Jaymee Carpenter is a highly revered spiritual teacher and psychospiritual counselor based in Ojai, CA, with a background of 13 years of multi-faceted professional experience in the field of addiction and mental health treatment.
Homeless and addicted on Los Angeles’s skid row district at the age of 26, Jaymee was gifted an opportunity in 2003 to enter state funded addiction treatment, and utilized the time to reassess and repurpose himself for the benefit of humanity. The result is a man who has since risen from the ashes of his former ignorance into a life and career of unique service, while simultaneously and ceaselessly engaging in comprehensive spiritual exploration.
Jaymee is the former the Spiritual Director of a prominent dual diagnosis treatment center in Malibu (a position created within the company specifically for him), and was not only highly influential in co- creating the culture and curriculum of their program, but left the center’s clients with an indelible treatment experience that helped shape the future of their lives, while building the brand and reputation of the center for it’s ingenuity of approach. The years spent working there eventually led to an opportunity for Jaymee to co-found his own spiritually-based addiction and mental health center in Santa Barbara, of which he co-created it’s daily curriculum, while managing and operating as the centers Spiritual Director. Jaymee’s lasting influence can be felt in each of these centers culture and curriculum to this day, and within every client and staff member he has mentored throughout the years.
Jaymee’s spiritual study and practice has been culturally diverse and impossible to categorize. He defines spirituality as “the space in between self and impulse”. He is a 16 year meditation practitioner and teacher within the oldest lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma), which is his primary source of his own recovery and mental clarity. Jaymee spent 3 years recently as an apprentice to a Lakota shaman, co-facilitating sweat lodge ceremonies for hundreds of participants on sacred land blessed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. He is additionally a master level communicator and storyteller, and one of the world’s great listeners.
Jaymee is also a talented musician who wrote original music for multi Oscar winning film The Fighter, has been a composer for The Simpsons, That 70’s Show, Top Chef, and Real Housewives, and had an album of his music recorded by the world famous London Symphony Orchestra at Sir George Martin’s Air Studios London.
Jaymee is a firm believer that every form of addiction and mental health has a corresponding emotional root of origin. He does not see individuals as “sick” or “diseased” people, rather as future helpers or healers themselves, awaiting their own life’s repurposing. He believes the old archaic model of treatment is in drastic need of reappraisal and reconfiguration, and is outspoken about how to revolutionize the industry through compassion based practices. Jaymee believes all human beings are not the content of their minds, nor their many experiences in life. He believes each individual is far more than the collective cultural and familial conditioning they’ve accumulated, and teaches his clients how to find who they truly are through the daily practice of mindfulness meditation.