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My Story
The adventure of life is to learn. Now begins the study of being human.
Jackson was born and raised in rural Vermont, where he lived an active lifestyle. He grew up with a love for movement, participating in many athletics, competitively and recreationally, as well as dance, theatre, chorus and orchestra, with a keen interest in learning how to work and condition his body. In high school, he was a four-sport varsity athlete, in basketball, tennis, track & field, and cross-country running, and a member of four state championship teams. The allure of action and the joy of competition inspired Jackson to challenge himself constantly in his pursuit of peak performance.
The purpose of life is to grow. Evolution is a path of suffering.
The summer before college, Jackson suffered a knee injury that forever changed his life. His collegiate athletic career ended before it began. Poor advice from doctors and misguided physical therapy exacerbated imbalances within his body and led to chronic pain conditions. With competitive athletics a non-option, Jackson satisfied his need for movement through participation in dance ensemble and men’s acapella in college. But upon graduation, he committed himself to healing, with the aspiration of running ultramarathons in the next five years.
The nature of life is to change. Self-experimentation never hurts, except when it does.
With trust in his intuition and athletic experience, Jackson began to perform a basic exercise regimen based on guidance from physical therapists and personal trainers. He also began exploring barefoot activities, in order to rehabilitate his sense of balance. Initially, Jackson felt physical improvement; but something was amiss, and his exercises soon led him down a path of self-inflicted pain and suffering.
The challenge of life is to overcome. Pain is an opportunity for self-transformation.
Jackson moved to Washington DC for work, which exposed him to some noxious environments, figuratively and literally, at home and in the workplace. His workout regimen devolved into escapism. The intensity, frequency, and duration of his workouts escalated exponentially, and his eating habits became disordered. He began to embody all the stress around him in action and habit. This state of dis-ease also gave an unknown pathogen within him the chance to flourish: Lyme Disease. In short, a perfect storm of stressors gathered force and gained influence within Jackson. It culminated in a death-like experience he still doesn’t fully understand; after which, he awoke to a sense of existential gratitude – an inner peace offering a new beginning, a movement toward a grateful life.
The essence of life is to care. Yoga is the practice of mindful embodiment.
The yogic method was re-presented to Jackson in the form of a modest little yoga studio in Washington, DC. His first class in the space served as a reintroduction to mindfulness, a reminder of forgotten principles of health and the truth of well-being. Promising nothing beyond a process for healing, Jackson committed himself to the practice of self-inquiry. Slowly and mindfully, he set to work resetting his habits: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. He began volunteering in the space shortly thereafter, situating himself securely within the safety of a caring community. The future he hoped for began to manifest.
The secret of life is to dare. Dissatisfaction is the beginning of awakening.
After nine months of daily yoga asana classes, Jackson realized he needed additional help to reintegrate his body, with particular regard for his spine. Due to his disappointments with other therapies, he decided to try Rolfing® Structural Integration, knowing nothing about the modality other than its reputation as painful but potentially beneficial. Similar to his initial experience at the yoga studio, Jackson’s first Rolfing® session proved a revelation. By integrating weekly Rolfing® sessions with daily classes of yoga asana, Jackson discovered a powerful recipe for physical transformation. In fact, the transformation he experienced inspired him to enroll in a Yoga Teacher Training, with little knowledge of Yoga beyond yoga asana classes, and then to quit his job to study at The Rolf Institute® of Structural Integration, with little knowledge of Rolfing® beyond his own experience. Each enrollment was a leap of faith, and the only thing Jackson truly knew was it all felt right.
The beauty of life is to give. It is in the act of giving that we receive.
After graduating from yoga teacher training, Jackson began teaching at his neighborhood yoga studio. With the trust and good faith of the studio owner, four classes per week soon became seven classes per week, and Jackson relished the opportunity to serve others. His instruction style, born of his lived-experience and his mentors, emphasized his role as a guide, holding space and inviting practitioners to be present with themselves in a way other exercise modalities often do not. To come as you are and give yourself unconditional presence, to integrate critical thinking and critical feeling: that’s the whole beautiful point of the practice.
The more Jackson learned through study and practice, the more he realized the universality of Yoga. He had often described Rolfing® Structural Integration to friends as “manual yoga,” and when he left Washington DC for Boulder, CO to study at The Rolf Institute®, his education reinforced this characterization. Dr. Ida P. Rolf studied Yoga prior to developing Rolfing® Structural Integration. This recognition, along with his study of DermoNeuroModulation (a term that applies a science-based perspective to bodywork therapies, and thus necessarily challenges traditional explanatory paradigms) revealed the need for us all to remember a divine truth within therapy: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. This is a truth of Yoga ("Union").
Therefore, Jackson founded Yoga SparÅ›a® Integration Therapy in 2018, as a manual and movement therapy to honor both ancient yogic and modern scientific methods seeking principles of truth. In doing so, Yoga SparÅ›a® Integration Therapy serves to give the bodywork profession a modality with a name beyond a cult of individual ego and to remind practitioners of the selfless and timeless principles and origins of our work.
The joy of life is to love. Teach what you embody, embody what you teach.
Jackson knows the way to resolve chronic pain, heal autoimmune disease, and achieve performance excellence is scientific literacy and yogic practice. He has learned the hard way, so hopefully you don’t have to. In health care, Jackson knows “Nobody can do it for you, but you cannot do it alone.”
Now, Jackson works with folks like you. In private sessions, Jackson’s integration therapy offers clients an interactive sensorimotor rehabilitation, through hand-holds that are gentle, intentional, slow, intelligent, responsive, and effective, allowing your nervous system to self-regulate and resolve habituated patterns of tension. At the same time, Jackson coaches you to engage in critical thinking and critical feeling to promote self-efficacy in your relationship with your body and mind – to know your own way of being.
Jackson's joys are simple: walking barefoot through the wilderness, sharing time with family and friends, learning about neuroscience and human behavioral biology, and seeking adventures around the world – everywhere and always, working to embody his practices of health and well-being.
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The joy of life is to love. Teach what you embody, embody what you teach.
Jackson knows the way to resolve chronic pain, heal autoimmune disease, and achieve performance excellence is scientific literacy and yogic practice. He has learned the hard way, so hopefully you don’t have to. In health care, Jackson knows “Nobody can do it for you, but you cannot do it alone.”
Now, Jackson works with folks like you. In private sessions, Jackson’s integration therapy offers clients an interactive sensorimotor rehabilitation, through hand-holds that are gentle, intentional, slow, intelligent, responsive, and effective, allowing your nervous system to self-regulate and resolve habituated patterns of tension. At the same time, Jackson coaches you to engage in critical thinking and critical feeling to promote self-efficacy in your relationship with your body and mind – to know your own way of being.
Jackson's joys are simple: walking barefoot through the wilderness, sharing time with family and friends, learning about neuroscience and human behavioral biology, and seeking adventures around the world – everywhere and always, working to embody his practices of health and well-being.