James Pennebaker, Ph.D.
James W. Pennebaker, PhD is a nationally recognized expert on the connection between writing and better health. He and his students are exploring the links between traumatic experiences, expressive writing, natural language use, and physical and .mental health. His studies find that physical health and work performance can improve by simple writing and/or talking exercises. His most recent research focuses on the nature of language and emotion in the real world. The words people use serve as powerful reflections of their personality and social worlds.
He is the Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts and the Departmental Chair in the Psychology Department at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his Ph.D. in 1977. He has been on the faculty at the University of Virginia, Southern Methodist University, and, since 1997, The University of Texas.
Pennebaker has written or edited nine books and over 250 articles, including The Secret Life of Pronouns and Opening Up. He has received numerous awards and honors, including Distinguished Contributions to Social and Personality Psychology and the Outstanding Book Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.
John F. Evans, Ed.D
John F.Evans, MAT, MA, Ed.D is a writing clinician and integrative health coach who works with groups, individuals, and health care professionals, including physicians, nurses, therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, educators, personal coaches, and alternative health care practitioners, teaching them how to use writing for better physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Evans is founder and executive director of Wellness & Writing Connections, LLC and provides individual, group, and institutional life course guidance programs. Recently, (2014) Evans co-authored Expressive Writing:Words that Heal with James Pennebaker. His book (2010), Wellness & Writing Connections: Writing for Better Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Health, is a collection of essays from the Wellness & Writing Connections Conference Series.
Wellness & Writing Connections arises out of my commitment to the importance that language plays in our well-being, the conviction that writing can be good for those who write, and the knowledge that individuals are remarkably resilient and capable of learning throughout their lifetime.
My goal for Wellness & Writing Connections is two-fold: to grow Wellness & Writing Connections as a resource for health care providers and wellness coaches who wish to use writing in their practice ; to offer integrative health coaching for private clients, individuals, groups, and organizations or businesses.
Integrative Health Coaching is professional guidance for health behavioral change. The integrative health coach is there to lead you on your own path for optimal health and wholeness. Transformative and mindful, the integrative health coach represents a new approach to taking control of your physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Integrative health coaching is an empowering process that guides clients in defining their personal vision of optimal health, creating specific measurable goals and action steps to achieve that vision.
Integrative health coaching is a partnership where the client is in charge of their own health journey with a supportive, encouraging, resourceful guide on the side.
Wellness & Writing Connections – through local workshops for wellness and writing supports lay persons, health care professionals, including therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers and personal coaches how to use writing in their personal or professionals lives and practice.
Wellness & Writing Connections Specialties: designing programs and writing experiences for therapists, counselors, psychologists, health care providers, and wellness coaches who wish to add writing to their therapeutic modalities.