About me

I was very fortunate to have been exposed to different cultures and religions from an early age as my parents lived in the Middle East for 30 years. It was there that I was captivated and deeply touched by the devotional call to prayer resounding out into the desert sky 5 times a day. There was something magical, mysterious, and beautiful about the sound which transcended any religious context and spoke directly to my heart.

I experienced this at school too where I was educated in a Benedictine monastery and was entranced by the sound of the Gregorian chanting by the monks. It was here also in 1984 that we were all blessed by the presence and the grace of the Dalai Lama when he came to visit the school en route to Samye Ling Buddhist monastery. Something opened deeply in my heart that day that only became more tangible as time wore on and started an interest in Tibetan Buddhism. And it drove me on to wanting to explore the Indian sub-continent, especially the Himalayas (how could I not when my ancestral name is Mountain!)

This I did as soon as I had dropped out of uni after one term heading up to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand regions on both visits in 1988 and 1991. The whole energy of India and Nepal fascinated me and also gave me a deep remembrance, something intangible and beyond words – a deep familiarity with the sights, sounds and smells. It was also here that I fell in love with Shiva and Parvati! And picked up my first fundamental knowledge around Vedic chants, mantras, tantras, yoga, mudras and pranayama.

I lived and travelled around Australia for 4 years and I soaked up the vastness of the wildly contrasting terrains in that beautiful continent. It is also here that I bought my first didgeridoo in the northern territories a few weeks before heading back to Asia and India again. I travelled with it throughout Asia and it was my most treasured possession. Some of my most favourite memories are chilling in a little village above Almora called Kasar Devi playing the didgeridoo and chanting most days.

I got back to England and then followed a 3-year sojourn in Aberystwyth where I set up the first-ever reggae show on the radio in Wales with a show called Babylon Burndown every Saturday night where I had the chance to interview some of the great reggae artists. Music has always been in my heart and soul. Then life took over and my experiences took a back seat but were still percolating away under the corporate suit I wore for 25 years. During this time I became a father to my 4 beautiful, creative and wise daughters.

I am married to an amazingly talented artist Katrin Mountain and we live in Folkestone with our youngest daughter Matilda in a lovely family home where I hold all my sound baths and treatments in a sacred loft space.

I am blessed to have a teacher in Spain, Oya, who through her presence, love, wisdom and patience helped me shed so much conditioned baggage, which we all accumulate through our life/lives. Her teachings work at a deeply somatic, shamanic level and are grounded in self-enquiry, movement medicine, meditation and five rhythms. It was here also that I was given my medicine name of Bear. Hence Mountain Bear Sounds!

The wisdom gained on my journey so far is blossoming from a rich, varied and wonderful tapestry of joyful life experiences and some deeply challenging and painful ones too that have given me great insights into the human condition and allow me to hold space with deep love, presence, and reverence to all who come for a treatment-be it somatic work, sound healing or coaching.

Having left the Corporate world behind after two decades in senior positions at blue chip companies, including Rolls-Royce, Christie’s auction house and two private banks, I have the opportunity to offer, through my sound and somatic work, all the knowledge and experiences accumulated throughout my life. I qualified from the College of sound healing in 2020 and have been practising ever since.

I qualified as a Focalizing Practitioner (Somatic Therapy modality) in 2021 and mBIT coaching (multiple brain integration techniques) in 2022.

Throughout my life, I have always been attracted to the purity of intention and energy expressed, and this has also come to the fore with my art, where I have entered the most creative phase recently with a variety of flow drawings. I surrender to the ‘Now’ moment and let what wants to flow from the open expanse of my heart space. It’s similar to sound healing in that I became a vessel for what wants to be expressed, created, seen, heard or sung in the moment. It’s a sacred, mysterious, healing, deeply nourishing process for me but also for all who have been touched by either my art or experienced a sound or somatic therapy treatment. One of my clients commented a sound treatment is like a source energy sonic massage for the soul! Something stirs and awakens within, as it did with me over 40 years ago, and helps realign and restore all areas of your being -mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.