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One-on-One Contemplative Coaching

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You're following a path to a life that you aren't really sure you want.
I can help with that.

One-on-one contemplative coaching for people at any stage of a life that doesn't quite fit — grounded in honest inquiry and rigorous practice.

"The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice."

— Frank Herbert

This is not
for everyone.
It may be for you, if:

Austin Gates

Graduate student, Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling — Naropa University. Clinical training in neurofeedback and individual and group practicum.

Murid initiate in the Inayati-Maimuni Sufi Order under Pir Netanel Miles-Yepez. Facilitator at the Charis Foundation for Interspirituality and New Monasticism.

Regular practice across directed and receptive contemplative traditions. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner.

This work didn't come
from a classroom.

At 21, I was living a life that looked fine from the outside. A relationship. A job. A place to live. And I was miserable — settling for all of it, surrounded by people who kept telling me I was doing great.

Then I lost the job. We moved to Las Vegas. I took a job in motorcycle sales, bought my own bike, and got on an eight-lane highway. I don't remember what happened next. I woke up in a hospital with broken orbital bones, a broken jaw, a handlebar that had been removed from my thigh while I was unconscious, and no memory of how I got there.

"This is not why I survived."

That voice showed up in my recovery and never left. Within a year, I left the relationship, left the job, and moved into a tiny apartment in San Diego — so small I kept my clothes in the coat closet.

That's where something became clear. I wasn't the only one. Almost everyone I knew had found a way to make peace with a life that didn't quite fit — and had learned to call that peace maturity, or practicality, or just growing up.

My practice is rooted in an interspiritual faith — the recognition that no single tradition holds a monopoly on the real. I am a Murid initiate in the Inayati-Maimuni Order and a facilitator at Charis, a foundation for interspirituality and new monasticism. These paths share a single commitment: direct encounter with what is actually true, beneath the noise of constructed identity.

This practice is early.
I am not selling a proven system.
I am offering honest attention
and a rigorous framework.

Accepting new clients
Graduate student, Transpersonal Counseling — Naropa University
Available in-person in Boulder, CO
Available remotely
Free 20-minute call before any commitment

"I wasn't the only one. Almost everyone I knew had found a way to make peace with a life that didn't quite fit — and had learned to call that peace maturity, or practicality, or just growing up. I am here because I believe something else is possible. Not transformation. Just clarity. And the discipline to live from it."

How We Work Together

Three ways to begin — each shaped around honest, unhurried attention. No packages, no upsells. Just the work that's needed.

Not sure which is right for you?

Start with a free 20-minute call →

Say what
brought you
here.

There's no wrong way to start. A few sentences about where you are is enough.

Or book directly Open Calendar →