About Us
You may be wondering what qualifies us to guide you in the process of building a powerful life?
Who We Are and What We Value
At Red Cedar Transitions, our mission is to guide emerging adults toward lives of meaning, connection, and purposeful action. We help you step into the world with confidence, clarity, and a strong sense of who you want to become.
Our Approach
A seamless blend of psychotherapy informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and coaching aimed at integrating values, purpose, and functionality into your daily life.
Together, we’ll build practical strategies that work for you - in the real world.
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John Tobias, Founder
After many years as a wilderness therapist, witnessing hundreds of clients make the transition out of the wilderness to various front country settings, I began to consider the idea of combining my experience as a transitional coach with my experience as a wilderness therapist (both predicated on my long tenure as a wilderness field staff).
After many conversations with long-time industry friends and professionals, Red Cedar Transitions (RCT) was born.
Read John's Story
Buckey Biesak, Transition Coach
Working side by side with John, someone I consider a good friend and professional mentor, is wonderful. We have similar backgrounds and perspectives and a variety of shared therapeutic strategies that will assist our clients in finding their unique, individual pathways to fulfilling futures.
Together, we will learn more lessons, teach more lessons, and guide our clients through their personal journeys.
I could not be happier to be here in the lush forests and rivers that Asheville.
Cassidy Neuman, Transition Coach
Cassidy's life journey has been woven with resilience, self-discovery, and the transformative power of choices.
Growing up with the challenges of divorce, family addiction, and loss, it shaped me in unexpected ways. I could have easily taken a different path.
Instead, I sought solace in safe spaces and expressed my creativity through art and wilderness. I navigated the challenges with resilience. Today, those early experiences drive my commitment to making positive choices, and here I stand, a testament to the strength that emerges from navigating adversity.
Dan Horseman, Transition Coach
Dan has a BS in Outdoor Education and Psychology, and he is a Certified Professional Life Coach. He worked in the Wilderness/Adventure Therapy field for almost 15 years, primarily working with teens and their parents throughout that time. Dan loves using the natural world along with experiential and adventure-based activities to help his clients learn, grow, heal, and connect.
Throughout his time working in mental health treatment programs, Dan has held a number of leadership positions, including Program Director, Adventure Therapy Director, and Transitions Coordinator. Through these experiences, Dan began to recognize the strong need for supportive post-treatment options to help teens and young adults land on their feet and reintegrate into their new lives.
Dan describes his approach to coaching as values-based, where he helps his clients reflect on experiences to continue evaluating how their actions align with their values (or not). Dan helps his clients achieve results through concrete, realistic goal setting. Additionally, Dan specializes in relationships of all kinds and guides his clients through a process of evaluating their relationships, building skills, and ultimately experiencing more connection in those relationships.
Dan spends most of his free time with his wife, two young boys, and their dog. He is an avid whitewater kayaker but loves all sorts of outdoor activities. Fun Fact: Dan hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 2013.
Specializations: Life Coaching, Executive Functioning, Relationship Coaching, Parent Coaching, Adventure/Experiential activities, and Group Development.
Leah Madamba, MS, NCC, LCMHC, CPC
Leah brings over 20 years of experience working with teenagers, young adults, and their families. After graduating from Vanderbilt University with her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Spanish, Leah worked as a field instructor for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. This experience inspired her to return to graduate school, where she received her Master's in Community Counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Looking to combine her love for the outdoors with her desire to work with youth, she found her way to Utah and worked as a therapist for the Aspen Achievement Academy, a therapeutic wilderness program for struggling teenagers.
When she and her husband were ready to move back to the East Coast, she landed in Asheville, where she worked for another nature-based program. After serving in a variety of roles with that program, Leah went on to work with a collection of residential programs where she worked in a variety of leadership roles, from marketing to supporting several residential clinical teams. All of this experience culminated in her leading a nationally based community transition program for teenagers and young adults returning home from residential settings.
When she was ready to be back closer to home and her own family, Leah partnered with a local nature-based program and led the family services team. In this role, she taught parent workshops, led family intensives, and provided parent coaching. In the spring of 2024, Leah launched her own private practice where she offers therapy to clients in North and South Carolina and continues working with parents as a coach.
Leah is the mother of a teenager and a young adult, so she gets lots of practice using the skills she talks about daily. When she’s not traveling to support her kids’ extracurricular activities, she is doing hot yoga or being creative in her home studio. Leah believes that each person is their own best expert, and she loves connecting with them to help them find their way.
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