“beyond symptom relief, heal the root cause”
Psychologist & Mindfulness expert
Psychotherapy, leadership consulting, and mindfulness-based practice in Massachusetts, New York, Montana, and Vermont
Psychology · Mindfulness · Research
Dr. John Christopher, PhD, is a licensed psychologist, Fulbright Scholar, and internationally recognized mindfulness scholar. He provides psychotherapy, executive advisory, and organizational consultation across Montana, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York, with secure virtual services available nationally and internationally.
Dr. Christopher’s work is guided by a developmental, relational, and mind–body framework. Rather than reducing distress to isolated symptoms, he examines the underlying emotional, physiological, and cultural patterns that shape experience. The aim is psychological coherence, ethical clarity, and sustainable engagement in work and life.
With decades of experience at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and contemplative science, his work integrates developmental theory, mind–body research, and cultural inquiry to support resilience, ethical leadership, and psychological depth. Learn more about Dr. John Christopher.
Psychotherapy
Depth-oriented, integrative psychotherapy for adults navigating:
Depression, anxiety, and chronic stress
Burnout and professional exhaustion
Trauma and PTSD
Chronic illness and mind–body health challenges
Relationship and attachment struggles
Life transitions, grief, and identity development
Psychological treatment integrates psychodynamic therapy, somatic psychology, mindfulness (including Focusing and Hakomi), and contemplative practice. Drawing from neuroscience and attachment science, therapy focuses on structural integration rather than symptom management alone.
Executive Advisory & International Consulting
Dr. Christopher provides confidential leadership consultation and coaching for CEOs, healthcare executives, academic leaders, and mission-driven organizations.
His work addresses:
Decision-making under sustained pressure
Burnout prevention and stress physiology
Ethical leadership in complex systems
Organizational culture and resilience
Grounded in psychological science and contemplative discipline, his advisory work strengthens emotional intelligence, moral clarity, and sustainable performance.
Professional Background
PhD in Counseling Psychology, University of Texas
Master’s in Counseling & Consulting Psychology, Harvard University
Licensed in New York, Montana, Massachusetts, and Vermont
Nationally Registered Health Service Psychologist
Former professor at Dartmouth, the University of Washington, and Montana State University
His scholarship and teaching have shaped the integration of mindfulness and psychology in clinical, educational, and leadership contexts.
About Dr. John Christopher
Before going into a full-time psychotherapy practice in Montana, John was a Professor for 23 years at Montana State University, Dartmouth, the University of Washington, and the University of Guam.
John is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a Past-President of the Society of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (Division 24 of the APA).
John is also a Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute. He was a founding member of the Mind & Life Institute’s Ethics, Education, and Human Development Project. This Project developed a pedagogy and curriculum to promote the Dalai Lama’s vision of teaching ethics in schools.
John Christopher PhD, is a licensed psychologist in the states of New York, Montana, Vermont and Massachusetts.
Scholarly Contributions
Dr. Christopher’s scholarship spans health psychology, cultural psychology, theoretical and philosophical psychology, and developmental psychology.
He is the author of more than sixty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters examining the cultural, moral, and ontological foundations of psychological well-being, moral development, and psychotherapy.
He received the Sigmund Koch Early Career Award from the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (American Psychological Association) and Montana State University’s Wiley Research Award. He was also honored with the Bozeman Peacemaker Award, nominated by his students.
His work has appeared in leading journals, including American Psychologist, where his article “Critical Cultural Awareness” was featured as a lead article. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Counseling & Spirituality, and The International Journal of Spirituality, and has guest-edited special issues of Theory & Psychology and The Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology.
→ Learn more about Dr. Christopher’s Scholarly Contributions.
Inspiration & Philosophy
For over four decades, Dr. John Christopher has engaged the intersection of psychological science, contemplative traditions, and cross-cultural perspectives on healing.
His work has included sustained study of non-Western approaches to health and psychological development, including a Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship in India (2012–2013) focused on indigenous Indian psychology. He has conducted participant observation in contemplative training contexts and fieldwork examining traditional healing practices within their cultural settings.
Over more than thirty years, he has also studied Balinese healing traditions, exploring how embodied and communal approaches to health may complement Western behavioral medicine. These cross-cultural experiences have informed his examination of the assumptions embedded within Western models of selfhood, autonomy, and well-being.
In both teaching and clinical work, he emphasizes how health is shaped not only by individual factors, but by cultural narratives, economic systems, and institutional practices. His scholarship encourages critical reflection on consumerism, health disparities, and the social determinants of mental health, highlighting the limits of approaches that focus solely on individual risk factors without addressing broader structural influences.
This perspective informs his commitment to psychological work that integrates individual healing with ethical and cultural awareness.
Clinical Expertise
Individual Psychotherapy
Anxiety Concerns
Stress Management
Depression and Mood Disorders
Emotion Regulation
Chronic Pain, Insomnia, and Medical Challenges
Spirituality and Self-Growth
Self-Esteem Concerns
Transitions, Life Challenges and Coping Skills
Mindfulness Training, MBSR, Self-Care and Well-Being
Psychosomatic Medicine
Trauma, PTSD
Sexuality and Identity concerns
Codependency Concerns
Attachment Difficulties and Family of Origin Issues
Grief, Bereavement and Loss
Mindfulness Expertise for Business and Organizations
Health Care Professionals, Burnout Prevention
Men's Issues
Professional Supervision, College Students and Career
Work With Dr. John Christopher
Coaching
Mindfulness-focused coaching for wellness, stress management, and resilience. I tailor programs to meet your unique needs and lifestyle. My goal is to be flexible and responsive as we work together to support your health goals.
Research
Research and scholarship on well-being, moral and ethical development, self-care, resilience, and cultural sensitivity. My research is interdisciplinary in nature, pursuing themes of culture & self, identity, meaning, moral development, and psychological well-being.
Psychotherapy
As a Psychotherapist working with Individuals and Couples, I work with people struggling with a variety of concerns and problems to help them cope more effectively in today's challenging world.
Consultation
Wellness and mindfulness-based workshops or consultation for organizations, businesses, health care agencies, universities, and schools. I consult internationally to help organizations promote wellness.
mindfulness & Meditation routines
A Mind–Body Medicine Philosophy
In a culture that often prioritizes rapid solutions, meaningful psychological change requires more than symptom reduction. It calls for an integrative understanding of how emotional life, physiology, relationships, and meaning-making interact over time.
As a licensed psychologist providing psychotherapy, executive advisory, and mindfulness-informed consultation in New York, Massachusetts, Montana, and Vermont, I approach healing through the lens of mind–body medicine—recognizing that psychological and physiological processes are inseparable.
Emotional stress, trauma, and burnout are not experienced only as thoughts. They are carried in patterns of muscular tension, disrupted sleep, inflammatory stress responses, chronic fatigue, and relational withdrawal. Sustainable change involves working at both psychological and physiological levels.
My approach integrates:
Psychodynamic and relational psychotherapy
Somatic and mindfulness-based practices, including Hakomi and Focusing
Developmental and attachment-informed perspectives
Ethical reflection and leadership consultation
Support for anxiety, depression, chronic illness, grief, and life transitions
This work is trauma-informed, developmentally grounded, and relationally attentive. It aims not only to reduce distress, but to restore coherence between mind, body, and action.
Across settings—from executive leadership to clinical psychotherapy—the goal remains consistent: to cultivate emotional regulation, reflective capacity, ethical clarity, and resilience in the face of complexity.
Rather than seeking quick relief alone, this philosophy invites a steady process of integration—one that honors the whole person and supports long-term psychological and physiological balance.
Professional Services
Consultation, Supervision & Mindfulness-Based Programs
Dr. John Christopher provides mindfulness-based consultation, professional supervision, and leadership development for organizations, clinicians, and senior professionals.
He collaborates with healthcare systems, universities, and mission-driven institutions to design programs that strengthen resilience, ethical leadership, and sustainable workplace cultures. His work integrates psychological science, somatic awareness, and contemplative practice through workshops, executive retreats, keynote presentations, and long-term advisory partnerships.
In Montana, he also offers clinical supervision for psychologists and counselors pursuing licensure, supporting the integration of mind–body psychology and ethical clinical practice.
Across consultation, supervision, and coaching, the focus remains consistent: cultivating disciplined attention, emotional regulation, and long-term resilience in complex professional environments.
About Psychological Counseling
Dr. John Christopher provides integrative psychotherapy for adults navigating emotional distress, life transitions, relational challenges, and stress-related health concerns in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Montana.
His approach combines psychodynamic and interpersonal therapy with mind–body research and somatic practices. Treatment addresses both emotional patterns and physiological stress responses, supporting greater regulation, resilience, and psychological coherence.
He welcomes individuals managing chronic illness, pain, and culturally complex identities, offering a collaborative and developmentally grounded framework for meaningful change.
Executive Coaching for Mindfulness & Resilience
In high-stakes professional environments, sustained clarity and emotional regulation are essential to effective leadership. Dr. John Chambers Christopher provides confidential executive coaching grounded in mindfulness, psychological science, and stress physiology.
Working with CEOs, physicians, healthcare leaders, educators, and senior professionals, he supports clients navigating sustained pressure, decision fatigue, and emerging burnout. Coaching strengthens emotional regulation, reflective decision-making, and ethical clarity while addressing the physiological patterns that contribute to chronic stress and overextension.
Rather than focusing solely on performance optimization, this work cultivates sustainable resilience, disciplined attention, and long-term psychological stability.
Sessions are conducted virtually for leaders across New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Montana, and internationally.
About Cultural Psychology
Cultural psychology examines how identity, morality, and well-being are shaped by historical and cultural assumptions. What we often treat as universal—our understanding of health, selfhood, and the good life—is always situated within particular social contexts.
Through cross-cultural research and sustained engagement with indigenous healing traditions, including contemplative practices and fieldwork with traditional healers and shamans, Dr. Christopher explores how cultural narratives influence psychological theory and practice. This perspective informs both his scholarship and clinical work, supporting greater interpretive awareness and ethical sensitivity across cultural settings.
About Interdisciplinary Research
Interactivism is a process-oriented framework in developmental and philosophical psychology that rethinks traditional models of mind and self. Rather than treating psychological life as composed of fixed entities—such as mind versus body or individual versus culture—it understands these distinctions as dynamic patterns of interaction.
Identity, cognition, and moral development are viewed as evolving organizations of activity rather than static traits. Development involves increasing reflective capacity—the ability to step back from inherited assumptions and reorganize understanding at more integrated levels.
This perspective informs Dr. Christopher’s scholarship and applied work by supporting integrative models of growth grounded in coherence rather than fragmentation.
About Interactivism
Interactivism is a process-oriented framework in philosophical and developmental psychology that challenges traditional models that treat mind, self, and culture as separate or fixed entities. Rather than understanding psychological life as composed of static “things,” interactivism views identity, cognition, and moral development as emergent patterns of ongoing interaction.
From this perspective, structures such as beliefs, values, and personal identity are not foundational substances, but stabilizations of dynamic processes. Many longstanding psychological dualisms—mind and body, individual and culture, fact and value—are reconsidered as interconnected aspects of lived experience rather than fundamentally separate domains.
Drawing on pragmatist philosophy and developmental theory, this approach emphasizes reflective abstraction: the human capacity to step back from our current patterns of thought and reorganize them at a more integrated level. Development, in this view, involves increasing flexibility, ethical awareness, and coherence across contexts.
This theoretical framework informs Dr. Christopher’s scholarship and applied work by supporting integrative models of psychological growth that move beyond fragmentation toward dynamic coherence.
→ Explore Dr. Christopher’s research on interactivism and developmental theory.
About Mindfulness & Contemplative Practice
Mindfulness is the disciplined capacity to attend to present-moment experience with clarity and acceptance. Dr. John Christopher began practicing meditation and yoga in 1981 and has continued sustained study and teaching of contemplative disciplines for over four decades. His training includes yoga, meditation, and qigong, as well as formal instruction in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
Since the late 1990s, he has taught mindfulness-based programs to clinicians, healthcare providers, and students, integrating contemplative practice into graduate education and hospital-based settings. His development of an MBSR program for a regional hospital and the graduate course Mind-Body Medicine and the Art of Self-Care reflects his commitment to bridging contemplative traditions with psychotherapy and behavioral medicine.
In clinical work, executive coaching, and organizational consultation, mindfulness is integrated not simply as stress reduction, but as a framework for emotional regulation, resilience, and ethical presence.
→ Learn more about Dr. Christopher’s mindfulness training and research.