He is the Founder, Administrator, Counselor at the Sanctuary at Sedona. He has a BA in Political Science and is currently Senior teaching staff at Four Winds Society, an international school of energy medicine. His credentials also include being an Ordained Minister; a Certified Shamanic Breathwork® Facilitator; a Founding Member Society for Shamanic Practitioners; a Member of Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology; a Member of National Institute for Holistic Addiction Studies.

In battling his substance abuse problem, Dean gained real expertise in being on the treatment side of rehab centers. He was a patient at many well-regarded addiction treatment institutions in the country, some more than once.

He has been in over 10 inpatient drug rehabilitation centers, participated in several inpatient extended care programs, numerous outpatient and intensive outpatient programs, years of private therapy, support groups, 12-step programs, several detox programs, and numerous medication protocols. While many of these worked temporarily on the symptoms of the problem, he was unable to achieve any real sustainable change. As conventional therapies and approaches failed, he expanded his search worldwide to learn about mental health and recovery approaches. Dean has traveled extensively to sacred sites in over 60 countries to study holistic health, world mythology, religion, spirituality, wisdom traditions, and indigenous healing and wellness practices.

“My real shift came when I was a patient at yet another treatment center where I was reminded again of the definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. This is commonly used to describe the cycle of addictive behavior. It occurred to me that this should also apply to the treatment of addiction as well. It is insane to keep treating this issue the same way and expecting a different result, which I had done for 20 years in treatment and therapy. I wanted to get well, so I paid very close attention in treatment and realized that I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t getting better. Most of the people I went to treatment with were not getting better either. I knew in that moment, that all of my years in treatment and my search for my own freedom from addiction wasn’t a waste. It was my training.

My life purpose was to create a treatment process that actually worked by truly addressing the underlying issues of addiction, anxiety, and depression. This moel needed to be holistic or it most likely wouldn’t work. The rest is history. When I created The Sanctuary 16 years ago, we were the only holistic treatment model available. Now, the term holistic and integrative is common in addiction and mental health treatment. We were the pioneers then and still the pioneers today. It is not enough to add some holistic components to a treatment program, they need to be integrated to work. The Sanctuary remains the pioneer in holistic mental health treatment because we are always researching the latest in neuroscience and therapeutic processes.”