In this episode, Kelly Wilson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Mississippi, and co-author of the original ACT book, discusses contacting the present moment from an ACT perspective. Join Jen and John as they practice noticing and being present with Dr. Wilson throughout this intriguing look at present moment awareness as it relates to our own experiences, as well as being with others in a deeply connected way.
About Dr. Wilson:
Kelly Wilson, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Mississippi, and has been a leader in the acceptance and commitment therapy work since it’s early stages. He received his Ph.D. with Steven Hayes at the University of Nevada Reno, where he participated in early research in verbal behavior, and clinical behavior analysis, and contributed to the development of ACT. He has authored or co-authored professional books including the first ACT book (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change, the second edition of which should be out in October, 2011), ACT for Chronic Pain; ACT for Eating Disorders: A process Focused Guide to Treating Anorexia and Bulemia; Mindfulness for Two: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Approach to Mindfulness in Psychotherapy, and a for-the-public book entitled Things Might Go Terribly Horribly Wrong: A Guide to Life Liberated from Anxiety. Dr. Wilson has conducted and continues to conduct research and publish articles on contextual behavioral science, and he was instrumental in the development of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, serving as it’s president in 2006. Currently, in between teaching and mentoring students, he travels all over the world training therapists in ACT. Dr. Wilson is known throughout the ACT community as conducting workshops and trainings from a particularly experiential stance that relies heavily on contacting the present moment - both identifying and making space for one’s own experiences, as well as those that clients experience.