My guest today is Rikke Kjelgaard. Rikke is a licensed psychologist, peer-reviewed ACT trainer, and author. Rikke is on a mission to help therapists thrive and to be brave and authentic helpers. Trained as a clinical psychologist, she has a 15 year background in the science of human behavior and the practice of behavior change. Rikke is a popular speaker internationally, and she is known to bring both passion and vulnerability to her talks. She transforms the lives of her audience by bringing...
My guest today is Dr. Jessica Borushok, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in private practice specializing in anxiety disorders and health-related concerns, including insomnia, chronic pain, and coping with chronic medical conditions. In addition to clinical work, Dr. Borushok provides acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) training and consultation to other mental health professionals. Dr. Borushok is the co-author of numerous books, including her most recent, The Complete Guide to Acceptanc...
My guest today is Dr. Robyn Walser. Robyn is a clinical psychologist, educator, and author of several influential books on ACT for professionals and general readers. She is Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of Research at Bay Area Trauma Recovery Clinical Services. She is also on the staff of the National Center for PTSD at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Internationally known for her compassionate, client-centered approach, Dr. Walser h...
My guest today is Noelle McWard Aquino. Noelle is a Chicago-based therapist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders. She is the author of Anxiety Unpacked: Discover Your Type and Recover Your Peace, a bestselling book that helps readers identify and work with the specific patterns driving their anxiety. Her work has been featured in publications including Psychology Today and Psychotherapy Networker. Noelle speaks regularly to both clinical and general audiences, training therap...
My guest today is Alissa Jerud, PhD. Alissa is a licensed clinical psychologist working in private practice and a clinical assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In her private practice, Dr. Jerud specializes in exposure-based treatment of anxiety-related disorders and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training. She particularly enjoys helping other parents learn to accept, regulate, and tolerate their emotions, as well as their children's. Alissa is the author of a ne...
My guest today is Holly Yates, LCMHC. Holly has been in private practice in North Carolina since 2004. Her specialty areas are working with adults both individually and in groups as well as couples addressing depression, anxiety, mood disorders and life stressors through clinical intervention and skills training. Holly's practice centers on third wave therapies most specifically Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She is a founding facilitator ...
My guest today is Dr. Joe Oliver. Joe is a consultant clinical psychologist, author, and the founder of Contextual Consulting, a leading international training provider that has trained over 60,000 practitioners in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). He also serves as an associate professor and the programme director for the University College London’s postgraduate programme in CBT for Severe Mental Health Problems. Joe is an active member of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Scie...
My guest today is Pepper Stetler. Pepper is the author of A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test, which we discuss in this episode. She is also a professor of art history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She has written extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers, in publications such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Slate. She lives in Oxford, Ohio. Some of the topics we explore in this episode include: Wha...
My guest today is Dr. Emily Edlynn. Emily is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in pediatric health psychology who works in private practice with children, teens, and adults. Emily spent almost ten years working in children’s hospitals before pivoting to private practice, which allowed her to start a writing career. Emily’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Parents, Scary Mommy, Good Housekeeping, Motherly, Psychology Today, and more. Her first book, Autonomy-Supportive ...
My guest today is Trevor Jones. Trevor is a Mental Performance Coach with the Aware Performance Group and has spent the last nine years studying and training in ACT and its underlying theories. A former professional golfer, he won a national championship and competed on the European Tour. Now, he works with high-performance clients across various domains, including golf, water polo, baseball, and stock market investing. He is currently co-authoring a book with sports psychiatrist Jorge Aguila...
My guest today is Lou Lasprugato, MFT. Lou is an internationally recognized trainer and behavioral health provider. He’s a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, with private practices in both California and Virginia (United States), and Peer-Reviewed Trainer in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, for which he also serves as chair of the Training Committee. Lou has taught mindfulness meditation to health care practitioners and facil...
My guest today is Dr. Russ Harris. Russ is a world-renowned trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and author of the international best-selling self-help book The Happiness Trap. Since 2005, Russ has run over 700 two-day workshops and provided ACT training for almost 50,000 health professionals. He has authored four ACT textbooks (ACT Made Simple, Trauma Focused ACT, Getting Unstuck in ACT, ACT Questions & Answers), and four ACT-based self-help books (The Happiness Tra...
My guest today is Dr. Ronald Asiimwe. Dr. Ron is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in the College of Education and Human Development. He has research and clinical experience in both the U.S. and in his home country of Uganda. His research integrates multicultural perspectives to understand and explore the mental and relational health needs of African families and communities. Driven by his passion for cross-cultural exchange knowledge of evidence-based interventions, Dr. R...
My guest today is Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Donna is an award-winning science journalist and author of eight books exploring the connections between emotions, trauma, and health, offering you new pathways to healing. Her book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media, was named a best book of 2022 by The Washington Post. Her newest book, The Adverse Childhood Experiences Guided Journal (foreword by Nedra Glover Tawwab), offers...
My guest today is Jennifer Kemp MPsych. Jennifer Kemp is a clinical psychologist based in Adelaide, Australia. Her neurodiversity-affirming approach is founded on her own experience of being late-diagnosed as Autistic and an ADHDer with the experiences of her clients and the latest research. In her therapeutic practice and when training other therapists, Jennifer recognises and accepts the unique differences and strengths of people with different neurotypes. Building on the social and human r...
My guest today is Professor Ross White. Ross is award-winning clinical psychologist who specializes in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of adults working in high-performance environments. He is also an expert in global mental health and has conducted research in collaborations with the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. He is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast, and is a director of Strive2Thrive, a tra...
My guest today is Dr. Charles Schaeffer aka Dr Chuck. Dr. Chuck is a clinical psychologist and author of the new book, When Panic Happens: Short Circuit Anxiety & Fear in the Moment. Dr. Chuck completed his training at New York University and is in private practice in New York City. He has over 15 years of experience providing strength-focused, evidence-based therapy to help individuals overcome sleep, mood, and anxiety disorders to thrive at work and at home. He has be...
My guest today is Cory Richards. Cory is an internationally renowned photographer, filmmaker, and author of new memoir, The Color of Everything. He is the first and only American to climb one of the world’s 8000m peaks in winter. His documentation of the climb and aftermath of the experience was made into the award-winning documentary COLD and appeared on the cover of the 125th anniversary issue of National Geographic. Richards is a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Photographer Fel...
My guest today is Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD. Michaeleen is a global health correspondent for NPR’s Science Desk and the author of the New York Times bestseller Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans. Michaeleen has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Berkeley, California, and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Caltech. For the past decade, Doucleff has reported on disease outbreaks and children’s health f...
My guest today is Willem Kuyken, PhD. Willem is Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science at the University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Research Centre. He is an author, scientist and teacher. His work is focused on preventing depression and promoting human flourishing. He has published more than 150 peer reviewed scientific articles and was named by Web of Science as in the top 1% of the most cited scientists in the world in between 2019 and 2023. He is t...