Joan Borysenko

Background

Joan Borysenko was born on October 25, 1945, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. She is a daughter of Edward Zakon and Lillian Zakon.

Education

Joan Borysenko received a Bachelor of Arts in biology magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1967. It was followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School five years later. She was later trained in cancer cell biology and in behavioral medicine. Borysenko's third post-doctoral fellowship, a Medical Foundation Fellowship received with a help of Herbert Benson, M.D, was in psychoneuroimmunology.

Career

Joan Borysenko started her career in the early 1970s. From 1973 to 1978, she served as an assistant professor of anatomy and cellular biology at the Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston. The death of her father pushed Borysenko to turn her attention from the illness to the ill person. After completing a corresponding training at Harvard Medical School, she received a license in psychology and obtained a post of an instructor in medicine at the institution in 1981.

She left the post seven years later and, along with Dr. Benson and Dr. Ilan Kutz, co-founded Mind/Body clinic in Boston. She directed Mind/Body Clinical Programs at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and has been the president of the Mind/Body Health Sciences, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Borysenko's first book, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind, co-authored with Larry Rothstein and published in 1987, embodied her clinical experience walking its readers through the Mind/Body Clinic 10-week course on meditation and relaxation. Becoming the New York Times best-selling book, it was followed by the other sixteen written and audio volumes on health, healing, and women's spirituality. Borysenko's writings have been regularly featured in a great number of scientific periodicals when the author herself has been the guest and visiting expert on many TV and radio programs.

Achievements

• An authority in psychoneuroimmunology, Joan Borysenko is an accomplished and widely renowned specialist in the mind-body connection. Her activity in the area has played an important role in the development of health-care practices and helped to rethink the role of spiritual factors in health and healing.
  
  The number of sold copies of Borysenko's debut book, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind that became the New York Times best-seller, reached more than 400,000 items.
  
  The combination of Borysenko's comprehensive approach to research with her sense of humor makes her workshops and lectures useful for a large audience, from health professionals to health amateurs.
  
  Borysenko has been listed as a noteworthy psychologist and biologist by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Your Soul's Compass: What is Spiritual Guidance?

    (Why am I here? What does a life worth living look like? W...)

    2007
  • It's Not the End of the World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change

    (The book by Joan Borysenko, a world-renowned expert on st...)

    2009
  • The Plant Plus Diet Solution: Personalized Nutrition for Life

    (The author gives you easy-to-digest, bite-sized servings ...)

    2014
  • Fire in the Soul

    (The author reveals the power of spiritual optimism: a phi...)

    1993
  • The Beginner's Guide to Meditation

    (Joan Borysenko leads you through the specifics of three d...)

    1998
  • Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year

    (A powerful collection of spiritual activities that we can...)

    1994
  • The Power of the Mind to Heal: Renewing Body, Mind, and Spirit

    (An audiobook that presents transformative methods of over...)

    1994
  • A Woman's Book of Life

    (The author shows how women can use mood swings and life c...)

    1996
  • The Ways of the Mystic: 7 Paths to God

    (Each of the seven primary energy centers of the human bod...)

    1997
  • Inner Peace for Busy People

    (The book consists of 52 weekly entries that are both insp...)

    2001
  • Guilt is the Teacher, Love is the Lesson

    (A compassionate, healing guide for overcoming the devasta...)

    1990
  • Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive

    (This is an invitation to take your power back!)

    2011
  • Inner Peace for Busy Women

    (This is a book about getting real. It tells the truth abo...)

    2001
  • Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

    (Based on Dr. Borysenko's groundbreaking work nearly thirt...)

    1987
  • A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path 1999

Membership

Joan Borysenko has been a member of the National Wellness Coalition, Exceptional Cancer Patients, and the American Cancer Society.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• [Borysenko] delivers Meditation with humor and sensitivity." Nancy Spillman, Booklist reviewer

Interests

• meditation

• Sport & Clubs

  hiking, jogging, skiing

Connections

Joan Borysenko married Kurt Kaltreider, a philosopher and financial analyst, in 1996. They divorced six years later.

Borysenko's second husband was a professor of anatomy and cellular biology Miroslav Borysenko. The marriage ended.

Borysenko has three children named Natalia, Justin, and Andrei.

Father:

Edward Zakon

Mother:

Lillian Zakon

Ex-husband:

Kurt Kaltreider

Ex-husband:

Miroslav Borysenko

Daughter:

Natalia Borysenko

Son:

Justin Borysenko

Son:

Andrei Borysenko

References

• Joan Borysenko Official Website