Meet Dr. Linda Bark
Founder of the Wisdom of the Whole Coaching Academy
Love. Wholeness. Connection. Consciousness.
Why “Wisdom of the Whole”?
“When I started the Wisdom of the Whole over 25 years ago, my dream for the world was that the Whole Person coaching would become mainstream. Today, I feel grateful that body, mind, and spirit coaching is burgeoning and spreading to leaders, teachers, and health and wellness practitioners.”
- Dr. Linda Bark
SHORT BIO
Professional Highlights
Dr. Linda Bark pioneered new professional health pathways by starting a private nursing practice in 1970 and bringing holistic nursing to hospitals in the 80s. During the 90s, she led medical tours to China, lived in China to discover how to help Westerners create a context for Eastern healing, and consulted organizations nationwide to start healing centers. She has two Nursing degrees, a master’s in Life Transition Counseling and a PhD in Philosophy and Religion with an emphasis in Integral Healing Systems, Asian Health Studies, Chi Gong, and Organizational Development. She combined her education and experience to create the Wisdom of the Whole Coaching Academy, a home for leading people to new ways to live and work.
Linda’s professional achievements include:
30+ years of coaching experience
Pioneer of new professional health pathways
Master Certified Coach (MCC) in 2007 by the International Coach Federation
Nurse Coach-Board Certified (NC-BC) in 2012 by the American Holistic Nurses Certification Corporation
National Board Certified-Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) since 2017
Lifetime Achievement Award, American Holistic Nurses Association, 2023
Author of the award-winning book The Wisdom of the Whole: Coaching for Joy, Health, and Success
Creator of the integral/holistic coaching model, an innovative and unique approach to co-creating learning experiences that empower people and help them feel and maintain a sense of ease, fun, and fulfillment. Wisdom of the Whole helps people build a new world with more kindness, increased healing for the planet, wholeness, and the knowledge that we are all connected.
Linda is a frequent speaker and internationally recognized researcher in the fields of nursing, healing, therapy, spirituality, and holistic studies. Her research interests include energy work, structures of consciousness, organizational development, healing, spirituality, the microbiome and the virome, and community building. She is currently working on her new microbiome book.
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
About Me
I’m into global…
As a child, I’d save my allowance and buy stamps from many foreign countries unknown to my friends around me in Harvey, Illinois. That love of foreign lands led me as an adult to travel often. Those adventures enriched my life, taught me to see outside of my USA bubble, and gave me unique perspectives and friends. I have even taken others on trips to China to learn about healing for New Dimensions Radio, Noetics, and CIIS, to name a few. And it is why I love offering our classes to students worldwide. We all expand, stretch, and learn together from each other.
I’m into consciousness…
Not that I knew what consciousness was as a youngster, but I have often explored the deeper questions of life in my early years and even received a PhD in Philosophy in my 50s. That type of curiosity led me to discover Jean Gebser, a little-known philosopher in the 1930s, whose seminal work laid out a robust framework of how consciousness has changed over time. When I needed to train staff in holistic healing centers I was helping start in the ‘90s, I used it to explain different ways of knowing and being that allowed clients to explore many parts of themselves, leading quickly to lasting change. It is still the foundation of our coaching program. This theory helps us understand the transformation of our times and gives us useful tools to find pathways and fulfillment in the chaos before creation.
I’m into wholeness…
One of my frequent questions for myself, my clients, and our school is, “What is the big picture here?” Over my life, I have found it very useful to get out of the weeds, send my perspective up thousands of feet, and look down on the whole situation. From there, I see new connections and patterns that inform my personal and professional decisions. Sometimes, that elevated viewpoint brings up sadness as I see places in the world, figuratively speaking, where the right hand cuts off the left hand because there is a lack of understanding of how we are all connected.
My natural acting from wholeness has impacted the coaching programs that I have created. When clients can truly tune into many parts of themselves—feelings, thoughts, images, body awareness, spiritual insights—they move quickly and effectively toward transformation and success. This is the power of our multi-perspective approach. Once coaches and clients come from this place, they don’t want to limit themselves by letting go of this whole-person approach.
I’m into love…
It seems to me to be the answer to our problems and crosses over into consciousness and wholeness. It is the basis for our school culture and how we want to treat each other and our students. Why not? It helps us provide better service, be more impactful, and have happier days.
I’m into the art and science of holistic well-being practice…
My practices include meditation, energy work, systemic constellations for family and organizations, prayer, and yoga. When I’m not researching and coaching, I enjoy photography, global travel, and time with my daughter and her family.
