Randy holds a B.S.N. from Excelsior College, an M.S.N. (psych) from Northwestern State University, an M.B.A. from Centenary College and has held clinical, management, and educational health care positions since 1975. He trained in Zen Shiatsu (five years under Pamela Ferguson) at the Academy of Oriental Medicine in Austin, Texas where he was a senior instructor and practitioner of Zen Shiatsu. He is also a Diplomate in Asian Bodywork from the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM).

Randy graduated from the Four Winds Society (Inka shamanism) under Alberto Villoldo, psychologist and medical anthropologist, and his training has included trips to Peru's Sacred Valley where he went through ceremonies with the Q'ero Indian shamans and in the Amazon with shamans Hamilton Souther and Alberto Torres Davila as well as ceremonies with Shipibo female shamans. Randy is a member of  the Society of Shamanic Practitioners.

Randy is married to Karen and has two children, Rachel and Patrick. He has traced his DNA through the National Geographic Genographic Project to East Africa between 150,000 to 170,000 years ago to "Mitochrondrial Eve," a woman that all people on the planet are descended from. From East Africa, Randy's ancestors traveled through the Middle East, then on to Germany, Holland, and Ireland before heading to Turtle Island where a Native American Cherokee joined in to complete Randy's lineage.

Note: The tiger in this photo is not drugged and is in a large enclosure.

Society of Shamanic Practitioners

Principles of Integrity

To help individuals practitioners be effective in service and healing in the world, and to help shift global consciousness, the Society of Shamanic Practitioners believes the following pledges represent the core principles of integrity in this pursuit:

1. I pledge to work in sacred alliance with Spirit, and to be informed and guided by that Source, and not my own ego, in offering service to others.

2. I pledge to recognize the wholeness inherent in every person or group or circumstance that comes for healing and to honor whatever form in which its pain is presented to me.

3. I pledge to be mindful of speech, thought, and action and their impact on building relationships both in the present and through time into future and past.

4. I pledge to be respectful of others, even in their differences.

5. I pledge to work with compassion and non-judgment.

6. I pledge to do no harm and to avoid any sexual misconduct in my work with clients.

7. I pledge to maintain clients' privacy.

8. I pledge to be honest with clients and other practitioners, and to be truthful in the manner in which I present myself in public relations and advertising.

9. I pledge to offer fair and appropriate fees.

10. In service to others, I pledge to keep my own life and personhood in balance to the best of my ability.