Biography of JOHN R. MACE,
The grandson of West Virginia coal miners and Midwest sharecroppers, John R. Mace was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1956 and raised outside Los Angeles, California.
Because of their own poor upbringings, Mace’s father, a Western Electric worker, and mother, a school district secretary, strove to attain middle-class status – and left their eldest son in the care of a beloved aunt from infancy until age 7.
After graduating from high school, Mace attended Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, earning his Bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1978. He officially fell in love with the Pacific Northwest on his first ferry ride from Anacortes to Friday Harbor, in the San Juan Islands.
After that fateful voyage, Mace said, “I couldn’t even imagine living anywhere else. It was the first place to feel like home.”
In 1979 John began working for Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company as an Industrial Engineer. The new 767 and 757 aircraft were in development and Mace’s team were instrumental with completing all FAA mandated flight worthiness testing. He stated “I hated every moment of it.” He quit in 1981 and for the next two years, worked a series of odd jobs.
In 1983, he answered a newspaper ad seeking flight attendants and worked for a now-defunct airline before joining Alaska Airlines in 1985, where he flew as a flight attendant and safety trainer.
Mace resigned from Alaska Airlines in 1994 and in 1997, enrolled at Antioch University in Seattle, earning his first Master’s degree – in mental health psychology – in late 1999. He earned his second Master’s in clinical developmental psychology and completed his doctoral coursework in 2004 at Washington School of Professional Psychology for a PsyD..
He began treating patients in 1998, first at Seattle Counseling Service and then at Group Health’s Adolescent Center in Bellevue. Mace opened his own practice in 1999 near Seattle University before moving to his present office in Seattle’s Pioneer Square the following year.
Mace is a seasoned traveler who has visited “just about every continent on the planet, except Africa and Antarctica.” He counts among his many mentors a former Catholic priest Dr Allen Moore, a Marine Corp Sergeant Paul Mullholland and a mysterious man who appeared on a desolate Hawaiian beach during his first Vision Quest.
John still resides in Seattle Washington with his two Beagles, and travels extensively to Europe. He writes about advanced psychology, spirituality and the influences of physics on daily life. He has open lectures for audiences in Europe and North America. His private practice in Seattle thrives with patients eager to learn about “Self Awareness.”