John Travis

John W. Travis, M.D., M.P.H., became one of the leading figures in the wellness movement when he opened the world’s first wellness center, the Wellness Resource Center, in Mill Valley, California in 1975. His televised interview by Dan Rather on 60 Minutes in 1979 made him a national figure and was the first of many appearances in the national media.

He earned his medical degree from Tufts University in 1969, followed by six years service in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) where he helped develop one of the earliest computerized health risk appraisal instruments (HRA). During his service in the USPHS he completed a residency in preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins University, which included an Masters in Public Health degree awarded in 1973. He founded the Wellness Resource Center in 1975 after leaving the USPHS, and developed the first wellness assessment, the Wellness Inventory, which utilizes a whole-person model based on the 12 dimensions of his Wellness Energy System. During this same time Dr. Travis wrote The Wellness Workbook, which he first self-published in 1977, and then published in an expanded edition in collaboration with Regina Ryan in 1979 as a trade paperback (Ten Speed Press, 1981, 1988). It was revised and republished in 2004 by Celestial Arts.

In 1979, after achieving national renown, he closed the Wellness Resource Center and established Wellness Associates, a non-profit educational corporation dedicated to transforming the medical culture from its physician-centered focus into a partnership with healers. More recently, its mission has been redefined and broadened to the transformation of the entire culture from its current focus on authoritarianism/domination into one of partnership/cooperation and is supported by its website, thewellspring.com.

Dr. Travis' Wellness Inventory is now available online as part of an integrated wellness program (www.WellPeople.com) developed by Healthworld Online (healthy.net). The online Wellness Inventory program is widely used as the foundation for wellness programs in both corporate and healthcare environments and by wellness coaches.

Since 1991 Dr. Travis and his wife, Meryn Callander, have focused their efforts on parenting and infant wellness. In 1999 he co-founded the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children (aTLC.org), which has a mission of fostering individual and planetary wellness through changing how babies are born and treated in their early years. In 2000 he and Meryn, along with their daughter, Siena, moved to Meryn's homeland of Australia where they continue their work in both adult and infant wellness.

Publications

 * The Wellness Inventory (Wellness Associates, 1975)
 * The Wellness Workbook, coauthored with Regina Ryan (Ten Speed Press, 1981, 1988, Celestial Arts, 2004)
 * Simply Well: Choices for a Healthy Life, coauthored with Regina Ryan (Ten Speed Press, 1990, 2001)
 * Wellness For Helping Professionals: Creating Compassionate Cultures, co-authored with Meryn Callander (Wellness Associates Publications, 1990)
 * A Change of Heart: The Global Wellness Inventory, co-authored with Meryn G. Callander (Arcus Press, 1993)
 * The Society of Prospective Medicine’s Handbook of Health Assessment Tools (SPM Press, 1999)