Author - John W Travis MD MPH

John W. Travis, MD, MPH, is the creator of the Wellness Inventory. He is the founder and co-director of Wellness Associates, a consulting and publishing group whose mission is to transform the culture from its current focus on authoritarianism/domination into one of partnership/cooperation. He completed his medical degree at Tufts University and his preventive medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University. He began his career in wellness by developing one of the first computerized health risk appraisals while serving with the U.S. Public Health Service's Division of Health Services Research. In 1975, he gave up the practice of sick-care to open the world's first wellness center (Wellness Resource Center, Mill Valley, CA). He created the Wellness Inventory (the original wellness assessment) as a whole person intake for center clients. His Wellness Energy System (represented as the 12 dimensional wellness wheel), is the whole person model upon which the Wellness Inventory is based and is even more relevant today, 40 years later. The facilitation process at the Center, co-created by Dr. Travis, was one of the forerunners of modern coaching. His work at the Wellness Resource Center attracted national attention culminating in an appearance on "60 Minutes" with Dan Rather in 1979. In 1979 the center was transformed into a non-profit educational corporation that enabled Dr. Travis to lecture and give workshops around the world in order to facilitate other helping professionals in the techniques and processes pioneered by his staff. His publications include the "Wellness Inventory" (Wellness Assoc. Publications, 1975, 1981, 1988); the Wellness Workbook, coauthored with Regina Ryan (Ten Speed Press, 1981, 1988, 2004); Simply Well: Choices for a Healthy Life, coauthored with Regina Ryan (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1990, 2001); Wellness For Helping Professionals, Creating Compassionate Cultures, coauthored with Meryn Callander (Wellness Assoc. Publications, 1990); A Change of Heart: The Global Wellness Inventory, coauthored with Meryn Callander (Arcus Press, 1993); and the Society of Prospective Medicine's SPM Handbook of Health Assessment Tools, with 5 co-editors (SPM Press, 1999). He contributed to his wife's Why Dads Leave: Insights and Resources for When Partners Become Parents, a wakeup call to the culture that focuses on fostering individual and planetary wellness through changing the norms of how babies are born and treated in their early years. It describes his hypotheses of Male Postpartum Abandonment Syndrome, the cause of why so many boys are unable to be good fathers--leading to the unacknowledged epidemic of disappearing dads. He is also a co-founder of the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children (aTLC.org). The online version of the Wellness Inventory, created by WellPeople (a division of HealthWorld Online) may be accessed by individuals at www.WellPeople.com and may also be licensed by professionals and organizations). Learn more about Dr. Travis' wellness philosophy - A New Vision of Wellness?
Friend of death, placing hand on skull

Make a Friend of Death

Look around you. Imagine that this is going to be the last day of your life. Don?t just skim over the thought, let it sink in, as if you were an actor who had to face death in an important part. Think about how you would like to reorient your...

Crystal ball focusing sea and mountain now

Be Here Now

The philosophy of taking one day at a time is a healthy one. When you live in either the past or the future, you miss what is going on right in front of your nose. When you are going through hard times, the habit of living essentially in the...

Man and woman standing on a cliff taking risks

Don’t Play It Safe

Don't get the wrong idea! This is not a plea for foolhardiness, but rather a challenge to you to express more of your tremendous potential. To do so you need to cultivate stress up to a point, and you need to develop an appreciation for the lessons...

Man laying on floor picturing and visualizing healthy thoughts

Put Yourself in the Picture of Health

Humans are image-making creatures. As mentioned in Watch Your Words - Avoid Illness Programming, even without knowing it, you are constantly making mental pictures. As someone gives you directions, you visualize the route. As you read about a place...

Woman looking at herself in the mirror with compassion

Heal with Compassion

Any program of self-change is bound to include some moments of discouragement. Disappointment and frustration are natural when the fantasy of immediate results is squashed, or the expectation of perfect discipline or consistency is not realized. It...

Create a Bigger Picture of Health

Health is a function of participation. Here participation refers to is participation in relationships and participation in work that serves a vision or a context larger than your own personal survival. Your health and wellness are by-products of a...

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Move Your Body and Move Your Soul

When you think of exercise, you probably think solely in terms of heart rates, strength, and muscle tone. But because the body, mind, and soul are always connected, exercising also involves your mind and your spirit. How you move will affect how you...

Silence - Woman holding finger in front of her mouth

Cultivate Sanity through Silence

When you need a quiet spot, it is rare to be able to find one free of noise from traffic, aircraft, office equipment, home appliances, TVs, or stereos. The noise pollution of modern society grows more strident every year. The background noise in...

Man listening to music on couch

Explore Healing Music and Sounds

In the Greek myth of Orpheus, we find a powerful testimony to the power of music. Throughout his journey in the underworld, Orpheus played his lyre and sang. His music pacified the dark forces, bringing tears to the eyes of the gods and softening...

Befriend the Earth

When the air in cities becomes so toxic that allergic and sensitive individuals must wear masks and eye shields, there is trouble afoot. When major segments of a population can no longer trust the quality of the local water and resort to using their...

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Explore Wellness in 2021