Living from the heart

The history of LIVING FROM THE HEART

We invite you to meet and interact with our dolphin friends on an adventure of a lifetime. Swim with dolphins, bring your loved ones for healing dolphin assisted therapy. See Humpbacks up-close-and-personal. Perhaps therapeutic healing time with our finned friends is the secret to your rejuvenation & healing. Your life will never be the same.

.Macy Jozsef and Stephen Jozsef, M. D., founded Living From The Heart (a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization) in 1988. The intent was to offer those persons who sought alternative medical treatment and therapy, an opportunity to interact with dolphins in a relaxed and therapeutic manner. Since 1988, Living From The Heart has taken over 2.500 people to swim and interact with dolphins and whales on the Florida coast and in south-central Mexico.

While many of these have been strong, healthy individuals, some 800 others have had chronic, life threatening illnesses, or physical, mental or emotional disabilities. In 1979, at age 30, Macy was diagnosed with breast cancer and began treatment for her disease. Seeking all available treatment paths, swimming with dolphins was among the gamut of traditional and alternative therapies she pursued. Her exposure to these magnificent creatures made her recognize that swimming with dolphins helped her tremendously, both emotionally and spiritually and, at that time, she decided that she wanted to share the dolphin experience with others.

During her treatment, Macy was a staff person at a wellness weekend for cancer patients held in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Morrison, Colorado; and on that weekend, she met Stephen Jozsef, M.D. Dr. Jozsef asked her what she did in "real life", when she wasn’t a Qualife® staff person, to which she replied, just as she had for over a year, " .... I’m an interior designer, but soon will have a wellness community for people and dolphins and healing." Steve told Macy to let him know what he could do to help in her endeavors and the eventual outcome was the inception of Living From The Heart.

Under the supervision of Dr. Jozsef and Macy, in February of 1989 Living From The Heart took its first group of 25 people to the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Florida. In his practice of psychiatry, Steve had been working with biofeedback as treatment at a clinic in California. It was during his first interaction with dolphins that Steve felt that, " .... 30 minutes with dolphins is equal to 100 hours of biofeedback". Steve’s "realization" of the potential benefits of "dolphin assisted therapy" led him to begin measuring brainwaves of trip participants before and after they interacted with dolphins.

In his research, he observed that those persons who experienced the therapeutic exposure to dolphins consistently displayed brainwaves that transitioned from "beta waves" to "alpha waves". By way of explanation, "Beta waves" are often an indicator of "active, energized" brainwave activity, while "Alpha waves" are often displayed while in a relaxed, meditative "state of mind" that can facilitate the possibility for healing to occur in the human body.

Dr. Jozsef's groundbreaking work has made Living From The Heart a pioneer in the field now popularly known as "dolphin assisted therapy". It was during the summer of 1994 that Dr. Stephen Jozsef succumbed to a malignant brain tumor and passed way. Since that time, Macy continues Living From The Heart.