Andrea Villa was born in the town where Tiramisu was invented, do we need to say more? He is a scholar, a mentor of men, and a restorer of old practices and languages of the sacred. He devoted several years to the study of male initiation with indigenous peoples from West Africa to Native America, developing a unique understanding of gender as intelligence.  His mission is to support men in remembering and practicing their erotic agency in love and relationship.

Extended Bio

Born and raised in a small town in the Eastern Dolomites in the mountains of the Italian Alps–an area of great natural beauty that marked him with a deep love for all wild places. At twenty, he spent two years in an Ashram in India where he studied meditation, sutras, poetry, and practiced Tai-Chi.

After moving to the United States in 1984 to study film at Los Angeles City College and continued coursework at the University of California and the American Film Institute, Andrea completed his training and joined the film industry as a freelance story analyst. Eventually, his love for the wilderness drove him to create Terra Indiana, a travel company specializing in cultural immersion tours through the Native American lands of the American West.

In 2007, he completed his training in Ontological coaching through New Field Networks, a style of coaching that emphasizes language as generative of emotional and somatic states. 

In 2008, he discovered TRE - Trauma Release Exercises, a practice that induces natural tremors in the body to release deeply held tension. While training with Dr. David Berceli, the original creator of the practice, Andrea developed an awareness of how trauma impacts human sexuality.  He came to an understanding that there is a physiology that favors sex and a physiology that favors love and intimacy; and that the two physiologies are incompatible. Moreover, he discovered that the choice between the two rests primarily on men’s agency. In his practice, he endeavors to provide his clients with the tools so that choice becomes accessible, clear and possible, allowing for the physiology of love to emerge, and with that, the possibility of real intimacy.

Andrea also spent several years studying male initiation from West Africa to Native America, aligning himself with the ancient understanding of gender as the core vital intelligence that informs us, drives us and, when fully embraced, liberates us. In time, the role of gender initiation became a central point of his perspective on life and the subject of research, writings and thought. He put that understanding to work, designing several nature-based Rites of Passage for young men (generally between the ages of 12-18), collaborating with diverse non-profits from Canada to California.  

Later, he was blessed by the mentorship of the late Malidoma Some’ who deepened his understanding of the power and necessity of rituals to create cultural and individual healing. 

He is also profoundly indebted to Martin Prechtel who hosted him for 9 years at Bolad’s Kitchen, his magic adobe school. Martin helped Andrea remember the old stories of the world, the sagas, the fables, the myths and with them, himself.  Those old tales must have woven their magic spell; he devotes more time now to gardening, tending his ducks, and deep in the forest singing to trees and mountains, leaving offerings to propitiate their wisdom and help in the greatest job of all–to discover the magnificence of being human.

Andrea is a subsistence hunter, a gardener, and a devoted, eternal beginner Argentine tango dancer. He is currently working on a book called “The Erotic Code of Men” where he espouses the concept of erotic discipline based on the writings and poetry of Dante and other 12th century poets. He resides in Boulder, Colorado, USA.