For over 25 years Charlie has taught mindfulness and communication. He began learning about mindfulness for stress reduction and self-empowerment in college and later studied in the ashrams and temples of Southeast Asia. Over the years he has taught mindfulness to thousands of people.

About the same time that he was learning mindfulness, Charlie also became a certified and practicing mediator. While offering those services through county mediation programs he earned a living in sales and marketing. He developed both the "hard" and "soft" communication skills of being an effective salesman and also became an entrepreneur, running a couple of small companies.

However Charlie has always had a passion for politics and trying to merge practical spiritual skills with politics. He strives to wake people up, bring out the best in them, to remind them how powerful and amazing they are (with humility), and to create a world that our hearts know is possible. That is why he launched Beyond Polarization and does coaching.

Charlie has studied numerous mindfulness, emotional intelligence, communication and leadership modalities. Some of his greatest influences have been the school for Non Violent Communication, The Coaches Training Institute, Joanna Macy, Eckhart Tolle and a Zen teacher named Adyashanti.