John Wendt

I am a board-certified neurologist, and as of 2006 also subspecialty certified in headache medicine, practicing for over 25 years. In the early 1990's I was introduced to Full Catastrophe Living and have been practicing mindfulness meditation since then. On a daily basis I encountered patients in my medical practice whom I feel could greatly benefit from mindfulness practice. For several years, offering these patients information on mindfulness practice was limited to a brief explanation, a handout on meditation and a suggestion to read Full Catastrophe Living. While a few patients were able to develop a useful mindfulness practice self-taught, most found self-teaching too challenging to incorporate mindfulness practice into their lives in a meaningful way. My goal then became to establish a formal teaching program for mindfulness meditation in the South King County/Tacoma region.

In 2004 I attended two professional training retreats: a seven-day professional retreat on mindfulness meditation led by Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleague, Saki Santorelli; and a nine-day intensive professional retreat, led by Florence Meyer and Melissa Blacker, teaching coordinators at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical Center. These retreats underscored the value and the importance of group learning -- not only from the instructors, but also, and just as importantly, interactive learning among the participants. This experience led to the formation of the Pacific Center for Mindfulness, dedicated to teaching others the ways of mindful living.

Website Description and Acknowledgements

The logo reflects the peace symbol, symbolizing here peace of mind. The 3 components are body (the lotus flower), breath (feather), and mind (candle). I wish to thank my daughter, Allison, for her artistic rendition of these images.

I also wish to thank Jonathan Rosenfeld at jrosenfeld@downcastproductions.com for creating and maintaining the original website and refining the logo outline.

I also wish to thank my son, Nathan, for assisting me with refurbishing the website through Squarespace.com.