Early Years

The seeds of ONTOS were sown 25 years ago while I was finishing my undergraduate education in psychology, philosophy and the humanities.  I had intuited, as many were at the time and continue to, a way of helping others through a more comprehensive, holistic and inclusive approach to health, wellness and personal growth.  I was in love with the study of ontology, that is, the study of ‘Being’.  Ontos is the Greek word for Being  – the most inclusive word in our language and one of the cornerstones of philosophy.   From the very beginning, it made sense to me that psychotherapy should first and foremost address the whole person – that is, the essence of their being – their inmost core. The only place in the U.S. at the time that was working from this same perspective  in the area of clinical psychology was Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  I spent the next five years working on my masters and Ph.D. at Duquesne steeped in the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Maslow, Rogers, Laing, Jung, Assagioli and the great wisdom traditions of the world.  I received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1987.

Building a Practice and Family

The next 5 years (1987 – 1992) saw me humbled by the responsibilities of making a living in the world, learning the skills of being a husband and a father and the sobering reality of working with abused children and their families.  The day to day struggles of running a growing practice, making a living and continuing to learn how to be a husband and father, were and are a wonderful apprenticeship in how the nitty gritty details of life forge in us strength, endurance and being.  I still always carried the vision of ONTOS in my deepest heart, however, it became increasingly clear it would be a very long journey with many obstacles to overcome on the road towards making ONTOS a reality.  As all good apprenticeships - this one afforded me the opportunity to learn and practice psychology in a traditional setting to find out both what worked and did not - and how a more inclusive and holistic approach would work. 

Growing Beneath The Ground

Slowly, but surely the seeds of ONTOS were germinating in small and at times remarkable ways in the years from 1993-1996.  I had a life changing experience called a vision quest (see full story in Ever Flowing On) and began learning about indigenous healing practices throughout the world (Native American, Australian, South American, Asian and African) which were full of stories of the journey towards wholeness and living in balance with nature, creativity and spirituality.  However, most of this continued to happen in my own individual life and because my own growth was always slow it took a great deal of time to begin to find a way to integrate this work into my professional life as a psychotherapist. 

The Seeds Germinate and Begin to Bear Fruit

From 1996-2004 ONTOS came into being in a real and tangible way through workshops, intensives, wilderness journeys, ongoing weekly ‘kiva’ meetings, bi-annual long dances and the book Ever Flowing On and the CD The River.  I became a vision quest guide and wilderness first responder - guiding 15 quests over 7 years.  The seeds had not only germinated and grown, but had begun to bear their first early fruit.   My main question came back to integrating everything that occurred in one's life into the journey towards wholeness.  One of the main concerns for me remained how to integrate the personal existential world of our day to day domestic lives with the larger transpersonal world of expanded states of consciousness, wild nature and deep heart centered, soul inspired creativity. 

Pruning and Re-organizing

In 2005 hurricane Ivan threatened to destroy all we had built in the 25 years preceding. Ironically, it also first and foremost became a place of refuge for my family to recover and rebuild our home in Gulf Breeze, Florida - weaving together in an amazing way my domestic and creative life.  The blessing of this is that my individual psychotherapy practice has truly become a place to develop the vision of 25 years ago into a place where my main passion and professional work is helping and supporting individuals on their journey towards wholeness - helping them become more conscious,  compassionate and creative human beings while being more integrated and effective in their personal and professional lives. For me this includes immersing ourselves in nature (outward nature and our own unique and tremendously sacred inward nature) through meditation, prayer, creativity, journaling and dream work.  Each of these help us understand our life journey by honoring the transitions that make each of our individual stories part of the Great Story of humanities journey towards ever greater levels of healing, awareness and eventually wholeness. 

Dr. Michael Brant DeMaria

Copyright © 2003 Michael DeMaria / ONTOS
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