Alex developed an interest in the connection between the body and mind when he began his formal Zen training in Honolulu, Hawai’i in 2000. A college student at the time studying physics and philosophy, he had an important encounter with Tenshin Tanouye Rotaishi, one of the pre-eminent Zen masters of the 20th Century in which Tanouye Rotaishi advised, “the meaning of life can be found entirely within the refinement of breath and posture.”
Alex took this simple, but profound, statement to heart and pursued Zen meditation, traditional martial arts, and chanting practice rigorously as a means to discover what Tanouye Rotaishi called shin-ki-roku itchi –mind, body, spirit (breath) in oneness.
After a 3-year monastic stay of intensive practice and ordination as a Zen priest, Alex joined his father, Hakuun Gordon Greene Roshi in establishing a rural Zen training facility in Spring Green, Wisconsin in 2006.
In 2010 Alex met Everett Ogawa, a master bodyworker also trained in Zen by Tanouye Rotaishi and trained in bodywork by William ‘Dub’ Leigh, the founder of Zen Bodytherapy.
Feeling an instant connection with Everett, and deeply impressed by his warm presence and grounded embodiment, Alex entered a new phase of mind-body-spirit education with a serious study of bodywork with Everett and its connection to Zen training. Alex found that bodywork was a “missing ingredient” in expanding and deepening his Zen practice as well as opening up whole new dimensions of his emotional life and personality.
By 2012 Alex moved into full-time bodywork practice in Madison, WI with the founding of Red Beard Bodywork and Structural Integration (our original name). To complement the Structural Integration training from Everett, Alex also studied and certified in Myofascial Release, Zero Balancing, and Visceral Manipulation in order to develop a very comprehensive understanding of the systems of the body. During this time, he also became increasingly aware of the connection between hands-on bodywork and psycho-emotional trauma connected to the body and became interested in what he calls the “neurobiological revolution” of the last 20-30 years led by pioneers like Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), David Berceli (TRE), Stephen Porges (Polyvagal Theory), and Bessel van der Kolk.
This led Alex to become trained and certified in TRE –Tension & Trauma Release, Somatic Experiencing, Safe & Sound Protocol, NARM – NeuroAffective Relational Model, and Internal Family Systems to develop a complete toolkit of somatic and nervous system-oriented approaches to help overcome trauma and promote psycho-emotional and spiritual growth and well-being.
Now based in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, Vanessa, and daughter Lily, Alex maintains a full practice and is the administrative lead for Red Beard Somatic Therapy. Along with Ellen McKenzie, he also teaches in our TRE – Tension & Trauma Release Certification Program. Still with deep roots in his Zen practice, Alex has also founded a new school of bodywork called Zen Integration Bodywork based on his synthesis of Zen and bodywork training and is teaching his first cohort of students in that work in Madison, Wisconsin.
Alex loves to work with men and women of all ages, cultures, trauma histories, gender identities, sexual orientations, spiritual backgrounds, professions, and geographies. He has discovered for himself that the body and nervous system is a powerful gateway for deepening the connection between one’s Self, purpose, and psycho-emotional-spiritual growth and he looks forward to beginning that journey with you.
