Gifted Healer, Teacher & Visionary

Scott Schwenk is an extraordinary and gifted healer, teacher, visionary, and leader focused on teaching his clients the most effective ways to heal themselves, their lives, and others. Scott is deeply gifted in reaching beyond the noise and chaos that his clients may be experiencing and helping them discover and heal the core issues blocking deeper experiences of love and happiness within, restoring flow to every area of their lives.

When I was a kid in Rochester, NY, I was taking out books from the grammar school library on hypnosis, e.s.p., magic, and Dr. Seuss (it was the 70's!). I was "off to the races", and would become a voracious reader of anything that smelled like freedom and awakening (though I didn't know what was driving me back then).

My mother was definitely a huge influence, coming from a corporate training background, she'd regularly bring home books for me that she was exposed to. She had me reading Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends And Influence People in the seventh grade.

When I hit my freshmen year of high school I got really involved with the local Methodist church, running the youth group for a couple of years, going on regular mission trips to rebuild homes for disaster victims and poverty stricken areas. This was a really formative time in my life, when my self esteem started expanding. I saw that I could make a difference in the world. It was also the time that the "New Age Movement" started getting more traction, and my attention. Every weekend, I'd go to the local new-age bookstore and pore over the books for hours and hours. It was like getting real nourishment after decades of subsisting on processed foods.

Arriving at the State University of New York at Buffalo, I began sitting with a local meditation group every week for the next four years, continuing to read everything I could get my hands on.... everything from past-life regression and all kinds of healing techniques, to meditation and enlightened teachers. While my classmates were running home to memorize lines in scripts (I was in theatre school), I was running home to read the next chapter in whatever book had been captivating me.

Read On

In the summer of 1994, after graduating from university, my life took another major shift, I took my first Siddha Yoga Meditation Intensive at a stunning ashram in the Catskill Mountains just outside of New York City. The intensive is the program where I felt the lights come on inside, and stay on. After the intensive whenever I would sit and close my eyes, there would always be a noticeable and sometimes quite strong feeling of Presence and energy moving inside of me...and it felt great! I felt more alive than ever. This is when I took my first formal teacher, - Swami Chidvilasananda.

Within a couple of years I was living in suits in New York City as a personal banker for Chase Manhattan Bank by day, and chanting and meditating by night in the Manhattan Ashram for Siddha Yoga. It's this amazing little brownstone on the Upper West Side that I called home for the better part of a year.

Once my contract with Chase was up, I moved up to the Catskills ashram to join the Siddha Yoga Staff for the next two years. In this time, I felt like I got to grow up all over again, from the inside out. And while I'd say I'm still growing leaps and bounds every year, this period of my life was instrumental in creating a foundation for the rest of my life.

During this whole last ten years, I was doing healing work on the side and learning various modalities; deep-tissue massage, shiatsu and reflexology, Reiki Master, Holographic Repatterning, Coaching, and more.

After my two years in the ashram, I moved to Los Angeles to get involved in the entertainment business. In my world, movies had the potential to reach everyone on the planet first, second, or third hand. If my life was going to be about making a difference, I wanted the difference to reach as far and wide as possible.

Within a short period of time I found myself working in the talent agency world, and eventually for Creative Artists Agency, the number one agency for A-list entertainment people around the world. Within about 14 months (which is like 14 years in entertainment years!), it was time for me to leave. I was doing healing work at night and on the weekends, and realized that my calling was to do healing work directly rather than through the entertainment business. So on May 1, 2002, I became an entrepreneur, and within a short period of time was getting a lot of press on my bodywork from Allure to Lucky to Variety to Daily Candy.

About two years later, the business coach I had hired encouraged me to go see the healer she worked with. She said he'd help me get out of my head. I didn't know whether to be insulted or laugh at how spot-on she was. I called the number she gave, and heard a spritely Southern accent say "Hey-lo...". I wasn't sure if this was for me or not just yet, so I said, "What exactly do you do?".

"Exactly?" he said.

"There's nothing I can say that will ever satisfy that part of your brain. It's experiential. But I'll tell you this — what we'd be working on with you specifically is getting you out of your head and clearing fear so you can trust yourself."

Something actually moved through my body when he said those words. I got goosebumps moving over my skin and made the appointment.

I had no idea what to expect, other than that I would be doing some kind of breathwork. At that first session with David Elliott (author of The Reluctant Healer), lightening struck. In the way that the Siddha Yoga Intensive was a major shift in my life, this was the next one, and it was MASSIVE. It was the single most profound spiritual experience I'd ever had in my life. Every cell vibrated. The energy moving through my body and spirit was like being hooked up to the power station for the city of Los Angeles. It was that strong.

I knew I had to learn to do this work with my clients.

In that first session, David said two very formative things to me that would become some of the bedrock of my work: 1) "I'm not looking for followers, I'm looking for leaders." 2) "The breath is a tool of the Work, it's not the Work."

Within a short period of time, I took all the Healer Training Classes he'd created, went on several of his retreats, firewalked, and started offering the work to my clients, transitioning from bodywork to the breath. I decided after that first session to put myself wherever David would be so I'd soak up everything . I became his assistant on the book tour in a number of cities for the launch of The Reluctant Healer, workshops, retreats, and healer trainings. And more recently have been teaching his Level 1 Healer Training class in NYC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

I'm sure there are many more evolutions to come with me and the work. I'll try to blog about the developments as they unfold.