in his career and knew, in his heart, that he was a good guy. His parents had been married for 50 years and yet, he’d been unable to save his marriage. David wanted answers and he was willing to do whatever it took to find those answers.

Between the time he turned in his pre-work and arrived for his Process, David’s father passed away. Upon Raz Ingrasci’s urging (David’s Process teacher), David decided not to postpone his Process knowing that it would be a potent time to do the deep work he was ready for. David had a wonderful relationship with his father. Even so, he was able to come up with a large number of traits that he’d adopted from his dad. Transforming these helped guide him closer to the answers he was seeking.

Eventually, David came to see and know more clearly the passionate man he has always been. By healing the pain of his past, the confusion that had clouded his true passions cleared. He stepped into work that fed his passion and started the Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. And, he deepened his faith, discovering he could weave his Quadrinity Check into his daily prayers.

A fabulous storyteller, boy does David have stories to tell about the world of Rock and Roll, the power of the element of surprise, and so much more. Please enjoy this conversation steeped in the power of storytelling and vibrant vulnerability.

David Fishof is an American music producer, sports agent, and the founder and CEO of Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. Born and raised in New York City, David began his career representing acts in the Catskill Mountains. He became a sports agent, representing Phil Simms, Lou Piniella, Randy Myers, among others. While he was working as a sports agent, David began to also produce live rock and roll tours working with Ringo Starr, The Monkees, Roger Daltrey, and many other popular acts.

David has been recognized as a creative and innovative force in the entertainment industry with a career spanning over four decades. David’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp allows everyday people to play alongside world-renowned rock stars. His camp reflects David’s deep passion and appreciation for the transformative power of music in people’s lives, both personally and professionally. Rock Camp: The Movie, illustrates David’s impact on the world of rock music.

David has written three books, Putting It on The Line, a book about his experiences in the world of sports and entertainment, Rock Your Business: What You and Your Company Can Learn From The Business of Rock and Roll, and Rock Camp: An Oral History: 25 Years of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp.

Learn more about David and Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Read more about David here and here. You can learn more about Comedy Fantasy Camp on Instagram.

Rock and Roll Tours:

Comedy Fantasy Camp with Jay Leno, Adam Carolla

Practical joke (on YouTube) played on David Fishof by the All-Starr Band.

Rockers and actors mentioned:

The Living Years:

Bournemouth, England

Abbey Road

Doug Blush, Director Rock Camp: The Movie

Amidha – Jewish daily prayer

Rabbi

The Holocaust:

David with Raz Ingrasci and Ed McClune in 2012 on VoiceAmerica.

Read Rock and Roll Will Save Your Soul:

Hoffman graduate retreats:

Liza Ingrasci, Hoffman CEO and Board Member

Hoffman Tools:

Dorothy Holden, beloved Hoffman teacher and coach, did the Hoffman Process in 2004 and became a teacher in 2007. In this conversation with Drew, Dorothy shares her journey from the reactive patterns she learned as a child to the wisdom she’s developed over the years of serving others and teaching the Process.

Growing up, Dorothy was the 3rd of 5 kids and the only girl. Her home life was stable. At the same time, there were no rules to speak of, which could be both fun and very chaotic. At a very early age, Dorothy developed a pattern of self-responsibility and learned to take care of herself. And, through this, she developed a sense of rigidity and judgment. As a deep core reactive pattern, this has both helped her and hindered her in her life. After doing the deep healing work of the Process, Dorothy’s main takeaway was she fell in love with herself, without reservation.

Dorothy speaks of what she’s learned from teaching over 100 Processes. She helps her students release fear and anxiety-based resistance to go deeper into their Process so they can drop into their essential nature during this transformative week. Dorothy shares about how to continue practices consciously so that life doesn’t get in the way. Finally, she speaks to the power of somatic knowing as an embodied sense. This knowing can guide our lives, as is often explained through the core Hoffman tool, Be-Do-Have.

Dorothy Holden is a Registered Clinical Counselor with a therapy practice that specializes in helping people navigate transitions and find meaning in their lives. She strives to support each person on their unique journey toward self-awareness and personal fulfillment. Dorothy has an MS in Counseling Psychology (University of Calgary), a B-Ed (Dalhousie University), and a BA in Psychology (McGill University). She lives in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia.

Dorothy has supported hundreds of Olympic and national athletes in Canada with personal development and career planning. She also volunteers as a counselor and support group facilitator for an integrative cancer care agency.

I love teaching the Hoffman Process and other Hoffman programs. The Hoffman vision is creating world peace, one person at a time.”

I live in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia with my husband, who is a retired lawyer and a Hoffman graduate.  We have 2 adult children and 4 grandchildren. Our daughter’s family lives near us, so I get lots of opportunities to chase those rascals around. Our son has just moved his family to Switzerland, and so we are learning how to stay connected while living on different continents.

White Sulphur Springs:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Right Livelihood:

Shifting perspective

Canadian Olympic and national athletes.

The San Juan Islands

Hoffman Tools and Practices:

Patterns and the Negative Love Syndrome: 

Self-compassion:

Somatic knowledge – a felt sense of knowingness:

This is a remarkable conversation with Blake Mycoskie, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author. Blake graduated from the Hoffman Process in 2017. Before his Process, Blake had been a hard-driving athlete and a highly successful entrepreneur. He came to the Process because life had suddenly become more complex for him. He felt ‘untethered’ on the heels of a lot of recent life changes. Often old patterns make it hard to move with the change that comes, even when we’ve chosen those changes.

Blake felt a lot of resistance at the beginning of his Process. He knew that he had achieved great success in the world and believed that his patterns had helped him get there. However, through the Process, with the guidance of his teacher, Blake eventually came to see that his patterns were keeping him from living a truly authentic life guided by his Spiritual Self. Since graduating, Blake has sent many friends to the Process, as well as hundreds of people he didn’t know personally but supported financially to attend.

As you’ll discover, Blake vulnerably shares the truth of what he is experiencing in his life right now. He tells us that the Process was his jumping off place into spiritual work. After he graduated, he began to do many retreats and became active in the world of plant medicine. As you’ll hear, Blake is in the immediate experience of a deeper call to go within. He refers to this moment in his life as a dark night of the soul. Blake knows something is here for him and he’s determined to live following his Spiritual Self no matter where it takes him, despite how uncomfortable this is.

We hope you enjoy this profound conversation with Blake and Sharon.

Blake Mycoskie is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author most known for founding TOMS Shoes and is the person behind the idea of One for One®, a business model that helps a person in need with every product purchased.

A simple idea grew into a global movement:  While traveling in Argentina in 2006, Blake witnessed the hardships faced by children growing up without shoes. His solution to the problem was simple, yet revolutionary: to create a for-profit business that was sustainable and not reliant on donations. Blake’s vision soon turned into the simple business idea that provided the powerful foundation for TOMS. Since its inception, TOMS Shoes has provided almost 96 million pairs of shoes to children around the globe.

Blake’s latest philanthropy passion has taken him into the world of psychedelics.   He’s giving about 25% of his net worth to support research into the medical and mental health potential of psychedelic drugs.

Born and raised in Texas, Blake currently resides in Marin County with his wife, kids, dog, and cat.  In his free time, you can find him outside enjoying nature. Discover more about Blake here.

Blake’s adopted son, Wubetu

Venture Capital

Psychedelic medicine

Dark night of the soul

The Negative Love Syndrome: 

Hoffman Tools:

Self-compassion:

Jen Davis, beloved Hoffman Process teacher and coach, sits down with Drew to share her journey from a heartbreaking loss to celebrating a whole new life and a brand new love.

Jen did the Process in 2016 at White Sulphur Springs. What brought her to the Process was the shocking divorce she was going through due to her soon-to-be-ex husband’s heartbreaking infidelity. Jen was in great pain. She shares that her life at that time felt like a Lifetime movie, but the pain she was feeling was very real.

The Process helped Jen turn away from the details of the situation she found herself in and turn toward herself for healing. As she says, it would have been much easier to continue to blame her ex for cheating and getting someone else pregnant. But in her week at the Process, Jen was able to see her part in what had happened and then take responsibility for her own life. Through her deep and dedicated work during the Process, Jen was able to find compassion and forgiveness for both herself and her ex. By the end of the week, she had found her way back to herself and was ready to move on with her life.

After leaving the Process, Jen divorced, moved into a new home, and began to live a new life. She decided to start dating again, but this time from an empowered place of joy and self-love. Eventually, she found love, She married her new love, Mitchell, just this past summer.

Toward the end of this rich conversation, Jen shares her journey to becoming a Hoffman teacher. Her certification came at a deeply painful time when her father was dying. She was able to share with him that she was a newly certified teacher and share with him the joy she felt in her new life. We hope you enjoy this beautiful conversation with Jen and Drew.

Jen lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband (and Hoffman grad), Mitchell, and her dog, Allie. She cultivates joy through hiking, baking, live music, and a regular gratitude and compassion practice. Jen is a Midwesterner at heart, loving anything with cheese and summers on the lake. She is passionate about spiritual and personal growth, animal-assisted therapies, and women’s empowerment.

Jen received her Master’s of Clinical Social Work from the University of St. Thomas specializing in youth and families. She worked for five years as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with the Madison Metropolitan School District providing mental health crisis stabilization for youth and families. Jen hopes to continue building her private practice as a Child and Adolescent Therapist.

Currently, Jen works as a Hoffman Teacher and Coach, as well as a coordinator of the Hoffman Graduate Group Programs. Jen first attended The Process in 2016 at White Sulphur Springs.

White Sulphur Springs:

The Peace Garden (forgiveness garden) at White Sulphur Springs

Hoffman Faculty:

Hoffman Process Teacher Training

Awareness Hell:

Attachment Styles and Theory

The Golden Gate Bridge