About Our Founder

Jane Wolf Frances

Everyone wants to be happy- Jane Wolf Frances (J.D., M.S.W.) knows about True Happiness and is passionate to share her knowledge with you. 

Even as a youngster, I was the person that other kids, as well as adults, came to for counsel and perspective.  I got the message early in life, as do most of us, that I wanted to be happy and I wanted to be able to share that feeling with others.  And I also saw that, if I truly aimed to become the difference I wanted to see in the world, I would need to learn to “walk my own talk.”

I understood at a young age that a life filled with daily gratitude, love, service and a sense of meaning was what I wanted to have and that those were not simply a well-described set of platitudes. Therefore to unlock the “key” to real joy, I saw I’d need to live authentically, to “practice” these attributes as my self-stated “intentions” and to incorporate these qualities into my daily activities.

That key only worked, however, when I also developed a second set of skills which I came to describe as the ability to “expand my thinking” since that’s what that tool felt like. It came about because I saw that when my immediate reaction was not one I wanted to have, I could be happier if and when I held off reacting instantly to what had occurred.  For example, if I saw a mouse and felt panicky, I could take a breath and a moment during which I could “remember” that I was thousands of times bigger than that little mouse and thereby calm myself, which in turn, made me happier.  I found out that having that skill required me to take a moment to breathe so I could “re-mind” myself that I could see what was occurring in a different way. By doing that, I would “naturally” lead myself to thoughts and feelings that were more aligned with my intentions.  By practicing that skill, I could fairly simply replace much fear and upset with more enjoyable experiences, like empathy, compassion, clarity and even humor.

That’s how I discovered that by putting together these two skills.  First, convert the attributes I desired into every-day “conscious intentions.”   And second, create a shift in my consciousness from an immediate reaction to situations (which often involved my survival instincts such as feeling fearful, victimized or lonely) to how I wanted to be responding.  These steps led me to have more desirable feelings, like feeling satisfied, connected, empowered, even joyous, as well as to be able to act like “the me” I wanted to be!

Growing up in my family in NewYork City was my earliest education as described in my memoir: “OH MY GOD! WE’RE PARENTING OUR PARENTS: How to Transform this Remarkable Challenge into a Journey of Love.”  Beyond telling my own story, the book provides specific answers to the many questions the 1/4 of all Americans currently struggle with, our nation’s increasingly dire and complicated issues about how best to care for our aging loved ones.  The self-help book has offered readers a much-needed philosophical perspective on some of our most universal human challenges as well as detailing specific exercises on how to navigate this part of our life cycle that have proven invaluable to so many in this situation.

My parents always encouraged my growing and becoming an educated woman.  I was gifted with excellent schooling, graduating from Hunter College High School, attending Wellesley College where I received a bachelor’s degree with Honors and Boston University School of Law where I received my J.D. degree.  I also found satisfaction as a youngster doing small chores for patients in the hospital, assisting a Sunday school teacher and volunteering with the Peace Corps in Washington, D. C.  Even my first job as an attorney was as a VISTA volunteer.  There I helped our clients to emerge from some of the damages of poverty and helped others to learn by supervising law students from Harvard, Boston University and Boston College who represented indigent clients under my name.

Moving to LA, I became a full-time law professor at USC and then Loyola Law School where I continued the mission of sharing my legal skills and optimism with young law students.  My legal career was fascinating as I was able to: win breakthrough rights for methadone addicts who were mostly return Vietnam War veterans; oversee law students work on ground-breaking cases via a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse; be counsel in news-breaking cases in libel law and I spearheaded a state-wide legislative movement that successfully changed existing and highly damaging tax law and thereby helped keep the music industry in California.

There came a time when working as a lawyer, the career path I’d spent more than 20 years pursuing, no longer suited me.  I founded its ongoing contentiousness overwhelmingly negative and frankly unproductive.  I rebelled against the unfairnesses I witnessed in the system for poor people and even the innocent.  I saw that working as an attorney had been a very valuable gift in my life.  I also was willing to admit that it was no longer using the best of me and therefore was not the best way for me to live/earn a living. I saw what a toll was being taken by those successful in practice.  After much thought, I decided to make a professional shift that many saw as counter-intuitive and impractical. Nonetheless, I heeded my own counsel and returned to study social work at UCLA in mid-life.

My goal, although I hadn’t yet clearly formulated it, was to learn more about happiness – how to spread the opportunities for me and for everyone I could reach to feel better, happier and to function more optimally.  Pursuing that goal has informed my path for the last quarter century as I became known an expert psychotherapist, inter-generational family coach, as well as the founder of several global movements and online communities, including www.ParentingOurParents.org and now TrueHappinessIsContagious.org!

At the beginning of this century, I aligned myself with the “Happiness Scientists,” as I call the group of researchers from Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and other prestigious universities who’d been studying this body of knowledge for more than four decades. I became part of their vanguard group of international professionals, testing out the “how to’s” of converting theory into practical techniques capable of being “taught” to others.

I have devoted these past 25 years to studying, clinically researching with patients and my coaching clients and sharing this science with others as I am now with you at this website.  I also love to learn from others’ experiences of joy and therefore pass along many True Happiness Truths I’ve learned from them. Abraham Lincoln’s point of view is particularly noteworthy. Despite having endured major depressive episodes, lost a young son, and presided over our nation’s biggest rupture, nonetheless, he held as his truth: “A person is about as happy in life as he chooses to be.” Although that sentiment may sound harsh to someone suffering who may think “Easy for you to say,” scientific research has proven Lincoln to be right. He has aptly described the very road away from pain!

Perhaps the most remarkable “news” – and the most optimistic – about True Happiness is that it is something You and I can actually learn, teach to our children and choose to have as our own!! I created this website and the True Happiness community to share not only that good news but also my passion to have you know its eternal truths and learnable tools!

To contact Jane for personal coaching, psychotherapy or speaking engagements, email us at contact@TruHappiness.org