Hi, I'm Alex
I am a father, coach, somatic therapist, writer, and entrepreneur. I’m the co-founder of Natura Care, a non-profit addiction program harnessing psychedelics, and the founder of Sons of Now, a men’s group for the metamodern man. I also write Deep Fix, a popular Substack newsletter, and my essays have appeared in a wide range of publications.
After graduating from Dartmouth College, I spent a dozen years as a technology executive and entrepreneur. I built and scaled revenue teams at leading Silicon Valley companies, including Twitter, Salesforce, Slack, Copper, and VentureBeat. I also helped launch several startups from scratch, with outcomes varying from successful to comically bad. I learned fastest from the bad ones.
During that time, I lived an extreme double life. For nearly a decade, I was the prisoner of a polysubstance addiction, stumbling blindly toward my death. Despite the charade of external success I tried desperately to maintain, inside I was insecure, numb to meaning, living in constant low-grade threat, literally unable to make it twenty minutes without getting high. The toll of my addiction was devastating, touching every facet of my life. That I survived is a miracle. And it was only then, when I finally stopped running and turned inward, that I tripped into an awakening I hadn’t expected, and with it, the first real source of optimism I’d ever known.
Gradually, I began to see that the relief I craved from substances—quieting the mind, soothing self-doubt, tasting ecstasy and transcendence—had never been outside me. That discovery lit a fire, turning healing and human flourishing into my vocation. It propelled me to learn from teachers around the world, plunge into psychology to understand why we do what we do, and root myself in spiritual traditions. For over a decade now, I’ve trained in numerous contemplative traditions, including Theravāda and Vajrayāna Buddhism, Hindu Tantra, various yoga systems, which I went on to teach for a time, the 12 Steps, and bare-bones nonduality, and Gongfu cha. I’ve also worked extensively with ayahuasca, gratefully studying with indigenous lineage holders in the Kamënstá and Shipibo traditions of South America.
And somehow, against all odds, all this work actually worked. It left me with a felt sense of okayness and a trust in life's mystery I never thought possible.
Having found some footing myself, it was only natural to begin offering support to others. For years, I’ve coached dozens of founders and executives through birthing and selling companies, rebuilding after burnout, and everything in between. I’ve also supported people in profound experiences that shift the entire felt sense of self and reality. I’m a Certified Hakomi Practitioner, trained in mindfulness-based, body-centered psychotherapy. My coaching brings together everything I’ve learned from my years in business and leadership, extensive training in somatic psychology, and a lifelong study of consciousness. I help people wake up, heal old patterns, and lead from a deeper place of truth and heart.
Along the way, I’ve developed expertise and special interest in a few areas. One is addiction recovery—not just for those who identify as “addicts,” but for anyone caught in cycles of overwork, numbing, or distraction, which describes much of modern life. Sometimes this means helping a founder face a secretive high-functioning addiction; other times it’s through my work with Natura Care, a nonprofit program innovating psychedelic-assisted approaches to recovery. I see addiction as a collective issue at the root of much of our cultural malaise. When we begin to recognize it not as failure but as a way we’ve learned to bear disconnection, a new freedom becomes possible—and with it, the capacity to live the kind of life we all long for. My course Life Not Wasted was created to help people break free from modern compulsions and rediscover a way of living that feels joyous and deeply satisfying.
Another is men’s work, which helped turn my life around at crucial junctures and remains one of my deepest commitments. I’ve seen how powerful this deceptively simple practice can be: helping men connect honestly, soften the barriers around their hearts, step into their strength with integrity, and discover a sense of purpose. It also creates an unflinchingly real space beyond therapeutic safety, where we can reveal ourselves and confront blind spots we could never see alone—only through relationship. I’m passionate about sharing this work with others, both through my own groups and through the wider men’s movement that, at its best, is helping to heal our culture.
In the last few years, my curiosity has led me into emerging science and modalities of fundamental wellbeing, essentially a modern lens on spiritual awakening, inspired by Jeffrey Martin’s research. This work helps people realize the shift contemplative traditions have always pointed to: a natural movement where psychological suffering loosens, self-identity softens, and a stable sense of wellbeing comes to the foreground of experience. It’s not about chasing a special state but about opening to things exactly as they are, seeing through the distortions that keep us separate, and finding the capacity to meet life with more receptivity and joy. And it isn’t tied to any one tradition or belief system, but is a basic human capacity, available to anyone. Sharing this possibility with others has become one of the most meaningful parts of my work.
On the personal side, I live in the Oakland hills with my partner, Grace, whose name couldn’t be more fitting, and our baby boy. After all I’ve been through—facing darkness and despair, and somehow being given a second chance at life—becoming a father has been one of the greatest joys I’ve known, even as I’m still figuring it out. I also love to surf, dance, meditate, sip tea, and I’m known for some truly questionable jokes.
If any of this resonates, feel free to reach out: alex [at] deepfix [dot] co.