About Mark
The Art of Healing and Wholeness is a licensed practice offering a rich blend of life coaching, depth work, and inner guidance.
My name is Mark Barrios and I am the sole owner and operator. I studied psychology at Saint Leo University and am currently undergoing training to become a Jungian Analyst. I am an avid reader and student of depth & analytical psychology, comparative mythology, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Gnosticism, and alchemy. In addition, I am a former special agent wherein I conducted investigations and executive protection for the U.S. military and government worldwide. During my tenure as an investigator I studied the human mind and behavior and this was where my passionately deep inquiry for the depths of life truly began. Further, I am also an author. My soon to be released book: Paradigm Run: Dreams, Visions, Intuitions, & Synchronicities is a narrative non-fiction novel and is in its final stages of editing with a literary agency.
I have written more detailed information below should you find yourself interested.
I served for eight years in the U.S. Army as a Non-Commissioned Officer, deploying to Iraq, Haiti, and Afghanistan. Following those eight years, I made the difficult to decision to leave the military behind. However, I soon found myself serving as a private military contractor supporting operations at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan for the next four years and then the same position but in central Africa.
Throughout my years in the military and overseas, I was consistently serving in a supervisory and mentorship role. The mental health, physical fitness, spiritual fortitude, and overall wellbeing of my soldiers and team members were always paramount. This built a solid foundation for the role of a life coach.
However, my work goes far deeper than this alone. Following numerous encounters with the dark, tragic forces of life at a relatively young age (war, the loss of my mother and primary father figure in my life, the split with my ex-fiancé, other breakups, the loss of friends, and pets too), I soon found myself on a terribly dark, yet blissful path of spiritual and psychological transformation.
I began to understand the unique paradox to suffering: although painful, suffering is the greatest catalyst to change and transformation. It is through suffering we come to understand who we truly are in this life. Through such life experience we identify our own beliefs, our own values, and our personal truths. With this understanding of our true nature and self-realization we come to allow the wholeness of our personality to fully live, unconcerned with the conditioning we have underwent all our lives.
Plus, what is equally as beautiful as walking alongside others in life, is watching my own life transform in some way with each new client I engage with. The life of coaching and deep analytical work is a two way street. As transformation occurs with my clients, transformation occurs within me. And there is nothing more beautiful, and nothing I would rather be doing.
