About
Govinda
In
the early 70s, my parents were doing what many hippies
were doing at that time, studying yoga with an Indian
guru named Swami Satchidananda in San Francisco. They
had changed their names to Indian names and when I
was born, they decided to give me the name Govinda
Om. Govinda is a common name in India. It is one of
the names for the Hindu god Krishna. Om is a sacred
sound and symbol that represents the vibration of
the universe. All of that seemed pretty "woo-woo"
to me when I was growing up, so I changed my name
to Rick at age 7 and I went by Rick until age 25,
when I started to feel like Rick didn't fit anymore.
I
was exposed to many forms of alternative health when
I was growing up. My father, Ole Bader, is an acupuncturist,
herbalist, massage therapist and yoga teacher in Redwood
City, California. It is from these influences that
my interest in health and healing began to develop.
I
wasn't quite ready to go into the health field when
it was time to choose a major in college. At that
point, I knew that I wanted to work for myself someday,
so I decided to study Business. In 1997, I earned
my B.S. degree in Business Administration from Humboldt
State University in Arcata, California. My degree
was timed perfectly for the dotcom boom of the late
90s, but after working for internet companies for
a few years, I realized that I needed to align my
personal passions with my work. Simply put, I had
to do something that came more from my heart.
My
interest in Rolfing began after receiving a 20 minute
demo session at a health fair in San Francisco. When
I got up from the table, I felt an obvious shift in
my posture. My shoulders were lower and further back
and I didn't have to work to hold them there. My shoulders
had found a new home. I didn't know that such a change
was possible. I was so impressed with these results
that a few months later I was at the Rolf Institute
in Boulder, on the path to becoming a Rolfer.
My
father started teaching me about nutrition when I
was a young boy who could care less about eating healthily.
At one point, he even bought me a goat so I could
have fresh goats milk every day. Apparently, our neighbors
didn't care so much for the goat, but I appreciated
my dad's effort to keep my healthy. I took some nutrition
classes in college and have always been experimenting
with different ways of eating. I have been through
periods of being a vegetarian, vegan, raw foodist,
macrobiotic as well as a burger and pizza eating college
kid. Having experimented with many diets, I have come
to a place now where I don't need to identify myself
with any one system or dogma. I just eat what makes
me feel clean and healthy.
I
have been on the path of healing myself for many years
and I love to share what I have learned with others.
I honor the unique goals of each individual and create
a safe and supported space to experience growth and
change.
