Curtis writes, speaks, and leads workshops about building productive belonging. Here are a few samples.
"Building Youth Belonging" is a practitioner's guide for community members, parents, and educators.
"Building Youth Belonging" on Amazon |
I was honored to share some of my own belonging story from the stage at the 2024 VanTalks (Vancouver's TED).
18 minutes |
I was invited to be on Epik Project's Masculine Wilderness Podcast and discuss how sharing stories builds belonging that heals people and culture.
65 minutes |
The Internal Chatter podcast: belonging, stories, and mental health.
55 minutes |
"Cluster Flocking," The Work of Cultivating Contagious Belonging with Networked Small Groups
A free PDF Guide |
coaching - workshops - Program Development - evaluation
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Organizational Development
Leadership Coaching & Consulting Enneagram Coaching Storytelling to Build Belonging Human Systems Dynamics (HSD) Social System Mapping iCAN Workshops (for Caring Adults) Company or Team Retreats Program Development Empowerment Evaluation Team Building through Storytelling Appreciative Inquiry Facilitation
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From before I was born, I experienced a repeating pattern of deep belonging interrupted by losses of belonging. I've been well loved and rejected. I've succeeded and failed, known health and illness, pain and comfort. The cyclical nature of my particular story, experienced by my particular mind, heart, and body, have led me to a passion for what I call belonging—itself a pattern. It fascinates and motivates me.
I am now a Community Psychologist in Vancouver, WA. where I live by Chicken Creek with my wife of 35 years. My children and their partners live and work in Seattle and San Diego. I am the founder of Connect ED and the current guide for Project Cluster Flocks. My formal education has so far been undertaken at Multnomah (undergrad) and Concordia (graduate) University. My informal education continues to come as a character in the shared story of life with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
I am a reader and book collector, writer, cyclist, runner, motorcycle fixer, woodworker, old Ford truck tinkerer, and Portland Thorns fan. I am a certified Appreciative Inquiry facilitator and a Mental Health First Aid instructor (for both youth and adults). I am also a national Sources of Strength trainer and Positive Discipline trainer for teachers and parents. My work is informed by the Narrative Enneagram and the N.E.A.R. (Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs, and Resilience) Sciences. I taught psychology at Concordia University. I spent many years as a construction contractor and am now in active recovery. I built a tiny house with my dad, was a coffee shop owner for a while, helped start and grow a church. I've been a pastor and I'm recovering from that too. I have worked with many organizations, sat or am sitting on too many boards and committees and constantly look forward to both contemplation and teaching. I have been given generous love, guidance, kindness, wisdom, patience, insight, and opportunity that I rarely if ever earned.
I am now a Community Psychologist in Vancouver, WA. where I live by Chicken Creek with my wife of 35 years. My children and their partners live and work in Seattle and San Diego. I am the founder of Connect ED and the current guide for Project Cluster Flocks. My formal education has so far been undertaken at Multnomah (undergrad) and Concordia (graduate) University. My informal education continues to come as a character in the shared story of life with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
I am a reader and book collector, writer, cyclist, runner, motorcycle fixer, woodworker, old Ford truck tinkerer, and Portland Thorns fan. I am a certified Appreciative Inquiry facilitator and a Mental Health First Aid instructor (for both youth and adults). I am also a national Sources of Strength trainer and Positive Discipline trainer for teachers and parents. My work is informed by the Narrative Enneagram and the N.E.A.R. (Neuroscience, Epigenetics, ACEs, and Resilience) Sciences. I taught psychology at Concordia University. I spent many years as a construction contractor and am now in active recovery. I built a tiny house with my dad, was a coffee shop owner for a while, helped start and grow a church. I've been a pastor and I'm recovering from that too. I have worked with many organizations, sat or am sitting on too many boards and committees and constantly look forward to both contemplation and teaching. I have been given generous love, guidance, kindness, wisdom, patience, insight, and opportunity that I rarely if ever earned.
I am a fascinated studier of the human heart, mind, and body; both the individual person and the relational context. Our capacity is shared by potential and obstacles. I believe that resilient strength and glory are infinitely possible for every human. Healthy relational connections are nearly always foundational.
Our culture is broken because it is comprised of broken people and broken connections. Fortunately, our community is an organic entity, a complex, interdependent ecosystem. And as all organisms and ecosystems, it contains within its unified and connected parts - the capacity to heal. In our brokenness, we find our strength - if we look together.
I've seen trauma-informed storytelling in small groups transform the lives of people of all ages and socio-economic experiences, spectrums of education, mental health, political and religious persuasions, and expectations that the effort would work at all. I've seen it work between strangers and people who have known each other for decades. I've worked within education, government, the faith community, business, juvenile, and adult justice, human trafficking, non-profit, and neighborhood. I've seen this work on an airplane with one person over a four-hour flight, and in a room with a hundred plus people. Storytelling is difficult to resist and it's powerful to effect positive change.
Our culture is broken because it is comprised of broken people and broken connections. Fortunately, our community is an organic entity, a complex, interdependent ecosystem. And as all organisms and ecosystems, it contains within its unified and connected parts - the capacity to heal. In our brokenness, we find our strength - if we look together.
I've seen trauma-informed storytelling in small groups transform the lives of people of all ages and socio-economic experiences, spectrums of education, mental health, political and religious persuasions, and expectations that the effort would work at all. I've seen it work between strangers and people who have known each other for decades. I've worked within education, government, the faith community, business, juvenile, and adult justice, human trafficking, non-profit, and neighborhood. I've seen this work on an airplane with one person over a four-hour flight, and in a room with a hundred plus people. Storytelling is difficult to resist and it's powerful to effect positive change.
Let's discover.
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My approach is positive, collaborative, participatory and empowering. Whatever problems we solve and whatever we learn will not amount to lasting change unless we invest our energy with hope for what we can accomplish collectively. Most of the time, I'm a temporary visitor. For this reason, my goal is that you will hold all that is of value from our time together and take responsibility for spreading it.
My consulting, program development, evaluation, and workshops are comfortable, experiential learning and sharing environments based on empirical evidence and research. They are intended to develop a narrative of interdependence both in our sessions and as a result of them. |
Recommendations & Quotes
I've changed the way I reflect on my past, get things done, and plan for the future. My kids (who are four and eight) will stop anything to listen to a "real-life story" about any of their people. It connects them to their roots and their own identity. They chime in with, "Oh, I would NOT have done it that way," or "That must have felt amazing!" When we are in a decision-making moment and struggling with it, I ask, "What story do you want to tell with your actions?"
Sherrie - Professor X - Executive Director, Columbia Health Services
Sherrie - Professor X - Executive Director, Columbia Health Services
My life has been shaped by stories, by characters, and events that eventually lead somewhere new and hopeful. But until Curtis showed up, I never really realized the unique power I possessed as a character in a grand narrative. Listening to Curtis and other friends identify and affirm the unique value of me as a character in a story that encompasses not just me, but the people I love, has given me newfound courage to play my part fully. My only regret is that I feel like I never read the script until my 60s. That being said, I’m damn sure going to stay in character as long as I’m on the stage of life.
Tom - Oso Loco
Tom - Oso Loco
“As a man, I often feel selfish for wanting to know my story and perhaps share it with others. Thankfully, learning to tell my story gave me permission to know myself more, and that feels good, healthy. But it’s tempting to spin my story into something better, or sometimes worse than it really is. So letting others who know me well speak things about me, while uncomfortable at times, is really rich. And I don’t mean people saying nice things to make me feel better. I mean people reflecting how they see me showing up in the world. It’s really helpful.”
Justin
Justin
"The level of self-knowledge and understanding I walk in is directly proportional to the relationships my participation in story-sharing has helped me curate. With the help of these communities, I am convinced more and more of my value. This is balanced by my increased awareness of the areas I need to ask for perspective concerning so that I can continue growing toward wholeness."
Mark - Witchdoctor
Mark - Witchdoctor
“An older buddy told me once that it’s always worth the cost, whatever it is, to evolve as a person. This has, unfortunately, not always felt so true to me. Evolving feels like dangerous work, exhausting and thankless and all too often pointless, it would appear. Story sharing and articulation has helped me remember what the point of all this was for me in the first place, remember to keep trying, and remember to fuck around plenty while I’m at it. I wouldn’t recommend that one try to do better as a person without it.”
Andy
Andy
"Connect Ed brought the accumulated wisdom and power of storytelling to bear on the very real-world effort to stem the tide of trauma generated by commercial exploitation. By means of novel approaches like the 5 Minute Life Story and articulation I’ve watched survivors of sex trafficking begin to reshape their identity within a circle of healthy, trusted friends. It is profound to witness the power of an age-old, nearly universal experience be leveraged to promote real health within trauma-affected individuals. But what is even more amazing is to see how this process impacts the men who inflict this trauma. For more than a decade Epik has been directly intercepting active online sex buyers in an attempt to curb sex trafficking. The storytelling and articulation tools Connect Ed brought to this intervention has radically changed the way we engage with this population. The simple (and skillful) invitation offered by our volunteer men to other men engaged in the exploitation of vulnerable people has transformed the way we do our work and there is great reason to hope for lasting change."
Tom Perez, Epik Project Founder and CEO
Tom Perez, Epik Project Founder and CEO
"This retreat exceeded all my expectations. I felt like I would be able to learn something that I would be able to take back to my school, but am blown away with the quality and caring individuals involved in this weekend."
KR, Connect St. Helens Coalition Launch retreat attendee
KR, Connect St. Helens Coalition Launch retreat attendee
"This weekend surpassed my expectations for connectedness as well as making concrete plans for moving forward - most retreats I've been to only focus on one or the other." Connect St. Helens Coalition Launch retreat attendee
"The entire workshop was eye opening and encouraging. I would love to see all teachers take this workshop and use it with all of their students." Geni Hammer
"The presentation was high quality and some of the material I was familiar with. However, it all was extremely useful and Curtis is a quality presenter who relates to his peers and audience. The power point was professional, the videos were relevant, and the discussion was academic and interesting. I think it would be very useful in any school (public or private)." Kirsten Benko
"So much material! Really needs to be a weekend retreat type of event to cover everything. Presenter was awesome!" Mary Ann Briggs
"I felt there was something in each segment of the workshop that will be useful in both of my jobs. This was the best workshop I have ever attended! The material was relevant and Curtis kept me engaged the entire day!" Pat Storms
"Curtis locks you in from the second you walk through the door! He has an amazing ability to tell a story and connect with the crowd. He speaks from the heart, his knowledge of the content is immaculate, and his passion for the content is contagious. Not only will you leave his training with more understanding of the topic, you will leave his training wanting to help change the world!" Erick R. Suksdorf
"Curtis is a dynamic and engaging presenter. He delivered a presentation alongside our school district staff, and provided a fresh perspective for the needs of the audience. Curtis is very knowledgeable about the impact of ACES (adverse childhood experiences) and the tools need to build resilient youth, and he was very willing to share this information with educators. We appreciated his flexibility in adapting the delivery of content for the intended audience, within a specified amount of time. Curtis draws from his experience as a community member, parent, and professional to illustrate the hope of a resilient community which protects their youth from the harmful effects of trauma."
Susan Peng-Cowan
Susan Peng-Cowan
"Hi Curtis! I just want to say thank you so much for putting together the ACEs training! I had the opportunity to share about it with my co-workers as well! We had a patient who was a mess and I used some of the knowledge that I'd gotten in the training to talk with her and help her understand what was going on. I talked with my co-workers to help them gain some insight and empathy into why she was the way she was. Do you ever do trainings at Legacy Salmon Creek or know someone who would be open to doing that? I think the information you shared about ACEs was so insightful into helping me understand why our patients are the way they are. I would love my co-workers to be able to benefit from it too." Lindsey Karlsen
"The Resilience workshop was well conducted, informative and fun!" Rachel
"A great mix of presentation and exercises - the exercises helped in understanding the feelings that can be produced by types of responses." Susan
"This is a useful tool to expose people to the foundational issues and approaches to addressing trauma in children and youth." Loren
"The resilience info will definitely impact the way I interact with my own kids and hopefully I can share with other parents." Kacy
"This helps me understand the underlying issues behind behaviors and try to problem solve together!" Eunice
"The workshop was far more informative than I was expecting. It got me to think on a different level." Melinda
Biography content
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