Embarking on the Become a Health & Life Coach Program in April 2019 with Health Coach Institute was a life-changing experience…Embarking on The Third Wave Psychedelic Coaching Program has been transformational and now the journey is boundless.

I am a philosopher, writer, musician and avid winter enthusiast. My career path has included all kinds of twists and turns in my pursuit of happiness on this bumpy road called life. I’ve lived a remarkable life indeed - As a “seeker" the experience has always been a top pursuit of mind and I even built a business around it — creating VIP Experiences for some of the world’s top musicians, living in a million-dollar home, with a wife and two beautiful boys, and two twin baby girls on the way… and suddenly one day at the age of 35, I dropped my kids off at school went to the office, came home and the house was empty… and it all came crashing down. Within six months I filed for bankruptcy and walked away from the career I worked tirelessly to create. Call it a mid-life crisis, call me out for all of my mistakes, call it failure. It was a defining moment in my life to either give up, completely give in to the ego-driven desires and unbeknownst programming and childhood trauma shit to work through. At 43, I stand taller than ever today and ready to share my experience and gift with students of life, like myself.

The call to teach became strong over the last six years, especially after the birth of my children; and through the long process of healing from the heartbreak of total loss I have come to understand the value in my experience for helping others with similar struggles. Enter coaching. I understand that I have a unique gift that allows people to open up to me and share their deepest fears and desires. And I have now learned how to support this energy, to share my knowledge and experience and create a practice to help others heal and become the best versions of themselves.

Why Plant Medicine? Why Psychedelics? How did this enter my life and why has it played such a pivotal role in where I am at today?

Education is a constant pursuit for me. I was a member of the National Honor Society all four years of High School with a 4.0GPA and on my way to graduate “with honors”. This was a big deal for me because my last name starts with a “V” and being the youngest in my family, I knew how long and boring graduations were. I made a promise to my dad I would graduate with honors so I could sit up in the front and he wouldn’t have to wait to hear my name called. 3 months before I was on my way to graduate with honors, I got expelled for 6 weeks for getting busted with pot on campus (ironically wasn’t mine and someone stashed it in my car under the seat). Little did I know that incident would likely change the course of my life. Being in the Bible belt of Texas in the late 90’s was no pick-nick with weed. It was zero tolerance. Despite being captain of the football team, president of D.A.R.E. and in A/P classes - I was booted and sent off campus to a detention facility. I struggled to maintain my 4.0 GPA - taking A.P. Calculus, English and Chemistry wasn’t too easy in a 3’x3’ cubicle with no teachers. My GPA dropped to a 3.9 when I made a C in one of my classes for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn’t graduate with honors. I had a chip on my shoulder for “The Man”. When everything went down at school I was made a mockery and called a hypocrite by my peers. After all, I was the president of the anti-drug organization on campus! I think like most kids when they’re 17, I was pretty confused and lacked guidance from my parents - neither of which ever smoked the “devil’s grass”. And yet as this took place, the valedictorian of our school was also suspended for getting caught smoking grass.

At times my marijuana use was anything but responsible, and recreational indeed. I believe my experience in college was akin to most kids - my grades suffered a bit, I discovered new amazing music. But also having ADD and anxiety, I learned that marijuana helped “slow down the train conductor in my mind” so that I could focus. I learned to balance my use with school and work.

Perhaps the shame and guilt of being punished for having weed on campus - when it wasn’t even mine- and given the illuminating information I got from reading The Emperor Wears No Clothes is what led me to change my major from Architecture to Philosophy - much to the spite of my conservative dad.

I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Texas in 2003. During my time at Texas, I took some amazing classes, including an American Studies class called “Society, Politics, and Culture of the 1960’s”. In this class I learned about how Bob Dylan got the Beatles stoned for the first time, I listened to first hand accounts about what life was like on campus in the 60’s from a member of the Black Panthers , I witnessed first hand accounts from a professor who taught on campus in the 60’s and was now getting her PhD in her 80’s, and I listened to first hand accounts from a leftist author who was getting his masters who hung out with John Lennon in New York regularly. All of these experiences and accounts changed the direction of my life. As a kid from a conservative family, I was the black sheep. My older brother literally beat me up the first time he found out I smoked pot. He disowned his best friend. This is what I was up against, but I knew in my gut…told my mom in 1995 at the ripe age of 16, “I think marijuana has positive benefits and will be legal someday when I’m older.”

After graduation in 2003 I moved to Whitefish, Montana on a to pursue dreams of living in a true ski town where I could grow some roots… after-all I grew up skiing since I was three years old and running around my parents ski rental shop, albeit we lived 9 hours away from the closest “ski area”. Nonetheless, I had the mountain spirit instilled in me as a young child. I realize now that it was my pursuit to connect with that child version of myself. After four seasons, I chased love out of Whitefish back to Austin, LA, Nashville, and Denver to chase more dreams… For over a decade I successfully (and unsuccessfully) chased my entrepreneurial dreams and built a career in the music industry, only to lose it all when my marriage fell apart in 2016.

Over the course of a decade in the music industry, I saw the pitfalls that fame and drug and alcohol abuse can have on artists and industry professionals (including myself). In 2011 my knowledge of medicinal marijuana grew tremendously when I was hired to manage the creative product development of Willie Nelson’s marijuana brand and merchandise called Pure Willie. As I immersed myself into the life of Willie Nelson, along with the health studies that were being published, I started see for the first time the fruits of my beliefs about the truth behind marijuana and it’s many benefits. After all, Willie Nelson is in his 80’s and lives on the road touring 300 days a year - that is an incredibly taxing lifestyle on one’s body. He doesn’t drink and lives a relatively clean life - opposite of a lot of the other aforementioned. We could all learn a lot from Willie and I took heed to it ever since. It’s not the plant that is the problem, it’s with people’s own ability to manage the use of it. Same with alcohol or any other kind of substance. My departure from the industry was no mistake. The timing was divine.

I returned to Flathead Valley in 2017 looking to reconnect, rebuild and find my path. I continued my pursuit to teach as a ski instructor, which ultimately led me to the realization to begin Life Coaching. Never the best student, but a helluva teacher — A Jack-of-all-trades — Man of many pursuits and experiences. Created and Managed 10,000’s of customer experiences. Now it’s time to take all of that and create a practice. A divorced father of four children, I am seeking to create a Brotherhood for Healing through my coaching for other divorced fathers struggling to fight the stereotypes that we are not committed, loving, and incredibly valuable to our children’s livelihood and development.

Today I continue to be a devoted student of the backcountry - spending as much time hiking and Alpine Touring as possible. My coaching methodology is heavily influenced by the teachings from O.G. Mandino, Dr. Joe Dispenza, The iChing, A Course In Miracles, “How To Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollen, and other important spiritual, mindfulness, philosophical, self-care, and habit change books, workshops, and programs. In May of 2022 I enrolled in a six-month intensive Psychedelic Coaching Program by The Third Wave to be a responsible, reliable resource for the psychedelic community.

Passion is my greatest capital.
Empathy will take me to the doorstep of one’s heart.
My goal is to guide every client down the path toward their best self.

With Loving Kindness,

Chas Vergauwen