My name is Chris. I’m a father, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, and someone who has learned firsthand what it means to lose connection with yourself, and slowly find your way back.

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For much of my life, I carried a belief that I wasn’t worthy. Experiences from childhood, military service, relationships, and life itself shaped the way I saw myself. I learned to people-please, to make myself small, and to carry things quietly rather than allowing myself to truly feel them.

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Eventually, that way of living stopped working.

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At a difficult turning point in my life, I had a choice: continue pushing things down or begin facing what I had been carrying. I chose to feel.

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Breathwork became an important part of that process. It gave me a way to move beyond simply thinking about what I was experiencing and begin listening to what my body had been holding.

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One of the simplest moments became one of the most meaningful.

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At forty-eight years old, I stood on a porch and said out loud, “I love myself.”

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And for the first time, I actually felt it.

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It wasn’t a dramatic breakthrough or the end of some perfect healing journey. It was a quiet recognition that something inside me had changed. I was beginning to come home to myself.

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That experience ultimately changed the direction of my life.

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I began studying breathwork more deeply and continued my training in practices that support connection between the body, breath, and nervous system. Today, that path has grown into Confluence Breath & Bodywork.

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But my work isn't about having all the answers or trying to fix someone.

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It is about creating a space where you don't have to perform, explain everything, or become someone different.

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I meet people where they are. I listen. I don't force the process. I offer guidance while respecting that each person's experience, nervous system, and path are their own.

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My work with fellow veterans is especially meaningful to me. I understand something about what it means to carry experiences silently, and I believe there is tremendous value in creating spaces where people can begin putting some of that weight down.

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Breathwork continues to teach me that healing isn't about becoming someone new.

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Sometimes it is about gently uncovering what has been there all along.

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The highs and lows of life still come. I am still learning, still growing, and still returning to the practices that help me reconnect.

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That is what Pause. Breathe. Live. means to me.

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A reminder that no matter how far away from ourselves we may feel, there can always be a way back.

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A way to come home to yourself.