John Bradshaw

Biographical Information
"He was elected by a group of his peers as ‘one of the most influential writers on emotional health in the 20th Century.’...In the 1960’s and 1970’s, John hosted Spotlight, a weekly one-hour variety television show. In the early 1980’s, he produced The Eight Stages of Man, an eight-part series for PBS.    With the 1986 airing of Bradshaw On: The Family, a ten-part PBS series, John became a television phenomenon.  His PBS series have gained huge audiences across the country. Since the 1980’s, John garnered huge international audiences through his television productions, workshops and series, including Where Are You Father?, Healing The Shame That Binds You, Adult Children Of Dysfunctional Families, Surviving Divorce, Bradshaw On: Homecoming (Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child), Creating Love, Eating Disorders, and Bradshaw On: Family Secrets. Through his television production ventures with PBS, John helped raise over $12,000,000 for the Public Broadcasting System...

"Throughout the 1970’s, John served as a management consultant at Drillco Manufacturing Company and as a leadership trainer at Denka Chemical Company. He was also Director of Human Resources and served on the Board of Directors of Texas General Oil Company.  John is the developer and presenter of workshops for over forty Fortune 500 companies and thousands of evolved for-profit institutions, including Conoco, Inc., ExxonMobil, Phillips Petroleum, R & G Stone Manufacturing Company, American Automobile Association, Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation, The Trane Company, Texas Association Of Realtors, Ogilvy and Mather, Inc.,  Harrah’s,  Fails Management Corporation (John was considered one of the three best speakers for the industry), and Deliotte Haskins and Sells...

"His public service includes serving on the Board of Directors and as President of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program (1981-88), as National Director of Life-Plus Co-Dependency Treatment Center (1987-1990), as the Founder and National Director of the John Bradshaw Center at Ingleside Hospital in Los Angeles (1991-1997), and he has served on the National Board of Directors of The International Montessori Society beginning in 1990. He is an Honorary Lifetime Board Member and Honorary Chair of the Council on Alcohol and Drugs-Houston.

"Since 1999, John has been a Senior Fellow at The Meadows Institute, a multi-disorder inpatient facility specializing in the treatment of a broad range of addictions. The facility’s intensive treatment focuses on drug and alcohol addiction, sexual addictions, depression, psychological conditions, affective disorders, and compulsive behaviors..

"John also explores The Primacy and Neuroscience of the "Affect System”. In understanding Silvan Tompkins’ Theory of the “affect system,” John explains the neuroscientific development that underlies the right/affective brain. This is the part of the brain that controls anxiety, distress, and the management of our feelings. John suggests some clinical implications for professionals dealing with mental health and/or substance abuse...

"In his workshop series Creating Strong Healthy Families, John uses the work of brilliant historian Stephanie Koonz on “deep democracy” to explore the myth of the traditional American family. John shows us how families have always adapted to the economic circumstances in which they had to survive.  Since the end of World War II, several human rights movements have paved the way for "deep democracy," which is more directly participatory and demands absolute equality and freedom for all human beings. This new social environment has created a context where old-fashioned "virtue" is the condition of success, and through this concept of “deep democracy,” John describes a new understanding of a fully-functioning marriage and focuses on raising morally virtuous children for the future..."

Affiliations

 * 2010 Washington Human Rights Summit: Affirming Fundamental Freedoms
 * Watkins Review's 2012 list of the world’s 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People