Who we are



Bio   Curriculum Vitae

Bio   Curriculum Vitae

Although each of us has professional degrees and licenses, they only tell you about our basic skills. Our two principle partners, Joanne Gaffney and John Livingstone, are experienced in corporate consulting, mind-body health, interpersonal communication, program design, and use of mass media. We are dedicated to and experienced at providing help that has value in your context.

Each of us is highly experienced at conveying both knowledge and skills to others. The biographic statements and track record found here provide you with the larger story of a wide experience, nationally and internationally. Particularly adept at translating scientific concepts and language into user-friendly learning experiences, we specialize in helping people make the leap from intellectual understanding to emotion-mediated skill acquisition.

Because we believe it is important a) to keep our interpersonal skills sharp, b) to stay directly aware of the public's health attitudes, and c) to learn the impact of new approaches, each of us continues to maintain small private clinical practices which includes adults, couples, parents, children and teenagers. We consult to primary care physicians, community and research programs about physical illness and chronic conditions, and providing direct evaluation and treatment services which embrace a holistic and integrative approach to care and wellness. We are clinicians, teachers and researchers. We are also the designers of SINHC™, a new integrated model of health-related behavior change and medical decision making called (Self-aware Informational Health Coaching).

Our team also includes administration and graphic design professionals, and someone trained and experienced in health care economics and public health social marketing worldwide.

Briefly, John Livingstone is a physician with years at Harvard Medical School who has basic education in medicine, in adult, family, child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy, and in clinical research. He was the founding designer and director of outpatient child services at McLean Hospital division of Massachusetts General Hospital and director of a clinic at BI-Deaconess Medical Center. As the director of large programs, he is an experienced curriculum designer and educator and has continued his training in the emerging and powerful new methods in behavioral health. Dr. Livingstone is a member of the of Behavioral Medicine and trained in the Internal Family Systems Model. He also has been a consultant to the major national television networks for 20 years regarding use of audiovisual media to influence behavior.

Joanne Gaffney is a registered nurse and a licensed clinical social work psychotherapist with basic education at New York Hospital-Cornell and Simmons Graduate School, where she later became a supervisor. She was staff at Harvard Community Health Plan. Her continued training resulted in certification to provide the modern strategies available today in behavioral health and then in certification to teach them to other professionals.

        Collective track record sample

  • Prize winning clinic designs (BI-Deaconess and McLean-Mass. General Hospitals, Canada)
  • Designed new model of behavior change and conducted updated training for staff of major health service corporation, Health Dialog, Inc.
  • Consultation to nurse training program, Partners Health Care
  • Directed Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
  • Integrated concepts in Neurobiology, Attachment theory, Body-based work (Rubenfeld Synergy Method), and Psychological Trauma Treatment.
  • Developed the first child health standards for TV and media content analysis.
  • Testified before U.S. Congress on public policy regarding television content (Sen. Kent Conrad hearing)
  • Executive medical director of cable television consortium (OKTV Foundation),
  • Editor for prize winning quarterly on human behavior for writers of TV and film (Dialogue, IMHI)
  • Presentation at The National Press Club, The Boundary between Professional & Personal: the line in journalism between caring and unbiased reporting.
  • Appeared as Clinical Expert on "Can This Marriage Be Saved", Phil Donahue Show, NBC TV.
  • Conducted stress management programs for executives of family-run corporations
  • Honorary Fellow, The Royal Society of Health of Great Britain (for original research)
  • Script consulting to ABC TV, MTV, Hanna Barbera, and Turner Entertainment Industries (child public health)
  • Consultant to USAID-supported African Public Health Program for Aids, Malaria, and Infant Diarrhea
  • Founder, Trauma Prevention and Treatment Program for Children of the Asian Tsunami at Humanitarian Assistance Program & First Hand Foundation; and Consultant to UNICEF, United Nations, Committee on Children Displaced by Disaster.
  • Telly Award finalist 1995 Best Documentary, TV Violence: Parents Under The Gun (John Livingstone, co-host with Felicia Reshard), Turner TV prime time special.

        Advisors

  • Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., FAPA, Medical Director Trauma Center, Prof.; Boston University
  • Roy L. Simpson, RN, FNAP, Vice President, Nursing Informatics, Cerner Corporation, Kansas City.
  • John H. Doherty, M.D., FAAN, Cole Neuroscience Center, Knoxville, TN.
  • William Brennan, MA, Emmy award-winning former Executive Director, WGBH TV (PBS).