Justin’s path to becoming an Evolved Nest Ambassador is rooted in profound personal loss and an unwavering commitment to ending unnecessary suffering. After after experienced various family traumas, Justin came to understand what gets labeled as “mental illness” not as individual pathology, but as the predictable outcome of evolutionary mismatch—particularly the absence of our species-typical developmental niche. His own journey through what the mental health system called mental illness, but what he recognizes as neurobiological developmental disorder, has given him hard-won insight into why the Evolved Nest framework matters so urgently.
Drawing on his background as a peer support worker with lived experience in recovery, and his time as an outreach worker at a food kitchen in Kamloops serving those impacted by mental illness and addiction, Justin brings both compassion and clear-eyed understanding to his work. He was first drawn to developmental science through Jean Liedloff’s The Continuum Concept which opened his eyes to the ancestral context humans require to thrive. The Evolved Nest framework deepened this understanding and gave him a roadmap for healing—both personal and collective. Justin’s path hasn’t followed conventional career trajectories—navigating disability and finding modern work environments incompatible with his own needs have deepened his understanding of how profoundly mismatched contemporary life is with human biology.
Justin now lives what he teaches. Together with his life partner and daughter he spends three seasons a year workstaying on farms and with intentional communities, most recently in Agassiz, BC. This isn’t simply lifestyle experimentation—it’s a deliberate attempt to approximate evolved conditions and rebuild the small-band social structure that human nervous systems are designed for. As a minimalist pursuing a handmade life rooted in the local ecosystem, Justin views this return to place-based, embodied living as both a healing practice and a spiritual path. He has studied permaculture and sacred gardening, understanding that our disconnection from soil and seasons is inseparable from our disconnection from each other.
Justin’s work centers on helping communities face a difficult truth: humans have been increasingly misdeveloped for thousands of years, and our current lives are largely shaped around coping with these invisible wounds. This recognition requires deep collective grief work—mourning what was lost while simultaneously building what can be reclaimed. Living on Secwépemc traditional territory—where the 2021 discovery of 215+ unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School sparked worldwide reckoning with the multigenerational trauma of forced assimilation—Justin recognizes that Indigenous lifeways maintained far more alignment with evolved nest conditions than modern industrial society.
The residential schools’ explicit mission to “kill the Indian”—to sever children from theirlanguages, families, and developmental context—stands as perhaps the most brutal recent example of nest destruction in service of creating compliant colonial subjects. Justin’s current project, Lunar Phase Healing Ceremonies, maps the wheel of the year onto the human lifespan, offering weekly land-based gatherings that address specific primal wounds caused by the absence of the nest. For example, spring ceremonies focus on primal wounds around perinatal experiences and breastfeeding; summer addresses wounds of childhood and adolescence; fall honors elderhood and death; winter creates space to heal ancestral wounds carried forward through generations. These ceremonies are designed to facilitate nervous system co-regulation and help communities move toward the collective intelligence and emergence that become possible when humans live in harmony with their biology.
Justin’s vision is to be an agent for transformation—helping communities recognize that we are all neurobiologically impacted by the degraded nest, and that facing this tragedy honestly is the first step toward healing. He believes the meta-crisis we’re living through cannot be addressed without returning to small-band social structures, and his work focuses on making that return feel less daunting and more possible. The challenge isn’t just understanding what we’ve lost, but grieving it deeply enough to do the hard work of restoration.
Justin’s unconventional path—without academic credentials or traditional career markers—is precisely what makes his contribution vital. He embodies the truth that healing is possible, that the Evolved Nest isn’t just theory but lived practice, and that the most important expertise often comes not from institutions but from those who’ve walked through the fire and found their way home.
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Justin’s Statement of Impact from Great Nonprofits
“Kindred has been an island of coherence in a sea of chaos! The information I’ve been introduced to by this beautiful non-profit has deeply informed my life and choices. I have become a healthier, happier man. Not only has this organization benifited me but it has benifited my whole family as well. My partner and I have raised our daughter using so much of the information that we’ve found through Kindred Media. As a result our daughter is developing into the most amazing little human being. She will be benefited for a lifetime thanks to Kindred Media!”
Fields of Interest: Nervous system healing, collective grief work, regenerative living,
neurobiological development
Project: Lunar Phase Healing Ceremonies – Weekly land-based gatherings addressing
primal wounds through seasonal and lunar cycles
Website: Coming soon