Embrace Hope

Dr. Holder’s professional career began in athletics and human performance. He earned a master’s degree in kinesiology following undergraduate studies in physical education and spent many years working in collegiate strength and conditioning.

His coaching career included positions at Eastern Kentucky University, Appalachian State University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and San José State University. His work with athletes taught him lessons that would later become central to his spiritual teaching: transformation requires more than information. It requires practice, discipline, repetition, proper guidance, and ultimately the willingness of the student to be changed.

His search for a deeper understanding of healing eventually led him into Chinese Energetic Medicine and Medical Qigong. He earned his Doctorate in Medical Qigong in 2012, with doctoral work focused on oncology, and later earned a Doctor of Chinese Energetic Medicine.

Over the years, he has worked clinically, taught energetic medicine, conducted research, trained practitioners, and studied the relationship between Western physiology and the energetic models of the human body preserved within Eastern medicine.

Today, Dr. Holder serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Institute of Energetic Medicine, where he has helped build what has become a premier institution for the study and practice of energetic medicine in the English-speaking world.

A central purpose of this work is to help bridge the longstanding gap between Western and Eastern medicine. Rather than asking students to choose one worldview over another, the Institute trains them to understand where these systems intersect, where they differ, and how modern physiology, clinical medicine, energetic anatomy, Qigong, and practitioner cultivation can contribute to a more complete understanding of healing.

Dr. Holder’s spiritual education has been equally extensive. His studies have crossed Christian contemplative traditions as well as Daoist, Buddhist, and other esoteric systems. These experiences have given him an unusual comparative perspective, but they have also continually brought him back to the center of his own spiritual life: Jesus Christ.

For Dr. Holder, Christian mysticism is not primarily the study of unusual spiritual phenomena. It is the pursuit of union with God and the transformation of the human person through Christ.

For many years, Dr. Holder was a senior disciple of Dr. Jerry Alan Johnson, studying closely with him in energetic medicine, spiritual cultivation, and mystical practice. In 2019, Dr. Holder began working with the Christian Mysticism training, and Johnson ultimately passed to him the mantle and responsibility of continuing the teaching of this work.

That responsibility became another chapter in a much larger spiritual journey—one that Dr. Holder has continued to develop through prayer, study, teaching, priestly formation, and direct practice.

Dr. Holder was ordained a Christian priest in 2022. His understanding of priesthood is rooted in service: service to God, service to those seeking healing, and service to those attempting to deepen their own relationship with Christ.

His approach to Christian mysticism remains intensely practical. Scripture and theology matter, but they are not meant to remain intellectual concepts. Prayer must be practiced. Stillness must be entered. The interior life must be cultivated. The wounds and attachments that prevent spiritual growth must be confronted. Compassion must become embodied. The teachings of Christ must gradually move from something a person studies into something a person lives.

This philosophy shapes the Christian Mysticism program he teaches today. Drawing upon Scripture and the great Christian mystical tradition—from the Desert Fathers and Mothers to the contemplative and mystical writings of John Cassian, Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross, Catherine of Siena, Brother Lawrence, and generations of Christian contemplatives—Dr. Holder introduces students to Christianity as an experiential spiritual path.

Ancient contemplative teachings are combined with disciplined meditation, prayer, inner cultivation, and carefully selected modern energetic practices designed to help students more readily recognize and embody what the mystics were describing.

His background as a coach remains visible in the way he teaches. Dr. Holder does not believe that spiritual transformation occurs merely because someone has accumulated spiritual knowledge. Just as the body changes through training, the interior life changes through practice.

Students are therefore encouraged not simply to learn about contemplation, prayer, healing, spiritual discernment, and mystical experience, but to train in them.