Benjamin J. Sanford
Founder & Guide
Born and raised on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, Ben has been deeply absorbed in nature, science, health, and fitness since a young age and has spent most of his time barefoot outside pushing his limits by playing, training, and working hard in the natural world. His coaching, healing, and consulting practice reflect a lifetime of embodied study and experience and over 20 years of coaching, individuals, and groups in a variety of human potential skillsets. Ben’s education and training took a non-traditional route by seeking apprenticeships supported by decades of holistic self-study in numerous disciplines including health, wellness, functional movement, ancestral skills and wisdom, martial arts, nature connection and rewilding, personal and interpersonal transformation, developmental psychology, mentoring, coaching, and leadership. Ben also enjoys studying cognitive science, complexity science, systems theory, psychology, philosophy, consciousness, and the natural sciences. He is currently working on a master’s degree in learning experience design, and educational technology, and has a Bachelors of Arts in Educational Studies and natural science.
“My Mission...
To be a servant of the Great Mystery as a guardian of choice by living with the earth, and holding the space for transformation as a protector, healer, and guide.”
![addare2[1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5831f08e579fb38c57151f19/1482563021130-RFPAY6PVXPGTZGUQWOUY/addare2%5B1%5D.jpg)
Ben and his wife Victoria Jazwic-Sanford
Ben is a Holistic Lifestyle Coach with the Chek Institute, a student of Robbins Madannes Strategic Intervention coaching, and a practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming as an affiliate of the Association of Integral Psychology. He also uses Integral Lifestyle Practices of the Integral Institute and Heartmath biofeedback technology to support his client’s growth. Ben practices a blend of the healing arts including massage therapy, Jin shin do bodymind acupressure, Elemental Herbalism, Caretaking/ Earth stewardship, and the Niasziih healing system of Wilderness Fusion among other modalities. His training also includes emergency medicine with the American Alpine Institute and the Landmark Education curriculum for living, including the Self Expression and Leadership Series.
Ben is a level 1 CrossFit instructor and the founder of the Anima Sporta fitness method. In conjunction with the healing arts, he has studied martial arts for over 30 years and is an instructor in the martial art of Sikal (Silat/ Kali) under Guru Ken Pannell, and also holds ranks in Tae Kwon Do, and Bujinkan budo taijutsu (Ninjutsu). Ben occasionally teaches tactical combatives to law enforcement and military groups, including special forces, and regularly teaches classes and seminars in the science, art, and philosophy of protecting life at the Tribal Edge Hero Lab, and for the Scout and Scout Protector courses at Tom Brown’s Tracker School.
Since 1996, Ben has attended numerous life-changing classes with Tom Brown Jr. studying the ancient skills and philosophy of living with the earth, and volunteered for many more. As a member of the Apprenticeship and other societies, he continues his training regularly with Tom and the Tracker community. He is a graduate of Wilderness Awareness school's coyote mentoring, the art of mentoring series, and other programs taught by John Young which are focused on traditional learning, teaching, and leadership practices used by indigenous people around the planet. Through training with Malcolm Ringwalt at Earth-Heart, he has studied and practiced the ancient tool of the vision quest and became a vision quest protector so that he could facilitate this powerful transformational process for others.
Ben owns Tarzan's Tree Service which offers tree care and natural stewardship services and consulting. In 2002, Ben founded Tribal Edge primal arts training center located in Blyn on five acres between Jamestown S'klallam Tribal land and the Buckhorn wilderness. Ben and his wife Victoria live on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula of Washington state where they offer coaching, courses, and consulting both live and online.
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