I have worked in a variety of occupations, including artist, deputy tax assessor, magazine publisher and editor, author, columnist, hypnotherapist, counselor, marketing manager for an aerospace corporation, director of a natural healing arts center, public relations coordinator, mental health executive director, life/personal coach, and photographer. I am old enough to have earned every wrinkle in my face, puffy eyes, scar on my body, all the silver in my receding hair, and nose marks from my eyeglass frames.

I am a Certified Reiki Master Teacher, Certified Hypnotherapist, and Life/Personal/Business Coach. I have 53 years of combined experience in counseling, Reiki, and Life/Business/Personal Coaching. I served as the Executive Director of several mental health agencies and crisis centers and worked as a therapist in two psychiatric hospitals.

I was born in Reno, Nevada. After age five, I grew up in East Los Angeles in a single-parent family. While in my early teens, the notorious White Fence gang recruited me into their violent gang.

My family later moved to Orange County in Southern California, where I attended high school. I surfed in Huntington Beach, lettered in Varsity Track and Cross Country, and was the school paper Editor in Chief. I was also the Editor in Chief of my college paper.

Drafted into the U.S. Army, I served a 14-month tour in Vietnam. I taught myself to speak Vietnamese with eager assistance from local Vietnamese. Subsequently, these local Vietnamese introduced me to families with whom I shared meals. I was awarded the United States Army Bronze Star Medal while in Vietnam.

After my return to the U.S., I immediately re-enrolled in college to continue my Journalism studies. I received a suicide note from an older female classmate during my first week back to college. We both stood in the college parking lot that Friday morning, talking for several hours until she drove home. She returned to class the following Monday, and I soon changed my major to Psychology.

I created and directed several non-profit mental health social service organizations developed to serve the community. I was successful in writing state and federal grants.

In 1983, I founded and directed Southwest Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. My comprehensive training provided students with Executive, Corporate, and Business Coaching techniques, principles, and methods. Southwest Institute also provided services to numerous businesses and corporations and to psychological, social service, law enforcement, judicial, medical, employee assistance, and education personnel. In addition, we provided diverse classes and workshops, now universally defined as Personal/Business and Life Coaching, to the public.

A published author, I was the Publisher and Editor of the Northern Arizona Review, a monthly literary, art, and photography magazine. I also published a 20-page weekly advertiser. I organized and directed two national writers’ conferences in Oregon and Washington. I am currently working on several novels, short stories, poetry and nonfiction books.

An avid artist, photographer, and writer, I utilize creative arts in my Reiki and Life Coaching practice.

My spiritual journey has taken me to many places, and I have worked with people from all socioeconomic lifestyles. I bring a wide breadth of life experience, having lived and worked in diverse geographical areas, including Sedona, Arizona; Lake Tahoe, Nevada; San Luis Obispo, California; Crestline, California; Vashon Island, Washington; Monterey, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; Ashland, Oregon; Coos Bay, Oregon; Grand Junction, Colorado; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Truchas, New Mexico; Bellingham, Washington; Reno, Nevada; Eugene, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Prescott, Arizona; Phoenix, Arizona; Seattle Washington; Cedaredge, Colorado and more.

My Psychic and intuitive gifts continue to be intensified several times in my life in service for others.

In 2002, I was living in Truchas, New Mexico–a small old mountain village straddling a high ridge at 8,400 feet of a mesa with good cold mountain streams running nearby. Truchas began as a Spanish land grant in 1754. Robert Redford filmed many of the exteriors for “The Milagro Beanfield War” in Truchas. The town’s small traditional adobe homes and tiendas remain the same today.

I met and discussed healing, stigmata, and prayer with Sons of the Holy Family Father Casimiro Roca at his desk in a small office in the little mission church, Santuario de Chimayo.  This church is located 24 miles northeast of Santa Fe on a hill near the Santa Cruz River, in a valley within the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on land originally held sacred by Native Americans. The mission church is in the small village of Chimayó, between Taos and Santa Fe in northern New Mexico.

Fr. Roca asked me to walk with him as he told me about the church’s history and the surrounding lands while we continued to talk about spirituality and healing. Fr. Roca repeated the legend of the crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas, the “Black Christ.” It was Good Friday in 1810, he says, and a light was coming from the ground near the Santa Cruz River. The landowner, Don Bernardo Abeyta, saw the light and began to dig until he found the crucifix. Three times, the men, women, and children formed a procession and carried the crucifix to the church at Santa Cruz, Fr. Roca says. Three times, it reappeared in Chimayó, and finally, the people decided to build a church at the site where it was discovered.

Fr. Roca frequently stopped to bless crosses for visitors worldwide. Before I left Fr. Roca gave me his copy of a book he authored in Spanish. “The Good Lord listens here,” said Father Roca.  People come to the Santuario in the thousands, close to 300,000 a year. It is not uncommon for 2,000 pilgrims to congregate here on Good Friday. El Santuario attracts nearly 300,000 visitors each year. Many seek and feel they received their healings.

Before I moved from New Mexico, I carried several large bags of the healing soil, scooped from the 18-inch-wide “posito,” or well. I have shared the dirt with numerous people I worked with who expressed positive healing results.

I recovered from a serious life-threatening Lyme disease and ‘Free Air” illness using my knowledge and skills of Reiki and, this increased my compassion, healing gifts, and sense of presence.

I am a registered member of the International Association of Reiki Professionals and Reiki Membership Association.

I take Reiki and self-care seriously.

I live in a cozy cabin with a warm pellet stove at 7,000’+ above the charming small mountain town of Cedaredge, Colorado, where I teach Reiki classes. Mule Deer, Wild Turkeys, and diverse birds visit me daily. I understand Black Bears, Red Foxes, Cougars, and more live nearby. I look forward to their visit. Fifteen minutes higher up the majestic mountain is countless diverse wildlife, more than 300 lakes, and amazing nature.

Read my personal blog to learn more about me at https://stephenbrunoblog.com/

Visit my photography website at https://www.stephenbrunophotography.com/

Visit my Life Coaching website at https://lifecoachingpartnership.com/