Carlin's childhood experiences in the tops of apple trees and sneaking around in the dark for hours led to a deep and lasting trust in the power of the wild to invite our truest selves forward. As a synthesizer and edge-walker he has dabbled in many worlds, spending time as a startup founder, bartender, physics researcher, wilderness skills instructor, rite of passage facilitator, somatic parts-work practitioner, and hitchhiking vagabond. He weaves multiple complementary elements into his offerings, drawing on somatic trauma therapy, poetry and myth, and archetypal embodiment. Carlin's formal training includes relational somatic trauma therapy, Rolfing Structural Integration, and a nine-month nature instructor training at the Wilderness Awareness School.  He loves to cook, especially ramen (from scratch), shakshuka, and buckwheat crust pies.​

John is  devoted to the remembrance of soul, culture, and Earth. For over two decades, he has been guiding transformative processes that weave myth, movement, and ceremony into immersive rites of passage rooted in ancestral wisdom and animist reverence.  His work is deeply informed by study and mentorship within Earth-based lineages, wilderness initiation, and regenerative community practices. John is the co-director of the award-winning documentary The Village of Lovers, and co-founder of the School of Mythopoetics—a training ground for soul initiation, cultural repair, and ceremonial leadership.  Through storytelling, ritual design, and grief tending, John guide individuals and communities across thresholds of transformation. His facilitation invites a return to deep belonging—with land, lineage, and purpose—and offers maps for becoming trustworthy humans in this time of profound cultural transition.