ABOUT US

Dr. John Warlow is the founder of Living Wholeness Ltd. John is a Christian child adolescent and family psychiatrist. He was born in Northern India, to missionary parents, educated in Southern India and the UK, married Jill, a Kiwi/New Zealander, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia. John and Jill and have 5 wonderful adult children.

John ‘found’ the Christian Wholeness Framework (CWF) as he was preparing for his psychiatry exams in the 1980’s. John always says he is more the finder than the founder. God revealed this to him as he studied and desired to find a systematic approach to integration of biology, theology, psychiatry, and psychology, that offered a way to understand human nature wholistically. The CWF was the outcome. Although a few minor adaptions have been added over the years, the basic format is still the same as when John found it.

The Christian Wholeness Framework is the ‘operating system’ used by those associated with Living Wholeness Ltd., an Australian not-for-profit company established as a platform from which to share the Christian Wholeness Framework.

Dr. Carolyn Russell is a Brisbane based family physician and counsellor, as well as a counselling supervisor and educator. She also lectures in pastoral care at Queensland Theological College, Brisbane. Carolyn has journeyed with John for over 20 years now, and is a key leader of Living Wholeness. She trains counsellors in Australia and the Asian region.

Dr. David and Mrs. Susanne Nikles were seeking a robust integrative approach to Christian Counselling while working in China in the 2000’s. David is an Australian family physician who more completely entered the field of counselling training over the last 15 years. Susanne, also an Aussie, was an occupational therapist prior to completing her master’s in counselling in the 90’s. They met John in 2006, and decided to use the framework, as it was really the most helpful approach to integrative Christian counselling they had ever seen in their 30 years of professional life. They introduced it to Chinese pastors and counsellors with high uptake. From there they and their team developed a number of high-quality trainings ranging from a several day, to a 2 year course. The graduates from these courses have formed a team of excellent trainers who train others using the material.

The leadership of Living Wholeness, John, Carolyn, David, and Susanne, decided to form a not- for-profit company, Living Wholeness Ltd, registered with the ACNC in Australia, in May 2019. This company forms the legal platform from which all Living Wholeness work is carried out. The Living Wholeness Institute, the teaching and training arm, is based at BST, Brisbane Australia, and offers a range of training and courses, for a range of interested people including everybody, pastors and leaders, small groups, lay and pastoral counsellors, and professional counsellors.

During the last decade more work has been done in the area of writing on the Christian Wholeness Framework, with now around 20 books either completed or in progress. Some of these are available through this website. Living Wholeness is in the process of applying for associate membership of the ATA (Asian Theological Association), and increasingly the team are being requested to train pastors in pastoral counselling at theological colleges both in Australia and Asia.

David and Susanne relocated from China to Chiangmai Thailand in 2019, Living Wholeness base for activities within Asia. The team also are beginning to develop long term research into aspects of the Framework. Graduates from the longer courses, LWTP and PACT, are invited to join the Master Trainer four-year training which takes them deeper as counsellors, supervisors, trainers, researchers, and developers. The Living Wholeness community is made up of alumni and trainers who have found Living Wholeness to be so helpful, wholistic, thorough, foundational, and life changing, that they want to share this with others.