Throughout his teens and early twenties Alessandro combined his practice with intensive psychotherapy. This includes graduating from the Hoffman Process and the Dynamic Neural Retraining System program alongside work in Gestalt, Family Constellations, Systemic, Freudian Analysis and Rogerian modalities.
Alongside his ongoing retreats, he has spent longer periods of residency in Buddhist Zen and Benedictine monasteries, as well as in Mexico and Southern India studying with a teacher of the Tamil Siddhar tradition.
Driven by a fascination with a human life as a living experiment, and committed to understanding it through direct experience rather than intellectual theory, Alessandro has applied his inward exploration outwardly to a broad spectrum of living modes.
His path has included working in Argentina as an assistant horse trainer using natural horsemanship, employ in Southern France as a winemaker, apprenticing as a wilderness guide of youth rites of passage in the US and most recently as a frontline support worker with homeless young people.
Alessandro resides between London and northern Italy applying the ZENOLETHIA method with an international client base. He is currently studying the transformative power of inquiry as taught by the Greek philosopher Plotinus.
About the Founder
Born in Switzerland in 1997 to Italian parents, Alessandro-James Genovese Cicogna was educated at Eton and Westminster before going on to earn a BSc in Philosophy from LSE and MA in Buddhist Studies from SOAS.
From a young age Alessandro was captivated by the nature of reality. In late childhood this curiosity led him to delve deeply into the science of consciousness and the world's wisdom traditions. During this formative period, he organised a school lecture with a pioneering consciousness researcher, attended theology conferences, corresponded personally with spiritual teachers and regularly attended public talks across traditions.
This passion inspired him to deepen his meditation practice which developed into contemplative solo fasting in the wilderness for days at a time periodically during his teenage years. He joined an ongoing Diamond Approach retreat group aged eighteen and has since been in continuous private study with his teacher.