- Company Expands Live and Interactive Classes Include Mindfulness, Fitness, Nutrition, Professional Development, Leadership and Entrepreneurship -
- Industry-Leading Coaches Added, Including Bahareh Amidi, Ph.D, Dr. Jonathan Fisher, Dr. Eric Frazer, Suzanne Jewell, Andy Lee and Sara Mclean, as well as Several Fitness Experts -
- Company Prices Enterprise Offering at $3 a month per-active-user, Compared with $12.99 for Competitors -
MIAMI, March 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- meditation.live announced today that it has expanded its offerings to include live and interactive mindfulness, fitness, nutrition, professional development, leadership and entrepreneurship classes, creating the first enterprise-focused, tech-enabled total wellness solution. As a result of these changes, the company has changed its name to Wellness Coach, which reflects the company’s expanded focus in providing a full suite of services that improve a person’s total well-being.
After a successful completion of its initial $3 million capital investment led by SoftBank Capital NY and the launch of its live mediation, sleep music and fitness classes last year, the company has signed on more than 50 new enterprise clients in the past six months. Wellness Coach sees a very high adoption rate of its app within the enterprise, up to 80% within six months.
Wellness is becoming a growing focus for businesses, as well as individuals. Many companies are looking for ways to combat workforce stress and improve employee health and wellness through innovative programs. Research shows that stressed workers are less engaged, less productive and have higher levels of absenteeism and turnover.
D Sharma, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wellness Coach said, “We have incredible momentum with our enterprise clients, and we are gratified by the response we are getting from our end-users and the transformation they are experiencing as a result. There is incredible demand for a full-service, tech-enabled enterprise wellness solution.”
With Wellness Coach’s expanded offerings, the company has added some of the most preeminent names in wellness (full bios below). In addition, the company has added machine learning functionality to the new Wellness Coach website, which provides users with a “Recently Watched” section and “Recommended for You” classes based on user interests.
- Bahareh Amidi, Ph.D is a certified poetry therapist with a Masters in Family, Marriage and Child Counseling Psychology and has received her PhD in Educational Psychology from Catholic University.
- Dr. Jonathan Fisher is a Harvard-trained Cardiologist with 20 years of clinical experience. After 10 years of meditation practice, including extended silent retreats, he obtained his Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification in Oxford, England.
- Dr. Eric Frazer is a Psychologist with a specialization and academic concentration in Forensic Psychology, helps organizations of all sizes find, develop and train top talent by leveraging a unique blend of clinical psychology, positive psychology research and proven step-by-step systems and strategies.
- Suzanne Jewell is a 14-year veteran of her own start-up. Jewell’s been a practitioner of mindfulness long before Silicon Valley dubbed it the “new secret sauce” within the halls of Google and other forward-thinking, cutting edge multi-media entities.
- Andy Lee helps leaders, teams and organizations leverage the power of mindfulness to create a culture of engagement, innovation and sustainable success. He has been teaching mindfulness in organizations since 2011, including, recently as Chief Mindfulness Officer at Aetna.
- Sara Mclean is a contemporary meditation and mindfulness teacher who has been inspiring people to meditate for over 25 years. Her students come from all walks of life, including Olympic and professional athletes, rock stars and presidents of Fortune 500 companies, along with moms and dads and even young children.
- Fitness Experts
- Eric Thomson, Owner of Avenger Fitness and Master Trainer for Core Health & Fitness and SCHWINN® Indoor Cycling
- Jenny Jaucian, BeachBody Certified Trainer and Yoga Instructor
- Brooke Emory, Certified Trainer, Functional Strength Coach and Certified Boxing Instructor
- Toby Massenburg, Owner Total Max Fitness and instructor with 15 years’ experience
These new coaches join an already deep and experienced bench of Wellness Coach experts including:
- Jessica Bigogno, Psychologist and Mindfulness Coach
- Pandit Dasa, Urban Monk & Meditation Expert
- Kristen Eykel, Yoga & Meditation Teacher and Author
- Pakorn Kittipanyo, Buddhist Monk
- Selena Lael, Transformational Life Coach
- Monique Leverington, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Certified Meditation Teacher & Yoga Instructor
- Omji, Yoga and Meditation Instructor
- Dr. Julie Rosenberg, Oncologist and Mindfulness Speaker
- Tony Saccardi, Certified Meditation Teacher and Mindfulness at Work Trainer
- Louise Shanagher, Children’s Therapist, Mindfulness Teacher and Psychology Lecturer
- John Siddique, Meditation Teacher, Writer and Poet
- Corene Summers, International Yoga and Meditation Instructor
- Dr. Pallavi Visvanathan, Cognitive Based Clinical Psychologist
Julie Sharma, Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer of Wellness Coach said, “More and more, our enterprise clients are looking to provide a one-stop total wellness solution for their employees. With these expanded capabilities we are able to serve every aspect of a person’s well-being, from mindfulness, fitness, sleep and nutrition to professional development and leadership.”
The company decided to price the expanded enterprise offering at $3 a month, per active user, compared with $12.99 a month for competitors.
Julie continued, “Our pricing is reflective of our mission to inspire five billion people to be their best selves through improved mindfulness and wellness. If we are true to that mission, the pricing cannot be prohibitive to someone’s ability to participate.”
About D. Sharma
D Sharma is the Co-Founder & CEO of Wellness Coach. He is passionate about the future of humanity and the importance of protecting our mental health against the inevitable growth of AI and machine learning. As a serial entrepreneur and investor, D began his career at the Nokia Research Center as part of the team that created early access to the internet on mobile phones. After moving to the U.S., D launched a series of his own companies and created a speech recognition technology, receiving the first patent on multimodal technologies, which is now commonplace with Siri and Alexa, etc. D went on to create xAd, an advertising service that uses GPS technology on mobile devices, growing the business to over $200 million in revenue. Today, D is taking his love for meditation and investing to growing Wellness Coach and investing in various startups and growth funds.
About Julie Sharma
Julie Sharma is the Co-Founder & Chief Content Officer of Wellness Coach. Julie has more than a decade of experience spearheading accounting and operations teams, helping businesses to thrive efficiently at scale. She is detail-oriented and highly motivated professional with exceptional skills and knowledge in the full accounting cycle, compliance with GAAP and IFRS regulations. As a former Senior Business Analyst for the American Museum of Natural History and Charity Ambassador for xAd, Inc, she has managed international budgets and implemented company-wide giving programs. Julie now owns a spot as a female founder and entrepreneur in the wellness industry, merging her know-how in business with her passion for helping people. Today, Julie is responsible for acquiring teachers, overseeing app content and overall company culture, finance and HR at Wellness Coach, helping the company pursue its goal of inspiring people to find their purpose.
About Bhartesh Chhibbar
Bhartesh Chhibbar is the Co-Founder & COO of Wellness Coach. He is a tech entrepreneur, ex-Cisco leader with 20 years of experience in building technology products and solutions. Some of the many startups he founded or helped found, included the first ever voice messaging product for APAC market and first ever B2C platform for business services. Today, Bhartesh is building a machine learning enabled wellness platform for Wellness Coach. He is passionate to see everyone in his life happier and more well.
Bahareh Amidi, Ph.D
Dr. Bahareh Amidi is a certified poetry therapist with a Masters in Family, Marriage and Child Counseling Psychology and has received her PhD in Educational Psychology from Catholic University. She has studied poetry therapy at The Institute for Poetic Medicine in California. She has spoken on the topic of Poetry Therapy at TEDx in Abu Dhabi. Dr. Bahareh spent many years volunteering by counseling and training in suicide prevention at the Crisis Center in Menlo Park, working with children at the Stanford Children’s Health Center, California and researching drug and alcohol rehabilitation at Sequoia Hospital to name a few.
Bahareh has written over 40 complete poetry journals in English and Persian, covering potent themes like human rights, women’s and children’s issues, life and death, coping with loss, gender empowerment, global peace, interfaith harmony, overcoming trauma and protecting the environment. Her work has often been compared to classical spiritual masters like Rumi and contemporary writers like Khalil Gibran. She seems to be channeling her writing “from a divine place”, publishing industry insiders have remarked.
Dr. Jonathan Fisher
Dr. Jonathan Fisher is a Harvard-trained Cardiologist with 20 years of clinical experience. After 10 years of meditation practice including extended silent retreats he obtained his Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification in Oxford, England.
He has designed and presented interactive programs for teams and departments across the healthcare system, on topics including leadership development, mind-body-heart connections, stress reduction, caregiver burnout, psychological well-being, peak performance, mindfulness, self-compassion and empathic communication. His personal mission is to help positively transform our culture in the face of a crisis of disconnection, loneliness, and burnout.
Dr. Eric Frazer
Dr. Eric Frazer, a Psychologist with a specialization and academic concentration in Forensic Psychology, helps organizations of all sizes find, develop and train top talent by leveraging a unique blend of clinical psychology, positive psychology research, and proven step-by-step systems and strategies. He has spent the past two decades analyzing key human behaviors and drivers and implementing the latest psychology research. Organizations such as Cisco, Google, Berkshire Hathaway-New England Properties, and Yale University School of Medicine have benefited from his clinical and academic expertise to recruit, develop and retain high performing top talent.
In addition to his practice, Dr. Frazer holds an academic appointment of Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University School of Medicine and teaches seminars on various topics related to psychological assessment. In 2013, he was appointed Senior Advisor on School Threat Assessment and School Safety-Yale Behavioral Health/Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Frazer is also the author of the new book "The Psychology of Top Talent."
Suzanne Jewell
Suzanne started her professional life as an expert in Strategic Marketing & Communications and as she evolved professionally and personally, it was natural to expand her skills to encompass the growing movement of social impact entrepreneurship with projects from the streets of Miami to Venezuela and as far as Ethiopia. A 14-year veteran of her own start-up, Jewell’s been a practitioner of mindfulness long before Silicon Valley dubbed it the “new secret sauce” within the halls of Google and other forward-thinking, cutting edge multi-media entities. Bringing the tools of this mindfulness movement to Miami is part of her commitment through Venture League of the Americas, a consciousness-changing group of investors, start-ups and vendors who want to shift Miami’s “ego-system” into a viable “eco-system” which emphasizes increasing the trust, reciprocity and integrity within the innovation community of South Florida.
Suzanne spread her wings early from her native Michigan for undergrad to an M.A. from the Universidad de Sevilla, Espana, continuing her education with the University of California Berkeley Greater Good Science Center Awareness Training Institute, Stanford University’s Creative Insight Journey, is a trained hospice volunteer in the Dying Conscious movement and participates in the Unity Prayer Chaplains program.
Andy Lee
Andy Lee helps leaders, teams and organizations leverage the power of mindfulness to create a culture of engagement, innovation and sustainable success. He has been teaching mindfulness in organizations since 2011.
Before founding Mindful Ethos, Andy was Chief Mindfulness Officer at Aetna where he and his team developed a range of programs to create a deeply rooted culture of mindfulness. He also developed mindfulness programs for Aetna’s customers. Previously, Andy had a career in Human Resources. He held senior talent management roles at Merrill Lynch, Viacom, and Capital One. There, he developed traditional programs to enhance employee development and leadership effectiveness.
Andy was trained as a mindfulness teacher at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and a Certificate in Executive Coaching from CUNY Baruch.
Sarah McLean
Sarah McLean is a contemporary meditation and mindfulness teacher who has been inspiring people to meditate for over 25 years. Her students come from all walks of life, including Olympic and professional athletes, rock stars, and presidents of Fortune 500 companies, along with moms and dads and even young children. Sarah is the founder of the Meditation Teacher Academy at the McLean Meditation Institute.
Sarah is a popular facilitator at retreats for the Chopra Center, Esalen Institute, 1440 Multiversity, The Art of Living Retreat Center, and many world-class destinations. She has been interviewed on national television, featured in a variety of award-winning movies, and her work has been touted in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.
Her best-seller, Soul-Centered: Transform Your Life in 8 Weeks with Meditation (Hay House), has inspired study groups worldwide. Her latest release, The Power of Attention: Awaken to Love and its Unlimited Potential with Meditation (Hay House February 2017) has received rave reviews.
About Wellness Coach
Wellness Coach’s mission is to inspire five billion people to be their best selves through improved mindfulness and wellness.
The company’s unique platform allows anyone to ask questions to our teachers live, which improves learning while on demand classes help you with your daily practice.
For more information go to www.wellnesscoach.live.
Contact: Erin Passan
Managing Partner, Gagnier Communications
epassan@gagnierfc.com