About Me
Mike Haber with Ram Dass 2002
Mike Haber’s Bio.
I am a graduate of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco and will finish a Masters degree in counseling psychology with an emphasis in transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology this May.
I became interested in helping others when I overcame a alcohol addiction with the help of counseling, spiritual meditation and 12-step work. My long-time friend Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx and Against the Stream, shaped my first experiences in meditation and counseling. His father, Stephen Levine, was a great meditation teacher and an inspiration to both of us. Stephen used Vipassana meditation with healing techniques that include all faiths. It was through his books that I got involved in hospice end of life care in San Francisco and Santa Cruz.
Work experience:
- Spent two years as a meditation teacher and substance abuse adviser for the Insight Prison Project.
- Worked at Zen Hospice Project for three years as a seminar coordinator and hospice care volunteer.
- Founded Anicca House, a grassroots hospice outreach program in Santa Cruz in 2005 (Anicca House was closed in 2007 so that I could return to school).
- Completed a yearlong Buddhist chaplaincy-training program at Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.
- Led many meditation classes throughout the Bay Area including the Santa Cruz Dharma Punx group over the last ten years.
- Have over ten years of grassroots hospice experience in the Bay Area.
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working alongside people like Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., Frank Ostaseski, Norman Fischer, Jack Kornfield, Byron Katie, Michael Meade, Rabbi Alan Lew, Charles Garfield, Ph.D., Ram Dass, Louis J. Rodriguez, Sylvia Boorstein and Bob Stahl. From these experiences, I have learned ways to integrate many forms of spirituality and different approaches to therapeutic counseling.
Today, I have a three-year-old daughter and a wonderful partner. We live in Santa Cruz and spend most of our free time at the beach, camping or walking through the woods. My research focuses on nature-deficit disorder and utilizing ecopsychology in traditional counseling.