This leads us to a key question. Exactly what is wellness?

All too often, wellness is defined within a disease framework - reducing health risks and preventing disease. This is especially true in employee wellness programs and the healthcare system. To answer this question, let's go back to beginnings of the wellness movement in the mid-1970s.

In the early 1970s John W. Travis, MD, MPH, was fulfilling his residency at John's Hopkins and working with the US Public Health Service. A protege of Dr. Lewis Robbins, creator of the Health Risk Appraisal (HRA), Dr. Travis worked on the earliest computerized HRAs, including one used by the CDC. But by the time he completed his residency, he had made a life-altering decision—rather than treating people as a physician he would dedicate his life to teaching people to be well.

Moving to Mill Valley, California, Dr. Travis opened the first wellness center in the United States in 1975, the Wellness Resource Center. A true wellness pioneer, Dr. Travis had developed a model for lifestyle change that focused on self-responsibility, and engaged the whole person—body, mind, emotions, and spirit. "Wellness" was a new term in American culture, and the new center attracted media attention, including Dan Rather at CBS, who featured the new "wellness center" on 60 Minutes.

As he continued to refine his work at the Center, he created the first wellness assessment, the Wellness Inventory, to use as the Center's primary client intake. He captured his philosophy in the now classic Wellness Workbook, which has been used by wellness and health promotion educators in undergraduate and graduate programs in universities for over 25 years.

Three Key Wellness Concepts
Dr. Travis' wellness philosophy is based on three key wellness concepts he developed during the 1970s.