Dr. Gregory Jantz, founder of The Center • A Place of HOPE, passed away unexpectedly on July 4, 2025, after more than 40 years of transforming mental health care. His son, Gregg Jantz Jr., shares a personal message about this loss and introduces the expert clinical team that continues Dr. Jantz’s mission of Whole-Person Care.
My father dedicated his life to one belief: that every person deserves to be treated as a whole human being — not a diagnosis, not a set of symptoms, but a person with emotional, physical, relational, spiritual, and intellectual dimensions that all matter.
He built The Center • A Place of HOPE from that conviction in the early 1980s, at a time when the mental health field was largely organized around symptom suppression. He insisted that lasting recovery required addressing the whole person. Over more than four decades, that approach transformed the lives of thousands of patients and their families.
His passing on July 4, 2025 was unexpected. Losing him has been a profound grief for our family, for The Center’s team, and for the community he built across more than 45 books, countless speaking engagements, and years of direct clinical work with patients who came to Edmonds from across the country and around the world.
What I can tell you with certainty is this: his vision is not lost. The mission he built continues in the work of the clinical team he assembled and mentored. This message is, in part, an introduction to the people who are carrying that work forward.
My father was a builder. He understood that a mission outlasts any individual, and he spent years developing a clinical team that shared his commitment to treating people with compassion, integrity, and clinical rigor. These are the people continuing Dr. Jantz’s legacy at The Center:
- Dr. Emily Ogawa — Naturopathic Physician. Dr. Ogawa leads the integrative medical dimension of Whole-Person Care, addressing the physical and nutritional factors that conventional psychiatry often overlooks. Her work on gut-brain connection, thyroid function, and nutritional psychiatry reflects the same integrative philosophy my father championed from the beginning.
- Ionatan Cauneac — Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Ionatan oversees medication management and psychiatric evaluation, working closely with the therapy team to ensure that pharmacological care is coordinated with the full treatment picture, not siloed from it.
- John Williams, LMHC — Licensed Mental Health Counselor. John brings deep experience in trauma-informed care and CBT, and works with patients on the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of recovery that were central to my father’s clinical approach.
- Magda Maziarz, LMHC — Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Magda specializes in eating disorders, depression, and trauma, with a particular focus on the relational and emotional dimensions of Whole-Person Care.
- Mike Staszak, LMHC — Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Mike has been a primary clinical reviewer for The Center’s educational content and works directly with patients in both individual and group formats. His work has been central to how The Center has communicated its clinical approach publicly.
- Virgil Kim, LMFT & SUDP — Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist & Substance Use Disorder Professional. Virgil brings expertise in both relational therapy and addiction treatment, addressing two of the most common areas where patients arrive at The Center having tried other approaches without lasting success.
The Center’s approach to treatment will not change. Whole-Person Care — the model my father developed and refined over four decades — remains the organizing framework for every patient who comes through our doors.
That means every patient is assessed across emotional, physical, nutritional, relational, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions. It means treatment plans address real causes, not just presenting symptoms. It means we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person who seeks help, regardless of what they are struggling with or how long they have struggled.
My father authored more than 45 books over his career, making The Center’s clinical insights available to people who could not come to Edmonds. That commitment to accessible, evidence-based mental health education continues. The clinical team will continue producing content grounded in the same whole-person philosophy, with an expanded range of expert voices contributing to that work.
Grief is part of this season for our family and for everyone who knew my father’s work. That is real and we are not pretending otherwise.
What is also real is the mission. The patients who will walk through The Center’s doors in the months and years ahead deserve the same quality of care — the same commitment to seeing the whole person — that has defined this place since my father founded it. The team is here. The work continues.
If you or someone you care about is considering reaching out to The Center, please do not let this transition give you pause. The clinical team is fully operational and committed to the same standard of care my father built. You can call 1-888-851-7031 to speak with our admissions team, Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm Pacific.
Thank you for the outpouring of support our family has received. My father would have been deeply moved by it — and deeply focused on what came next.
— Gregg Jantz Jr.
If you or someone you know is in crisis: Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room.
