Ernie was raised in a church-supported children's home. Earlier than most, he wanted to understand his beginnings and related wounds. Unconscious of the 'itch' in his soul for wholeness, he sought a balance between his outside experience(s) and inside reality. Later, his career of working with the severely disabled and trauma patient evolved into a psychospiritual understanding of our inner lives. He discovered a willingness in people to 'let go' of moral self-judgements regarding their trauma, and an openness to a broader and ethical context of compassion. The result was forgiveness and a personal freedom to simply BE who they were. An integrative, restorative, healing philosophy evolved in the form of Innerscape.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist; Licensed School Psychologist; Licensed Professional Counselor; Certified Rehabilitation Psychologist.

Big Tail - Small Kite is a new self-help book that uses metaphor to depict the emotional and spiritual growth possible when healing shame. The premise is that if the human spirit is unable to reach its intended potential, it will grow desperate to self-actualize. Specifically, we are in a spiritual crisis when our outer experience is incongruent with our inner sense of self. Being torn by shame makes matters worse because it is not something that WE do. Rather, it is done TO us. Each of us comes into the world free from the prejudgments of others and, by design, perfect. However, our outer experience teaches us two harsh realities. First, a shaming tear is inevitable in a culture that considers it humorous to disgrace others. Second, this experience charges our emotions so much that we have to develop an inner life to manage the effect. Like a kite with a torn sail cover, the downward force of shame and upward push of the human spirit, create the struggle for self-acceptance. Big Tail - Small Kite uses a well-known childhood story - The Ugly Duckling - to help the reader remember their personal experience with shame, while using a kite metaphor to present a seven step process to healing it.