Joseph spent much of his formative years studying ethnobotany and spiritual healing practices with elders in the Amazon rainforest. He published a Masters thesis describing the system of healing in a remote Amazonian village while completing an MA in Transpersonal Psychology. Joseph went on to get a degree in Marriage & Family Therapy. He now has a private practice in Hawaii, where he also manages several ethnobotanical gardens and an ecodelic retreat / treatment center. He has been a practitioner of the Santo Daime religion, and a leader of the Daime church Céu do Hawaii for the past 29 years.