Judith Sewell Wright

Judith Sewell Wright
Judith Sewell Wright in 2006
Born	(1951-11-08) November 8, 1951
Occupation	Author, public speaker, educator, researcher and program developer
Known for	Soft addictions

Judith Wright (born November 8, 1951) is an American author, public speaker, educator, researcher, and program developer, known for coining the term "soft addictions", which has garnered national attention as seen on The Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, The CBS Early Show, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, and numerous other print and broadcast media.

Early life

Born in Flint, Michigan to Richard and Ruby Gene Sewell, Judith is the third of four sisters. She began her primary schooling in a one room schoolhouse and then a two-room school until third grade when she went to an elementary school with classrooms divided by grade. Dr. Wright’s family was active in public service and her mother was in charge of public relations for Flint Goodwill Industries where Judith had one of her earliest jobs.

From early on, she was engaged in the arts, beginning with dance in her oldest sister, Janet Sewells’ dance studio where she excelled. Her studies in music and baton led to her becoming drum majorette of the award-winning Swartz Creek high school marching band. In high school, she was a student leader, engaged in numerous clubs, and volunteer work. She won awards in mathematics, English, and publications while graduating as class valedictorian.

Studies and Early Influences

After graduating as valedictorian from Swartz Creek High School, she attended Michigan State University where she graduated summa cum laude with B.A. in Psychology, Phi Beta Kappa, winning the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship Book Prize and the Humanities Essay Contest, along with Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Lambda Delta honorary recognition.

She earned a Master’s Degree in Education and Counseling from Michigan State University in 1975 and a doctoral degree in education, leadership, and change from Fielding Graduate University. She was profoundly influenced in her early years by human potential and education authors such as Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and Alfred Adler.

Life

Professionally, Wright has held positions at Goodwill Industries, Mott College, The Illinois Department of Developmental Disabilities, and The University of Illinois Chicago Institute for the Study of Developmental Disabilities (now called The Institute on Disability and Human Development).

Prior to the Covid-19 shut-downs, she co-founded The Wright Leadership Institute, The Wright Foundation, and the state of Wisconsin Educational Approval Program sanctioned Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential with her husband Dr. Robert Wright, offering accredited master and doctoral degrees in transformational leadership and coaching as well as an MBA in Transformational Business. Since then, they have co-founded a new organization, LiveWright, which promotes personal and professional development for individuals and leaders utilizing their integrated research-based program findings across fields from neuroscience, psychology, existential philosophy, social sciences, spiritual study, and behavioral economics.

Programs Judith has developed include women’s empowerment, intimacy in families, conscious lifestyles, and leadership. She and her husband are also active in habitat restoration, environmental awareness, spiritual development, and emerging human empowerment technologies.

Career

Her initial work with Goodwill Industries as the Director of Work Adjustment Program, Flint, Michigan led to her position as Director of Special Services at Mott Community College in Flint. At Mott, she directed a demonstration grant for students with disabilities to successfully attend college and was Compliance Officer, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Sections 503 and 504, for Mott. While at Mott, she was also a Member of the Advisory Council for Collegiate Services to the Handicapped, Michigan Department of Education, on the Boards of Directors of Michigan Occupational Special Needs Association and the Easter Seal Society of Michigan. At Mott, she was also Grant applicant and recipient, as well as Project Director from the Bureau of Rehabilitation for a barrier-free campus, Principal Investigator and Project Director of, "Integration of Severely Handicapped Students into the College Mainstream: A Model Program", Michigan Department of Education, VTES, and Director of Handicapped Services.

She also developed and administered special services for students with disabilities as a national model for integration for students with disabilities in response to the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and acted as Principal Investigator and Project Director, "A Service Model for Handicapped, Disadvantaged and Bilingual Students", Michigan Department of Education, Vocational, Technical and Educational Services.

In 1978, Dr. Wright became Project Coordinator for "The Chicago Early Childhood Education Project,” contracted by the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped. She was appointed Director of Clinical Programs, Illinois Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of Illinois, Chicago and the Illinois Department of Mental Health where she developed model programs for children with disabilities and their families. She designed then state of the art programs and received federal funding for several grants as national demonstration projects. She was Principal Investigator and Project Director of "The Chicago Institutionalization Prevention Project for Severely Handicapped Children", contracted through the U.S. Department of Education, the Principal Investigator and Project Director, "Early Intervention with Risk and Handicapped Infants in Multi Hospital Multi Program Areas", National Institute for Handicapped Research, Office of Special Education, as well as Group Leader for parents of children with developmental disabilities.

Initial Private Business 1984

In 1984, Dr. Wright founded The Center for Exceptional Living, taking the success principles of working with individuals with disabilities and their families and applying them to a general population in a context of spiritual growth and development. In 1997, she co-founded and served as President of The Wright Business Institute, an Illinois Corporation. She is also co-founder of The Prairie Spring Wood Conference and Retreat Center in Elkhorn, Wisconsin where she and her husband, Dr. Bob Wright, developed a Training Center dedicated to living exceptionally, increasing consciousness, and deepening connection with self, others, spirit, and nature. The Center provided a place for personal and professional growth and was a wildlife sanctuary.

The business institute came under controversy in 2000 from the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation (IDPR), however all complaints and suits were dropped as of 2004.

Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential

In 2008, WBI and Dr. Wright co-founded a graduate university that became The Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential (acquired by the Wright Foundation for the Realization of Human Potential), an accredited graduate school granting master’s and doctoral degrees in Transformational Leadership and Coaching, Transformational M.B.A., and graduate certificates in Transformational Leadership, Transformational Coaching, Emotional Intelligence, and Social Intelligence. Accredited by DEAC (Distance Education Accrediting Commission), IACBE (International Accreditation Council for Business Education), and recognized by GSAEC (Graduate School Alliance for Education in Coaching) and ICF (International Coaching Federation) ACTP Accredited Coach Training Program recognition. Wright Graduate University was the first university to be granted GSEC Recognized: Graduate School Educated Coach. With enrollment in all programs declining, the Wright Foundation was closed in December of 2023 and the Wright Graduate University curriculum and students were transferred to Maharishi International University.

Public speaker, trainer, consultant and author

Dr. Wright’s work has been featured on national and local radio and television from 20/20, to The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Oprah Winfrey Show, Northwest Afternoon, NBC Weekend Morning News-Chicago, KOMO TV-Seattle, Fox in the Mornings-Chicago, Good Day Atlanta, NBC 10! -Philadelphia, Fox Mornings-Nashville. Magazine coverage has included articles and references in publications ranging from Fitness and Health magazines to Better Homes and Gardens, Cosmopolitan, Entrepreneur, Shape, Prevention, Health, Marie Claire, Natural Health magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, and the Twin Cities Times. She is an award-winning best-selling author.

The Theory of Personal Transformation: Evolating

Dr. Wright conducted a classic Grounded Theory study that yielded her theory of Living a Great Life: The Theory of Evolating (a Latin word meaning, flying up or out). This research study of historic transformers and exceptional students revealed the theory of evolating: a multiphase process through which individuals consciously engage in their own transformation and attain otherwise improbable levels of human potential. The theory defines a six-phase, nonlinear process with stages of Yearning, Engaging, Revelating, Liberating, Rematrixing, and Dedicating.

While many adults experience the early phases, few proceed through rematrixing and dedicating. The data indicate that evolating among exceptional students who do engage in all the phases predictably leads to a deeper, more accomplished life of greater meaning and purpose. The theory also provides a framework for strategizing learning and growing as well as explaining periods of stagnancy and ineffectual efforts to change attempted by both individuals and institutions. The theory was used to structure the experiential and academic educational programs for personal and professional transformation of the Wright Foundation and The Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential curricula in transformational coaching and leadership and an organizational consulting practice.

Dr. Wright wrote extensively about the theory in the Wrights’ book Transformed!: The Neuroscience of Changing Your Life for the Better, Forever and in Evolating! Living a Great Life, a companion to Transformed!.

Books

• There Must Be More Than This: Finding More Life, Love, and Meaning by Overcoming Your Soft Addictions. (Broadway Books/Random House, March 2003) ISBN 978-0767913409
• The One Decision, (Tarcher/Penguin, December 2005) ISBN 978-1585425471
• The Soft Addiction Solution, (Tarcher/Penguin, October 2006) ISBN 978-1585425327
• Co-author, Transformed!: The Neuroscience of Changing Your Life for the Better, Forever, (Turner Publishing, December 2012) ISBN 978-1618580757
• Co-author, The Heart of the Fight: A Couples Guide to 15 Common Fights, What They Really Mean and How They Can Bring You Closer, (New Harbinger Publications, February 2016) ISBN 978-1626252592
• Co-author-Foundations of Lifelong Learning

Other publications

• Wright, Judith Sewell. An Integrative Model of Parent Involvement. In Marie Peters, Ed., Building an Alliance for Children: Parents and Professionals. Seattle, WA: University of Washington PDAS, 1982
• Wright, Judith Sewell, Granger, Roberta and Sameroff, Arnold. Parental Acceptance and Developmental Handicap. In Severely Handicapped Young Children and their Families. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1984
• Wright, Judith Sewell, Ed. Early Intervention Programs. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois, 1984, Editor and Author of articles in Exceptional Living Journal
• Deardoff, Julie, "What's Your Soft Addiction?"
• Uptown Magazine, "5 Signs You have a Soft Addiction"
• The Times Dispatch, "TV, Social Networking, and the Web Can Mean Soft Addictions"
• The South Bend Tribune, "Soft Addictions Hard to Beat"
• The Danbury Connecticut News Times, "You Can Get Hooked on Soft Addictions"
• Grounded Theory Review, an international journal, “Evolating: A Classic Grounded Theory of Personal Transformation
• Grounded Theory Review, an international journal, “Grounded Leadership, Emergence Coaching, & Classic Grounded theory: An Action Research Study”