ABOUT
I’m Esteban Olave.
My story is similar to many others. I created an identity around my experiences and circumstances early on. As time passed, certain aspects improved, while others worsened or stayed relatively neutral. Somewhere in those early years I was developing awareness of nuanced facets of my internal and external world, beginning to internalize the perceptions and beliefs that would influence and shape the person I’ve become and continue to grow into.
Like a traveler passing through vast terrain and unexpected turns, I’ve been shaped by infinite micro-moments, subtle yet significant, scattered across time and space. Along the way, certain pivotal shifts have emerged in my life, like mountain peaks, offering me clarity and only what I needed for the next leg of my journey.
From an early age, fear had naturally been instilled into me, passed down as a survival mechanism which served many generations before me well. The protection and environmental awareness I gained from that upbringing has shaped a large part of my early life.
However, just as one would leave a raft behind after crossing a stream, I too have continued on my path with a sense of non-grasping and willingness to travel onward when life asked this of me.
That primal fear had been surviving and thriving in every part of my being for a long time, and created a lifetime of conditions and experiences I would not wish on anyone. However, it was not my fear. And as I became more aware of this conditional fear, I began to intentionally seek out opportunities to illuminate my subconscious world and integrate my past.
I’ve always gravitated towards understanding life beyond the surface. There’s a natural and playful curiosity that lives there. And I appreciate being guided to moments of insight and revelation, like bread crumbs on a trail.
My path diverged from the trajectory my family had generationally been heading towards. And in a way, I know my path didn’t really diverge or go away from anything; it’s been following a thread of interdependent moments that connect all of us since the beginning of time.
I am grateful for the way service work found me. For the way it is me at my core. My life is the service and the impact.
~Words that resonate deep within and remind me of where I come from, where my vibration begins and ends.~
Several years ago at the age of 30, I had my initial awakening and woke up to a vastly different life than I had known before. Instead of just experiencing life, I was witnessing reality in a way I never knew possible, though something was familiar and comforting about it. And because my foundation is built around logic/rationality, medical/scientific frameworks, and trauma-informed care, my work organically pivoted towards creating supportive systems for people experiencing phenomena spanning the full breadth and depth of humanity, including those outside of culturally accepted paradigms.
BACKGROUND AND TRAINING
My most enduring teachers have been life itself through lived experience, self-reflection, the internet, preserved writing, and the wisdom woven into interactions that unfolded with clever-curious souls along the way.
My formal educational background includes:
- Bachelor of Arts in Social work with over a decade of experience supporting individuals navigating the medical system, community resources, support networks, trauma, crisis, substance use, and altered states of consciousness. I have trained worked in trauma-informed care and harm reduction for over ten years, offering education, outreach, and crisis support.
- 4+ years of self-guided studies in:
- insight/concentration-based meditation training through systems and traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other universal philosophies
- breathwork practices rooted in yogic/shamanic traditions
- energetic practices focusing on becoming aware of, and channeling subtle life-force within the body-mind
- 15+ years practicing with nature and learning to honor ancient healing traditions during a time when our culture is rapidly commodifying and diluting the wisdom found through plant medicine
