Besides teaching Aikido at ITP, Bob teaches Aikido to senior management in a large Los Angeles organization. In your hour lesson he can cover one or more of the following:

* Centering. How to center oneself physically and psychologically. How to maintain center under pressure.

* Blending with others. How to connect and align with others, including those who are upset, angry or otherwise ‘challenging.

* Working with Musashi’s Book of Five Rings. This martial arts classic describes five styles of movement and interaction: Ground (solid and centered), Wind (light, flexible and observant), Water (fluid, receptive, sensitive to others), Fire (passionate, committed, powerful), and Void/Emptiness (deeply present-centered, without expectation).

Bob is the founding President of ITP, holds the rank of Professor and is Director of the Spiritual Guidance Program.

He was trained in Aikido in Japan where he was a personal student of the founder of Aikido, and holds a 7th degree black belt—the highest honor ever awarded to a westerner.

Bob is also an organization consultant and a spiritual teacher in the Sufi tradition. He teaches by the title of Sheikh Ragip in the Halveti-Jerrahi order of Sufis, and has a community of students in Redwood City, CA.

Before founding ITP with James Fadiman, Bob taught psychology and religious studies for seven years at University of California Berkeley and University of California Santa Cruz. He co-authored Personality and Personal Growth (5th edition), and edited Love is the Wine, an introduction to Sufism; Who am I? Personality Typologies for Self Discovery, an anthology of personality typologies; and Essential Sufism, an anthology of Sufi teaching materials. He is the author of Heart, Self & Soul: The Sufi Psychology of Growth, Balance, and Harmony. His most recent publications deal with such subjects such as the transpersonal dimensions of Aikido and spirituality in business.