Brief Biography of David Rychener, Ph.D.

Currently, Dr. Rychener serves as a consultant in Whole Health to a variety of organizations. His focus is primarily on the behavioral aspects of Whole Health.

From 2020-2022, Dr. Rychener served as a consultant with the Whole Health Institute to provide education to clinical and non-clinical personnel interested in practicing and promoting Whole Health.

From 2012-2021, Dr. Rychener was employed by Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation to direct a patient centered care education contract with the Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, Veterans Health Administration.  The tasks and deliverables include co-developing and delivering education courses focused on patient centered care. 

From 2009-2012, Dr. Rychener was under contract with Duke University Integrative Medicine to assist in developing and delivering the Integrative Health Coaching Course.  Dr. Rychener co-authored the Duke Integrative Health Coaching Professional Training Manual and co-authored units of the Personalized Health Plan Manual.  He also authored proposals at the request of the US Army and Navy to provide training in Integrative Medicine and health coaching.

From 1983-2009, Dr. Rychener served in several capacities with PREVENT, the Navy’s prevention course for reducing health risk behaviors that detract from mission readiness.   The contract was initially with the University of Arizona College of Medicine and later with Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.  During Dr. Rychener’s tenure, more than 750,000 sailors were trained in the PREVENT course.   During his tenure as director, Dr. Rychener was responsible for Program oversight, development of the model and curriculum, and training of contractor facilitator personnel.  Dr. Rychener trained more than 1500 facilitators to deliver the program at more than 35 Navy locations worldwide.

From 1995-2000, Dr. Rychener was Associate Director for the Program In Integrative Medicine, Arizona Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona.  Under the direction of Dr. Andrew Weil, this Program’s mission is to train physicians and health care providers in a new discipline of medicine that combines the best of conventional and alternative practices, with the intention of reshaping the future of medicine in our culture.  Dr. Rychener’s responsibilities included designing and initiating the first Integrative Medicine clinic.  Once the clinic was established, he was responsible for designing and implementing the Integrative Research component of the Program.  Currently, Dr. Rychener provides Integrative Health Coach Training for the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. 

Dr. Rychener earned his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University in 1982.   Dr. Rychener received an M.A. degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1976 and a B.A. in Psychology from Wheaton College in 1972. 

Dr.  Rychener currently runs the Aravaipa Canyon Retreat Center at his Ranch in Arizona, where he also writes and performs Western music as his primary hobby.