Mundo Lifework
Who I Am
My name is Jan Mundo, and I am a Certified Master Somatic Coach, a Massage and Body-centered Therapist, headache specialist, teacher, and author. I have been stopping headaches since 1970, when I intuitively developed the Mundo Method of hands-on headache relief: I could place my hands on someone's head (or my own), feel the headache, work with its sensations, and stop it cold on the spot. During that time I had adapted a more natural lifestyle, became a vegetarian, and moved to the country, as a founding member of the sixties-era intentional, spiritual community, The Farm. Later, I worked in broadcast advertising sales at Turner Broadcasting, and in publishing as an advertising sales manager with Cahners Business Information.
In 1992, I developed the Mundo Program of mind-body, self-care relief and prevention for people with headaches and migraines. I have taught my headache programs and other mind-body classes at leading medical centers, universities, and corporations, including: Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California San Francisco, Kaiser Permanente, Hill Physicians, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Hewlett-Packard and Lockheed Martin.
I have appeared as an expert in print, broadcast, and online, and my latest article, "Handling Headaches: A Specialist's Self-Care Program," is published in Massage & Bodywork (June/July 2004). I am published in four books: Being Human at Work, edited by Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Spiritual Midwifery, 1st-4th Editions, by Ina May Gaskin, and The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, edited by Louise Hagler. I am writing a self-care book about my headache program.
The Mundo Program was brought to light in a preliminary research study of 78 migraine patients who attended the program through their healthcare organization. Representing our research team, I presented the findings, which were selected for a poster session, at the 2001 International Headache Congress in New York City. The abstract was published in the medical journal, Cephalalgia (May 2001).
I am founder and director of the Headache Healing Center in Berkeley, California, and an Associate at Strozzi Institute. I am committed to helping chronic headache and migraine sufferers discover and eliminate the causes of their pain. I work with individuals, couples, and groups in the areas of health, healing, and personal transformation, with coaching, bodywork, and self-care practices to help them embody and enjoy their optimal state of being, in service of accomplishing their life mission and goals.
My work is informed by long time training and practices in the meditative and healing arts, including: zen buddhism, vipassana meditation, qi gong, energy work and hands-on healing, breathwork, spiritual and intuitive development, shamanic journeying, Eastern philosophy, body-centered therapies, and somatics.
I am also influenced by my deep, long-term commitment to spiritual values and the transformational path of lifelong learning, the Farm community, and my family. I credit the journey of creating a common vision and the hard work of living on the land in community as character building, and the repository for a wealth of embodied knowledge. I am inspired by lifelong learning and positive contribution, as embodied in dedicated teachers past and present and shared in consciousness-based communities worldwide.
I consider a foundational part of my training the experiences of natural childbirth with Ina May Gaskin and the Farm midwives, and the community culture they fostered of appreciation for women, babies, and wisdom of the body. The second and third generations of "Farmies" continue their parents' vision and goals of making a contribution in the world. My children, who were born and raised on The Farm, are independent documentary and music producers.