Telos Collective is a therapeutic place and guiding ethos oriented around cultivating purpose and connection. What does this mean?

The word telos is an ancient Greek term that signifies the aim or purpose to which everything is naturally drawn. For example, the telos of an acorn is to become an oak tree. This concept was expanded by the mystic Plotinus, who saw telos as a movement drawing us towards life’s underlying unity—the calling of the One to the many.

Yet, in our modern Western culture, purpose is often framed as a very individual path. In such a framing, the person is identified as the consumer, and the aim of one’s relationship with their environment is to consume well. It appears that we are in the latter stages of this consumptive paradigm, and that the alienated consumers of this society’s goods are increasingly growing ill and disillusioned at the spiritual failure of this path, even in areas of care and healing.

What if the remedy for illness was not consuming better help, but rather tuning into what transcends the path of individual consumption? What if there was a collective way of being human that didn’t erode the particular expression of each human being but fully embraced it? And in doing so, transcended an individualistic, isolated way of living?

To illustrate this paradigm shift, let’s take a slow walk through an old-growth forest. As you look around, and your eyes take in the life that enfolds you, what emerges is not merely rows of towering trees, but rather, a vibrant network of life—a resource-sharing collective. The nurse logs feed the young saplings, and the roots share with their brothers and sisters, supported by the fungal mycelium that facilitates a more subtle form of interconnection. The branches cradle the nests of birds that feast on berries and, in return, spread their seeds so that new life may emerge. As you take in the forest, what becomes apparent is that there is a higher telos at play here than mere survival—a communal growth that encompasses and transcends the individual growth.

This way of being alive isn’t new . . . it’s a way known by many cultures throughout human history, and still finds resonance with people and practices today. But from time to time, culturally and individually, we have a tendency to lose touch with it.

Telos Collective is an exploratory communal vision of re-membering our way and realizing a telos that leads away from the path of individual consumption and towards the path of an interconnected, expressive way of living. We seek to foster a deeper, shared experience of purpose—one that nurtures collective well-being and individual expression in harmony with each other.

Telos Collective is a place where authenticity is embraced, where weirdness is wonderful, and where too much might be just enough. We’re not selling services or marketing treatments; rather, we’re cultivating collaborative connections so that a rich, life-giving forest may grow.