Yeshaia Blakeney

Spiritual Counselor

Yeshaia Blakeney aka “Shy B” is a spiritual counselor at BTS.  He is also a writer, producer and rapper of hip hop electro music. Shy attended BTS and got sober at 21.  He then chose to stick around BTS because he figured it was easier than a gig at Starbucks where one is required to be on their feet all day. Shy had a resume that included good communication skills and leadership “potential” - the perfect qualities for counseling.  Little did he know that work was work and even being a counselor, day in and day out, is stressful and tiring.  His hobbies include being honest, responsible, relatively transparent, humorous and smarter than most Americans.  Shy is also rowdy, unpredictable and has issues with race (coming from a bi-racial family, this is completely normal).   He is no longer single although that is a hard mind state to shake.  
I am a “Beit T’Shuvian” – Shy has a lot of parts and he tries to keep track of all of them while changing at the same time.  He is a teacher and a truth seeker.  Often his voice resonates with residents because he wears his imperfections and contradictions on his sleeve.  Shy is pretty cool for someone that’s sober too.  Not cool enough however, to make sobriety itself cool, although this is one of my life’s missions.  
Shy has a beautiful wife Emily, who he met at BTS.  They now have two fabulous daughters, Eden Bay (after the bay area, that’s where Shy’s from) and Stella.  Both of them are teaching him how to be a better grown up.  Slowly.