Staying prosocial as things fall apart
Dates and Location of this VIRTUAL 2-Day Workshop:
VIRTUAL LIVE online via Zoom
Friday, June 6, 2025 and Saturday, June 7, 2025, 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. UTC/GMT -5 (Central Daylight Time)
CE credits available: 7.5
Workshop Leaders: 
Paul Atkins, Ph.D.
Rachel Gooen, MSW
Viveka Ramel, Ph.D.
Anna Castonguay, MA
Workshop Description:
We live in a time of mounting global challenges and weakening social connections, where our need to engage meaningfully with each other has never been more critical. The path forward depends on our ability to come together in effective groups that can collaborate, innovate, and implement solutions to address these interconnected crises. Through our relationships, we create the space for both personal and collective transformation – the foundation we need for meaningful action and systemic change. By developing our abilities to truly listen and find common ground, we can resist the pull toward division and isolation that feeds authoritarian thinking and tears at our social fabric.
Using ProSocial's evidence-based process, we will show you how psychological flexibility processes can be scaled to the group level to create highly functioning and unified groups (Organizations, Businesses, Community Groups, Social Movements). Drawing from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Evolutionary Science, the Work that Reconnects, and Elinor Ostrom's work on the commons, participants will learn practical tools for building psychological flexibility and fostering connection and collaboration amid increasing social stress, fragmentation and polarization.This two-day experiential workshop will introduce processes, principles, and tools designed to inspire hope. Participants will learn that they can make a difference, even in challenging times, by focusing on actions that a) improve their local community, b) hold personal significance, and c) have the potential to create a broader collective impact.
We have the ability to leverage the power of groups, not only to provide each other support and adaptation to the shifting environmental and social landscapes but also to address the core drivers and foster collective efforts toward protecting, healing, and regenerating the earth and our relationships.
The workshop is structured across two days, with Day 1 focused on "inner work" and Day 2 on "outer work":
About the Workshop Leaders:
- Paul Atkins, Ph.D.
Paul is an author, researcher and facilitator trainer. He is a Visiting Professor with the Crawford School of Public Policy (Australian National University). His research is focused on interventions to reduce stress while enhancing relationships, wellbeing, perspective-taking, and cooperation in groups and organizations. He is co-founder of ProSocial World, a not for profit organization focused on enhancing cooperation and trust in purpose-driven groups globally. He has applied ACT and ProSocial in contexts as diverse as private sector organisations, political parties, schools and the United Nations. Paul is the former President of the ANZ Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, a Fellow of the international ACBS, and a board member of the World Happiness Foundation.
- Rachel Gooen, MSW
Rachel Gooen is a seasoned facilitator with over 25 years of experience in personal growth, leadership, team dynamics, and collaboration. She holds a Master of Science (MS), a Master of Social Work (MSW), and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), equipping her with a deep understanding of individual and community change. Rachel is dedicated to helping mission-driven organizations develop healthy people, ecosystems, and communities.
Throughout her career, Rachel has specialized in creating meaningful outcomes by guiding individuals, organizations, and communities to achieve their goals effectively and inclusively. She is well-versed in facilitation, program development, leadership training, and community-based participatory research. With a strong foundation in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Prosocial, she uses these principles to support positive change.
Rachel is particularly skilled at empowering coalitions, boards, and teams to work together more effectively, supporting organizations and leaders in creating meaningful impact in their communities and ecosystems. Her commitment to inclusive, participatory processes helps groups develop the collaborative skills needed to solve complex challenges and build a more robust, sustainable future.She works throughout the United States with nonprofits, government agencies, and individuals to create lasting impact and foster better collaboration.
- Viveka Ramel, Ph.D.
Viveka is a licensed clinical psychologist in California, USA, teacher, and consultant with private practices in San Francisco (Sevitar and San Francisco Center for ACT). She specializes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), compassion and mindfulness-based interventions, climate psychology, and prosocial practice and theory. She offers lectures and workshops on psychological and behavioral dimensions of the climate crisis, and consults with organizations and groups seeking to apply and integrate climate awareness and action, prosociality, psychological flexibility, mindfulness, and mental sustainability into their cultures.
- Anna Castonguay, MA
Anna Castonguay is co-founder of Awakening Lands, a learning and support network for facilitators exploring community and landscape healing practices, and supports nonprofit collaboratives in identifying and pursuing strategic initiatives. She teaches at Daemen University's Department of Behavioral Sciences and sits on the board of various nonprofits focused on the environment and conservation. Anna is passionate about disseminating the philosophy of prosocial to others in order to bring about cultural change.
Following this workshop participants will be able to:
- Scale ACT processes from individual to relationships and groups to enhance collective psychological flexibility.
- Understand how RFT, evolutionary theory and the social sciences provide evidence for this approach to scaling.
- Use perspective-taking exercises to bridge divides and foster understanding across differences.
- Understand and examine how 'othering' creates a self-reinforcing cycle of social division, and apply ACT-based strategies to recognize and transform these patterns to build more inclusive relationships.
- Recognize when stress responses or defensive behaviors emerge, so they can be managed compassionately.
- Understand and apply Ostrom's core design principles to create more resilient and equitable group structures.
- Help groups develop shared purpose and identity while honoring diversity.
- Implement practices that promote transparency and strengthen beneficial group behaviors.
- Use the ACT Matrix and other tools to help groups identify barriers to their goals while still moving toward their mission.
- Create action plans for implementing prosocial practices in participants' own contexts.
Target audience: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Components: Experiential exercises, Didactic presentation, Role play
Topic Areas: Responding to Social and Environmental Change, Organizational behavior management
Package Includes: A general certificate of attendance
CEs Available (7.5 hours): CEs for Psychologists