You Matter: Idionomic Biopsychosocial Pathways to Human Resilience
Dates and Location of this IN-PERSON 2-Day Workshop:
IN-PERSON at the Sheraton, New Orleans
Tuesday, July 15, 2025 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
CE credits available: 13
Workshop Leaders:
Steven C Hayes, Ph.D.
Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
Workshop Description:
This two-day workshop is designed to be a transformative journey navigating the profound interconnections between contextual behavioral science, timeless wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge neuroscience. Participants will delve into the art and science of learning to accept, release what hinders, and embrace what enriches life, culminating in value-driven actions, all features that are well known in ACT and CBS, but to do so across two different but related traditions: CBS itself, and wisdom tradition informed neuroscience.
Participants will explore the essential human experiences of mattering, self-loyalty, and psychological flexibility, including the foundations of self-loyalty in morality, self-compassion, and grit -- and how to internalize these qualities so as to produce lasting neurobiological changes. The empowering experience of "not-knowing" in therapy will be a focus -- learning to use this experience to enhance the therapeutic relationship through openness and curiosity.
The workshop will also address the personal and societal sources that can lead one to feel their life doesn't matter, identifying and addressing blocks to self-care and self-worth. Participants will engage in experiential practices aimed at fostering a sense of being cared for by others, which in turn, strengthens awareness of personal values and commitments. Instead of a "one size fits all" approach in each of these areas participants will be asked to explore their own lives with eyes wide so that more general principles are based on what is true at the level of particular people with particular histories, current situations, and goals. The emerging science of idionomic analysis will be addressed as well, giving empirical form to the practicality of particularity. Through interactive sessions, demonstrations, and discussions, you'll learn how to translate these ideas and experiences into practical, life-affirming actions, enhancing both personal development and therapeutic practice.
About the Workshop Leaders:
- Steven C Hayes, Ph.D.
Steven C. Hayes is a Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Nevada and President of the Institute for Better Health, a 45 year old charitable organization that promotes quality in mental and behavioral health services. An author of 48 books and over 700 scientific articles, he is the originator and co-developer Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Relational Frame Theory, and Functional Contextualism. He is the co-developer of Contextual Behavioral Science, the psychological flexibility model, Prosocial, and Process-Based Therapy. His popular book Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life was featured in Time Magazine among several other major media outlets and for a time was the best-selling self-help book in the United States, and his new book, A Liberated Mind, described the history and nature of many of these developments above. Dr. Hayes has been President of several scientific societies and has received major awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and Raymond McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science -- their lifetime achievement award for applied psychology. ADScientificIndex ranks him as the 26th highest impact living psychologist.
- Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. His seven books have been published in 33 languages and include Making Great Relationships, Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Just One Thing, Buddha’s Brain, and Mother Nurture – with over a million copies in English alone. He's the founder of the Global Compassion Coalition and the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, as well as the co-host of the Being Well podcast – which has been downloaded over 16 million times. His free newsletters have 260,000 subscribers, and his online programs have scholarships available for those with financial needs. He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on CBS, NPR, the BBC, and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and has taught in med itation centers worldwide. He and his wife live in northern California and have two adult children. He loves the wilderness and taking a break from emails.
Following this workshop participants will be able to:
1. discuss and synthesize principles from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Contextual Behavioral Science on the one hand and insights from wisdom traditions, Buddhist psychology, and neuroscience on the other so as to foster their therapeutic work.
2. explore how to enhance psychological flexibility drawing from the foundational work on ACT and from the neuroplasticity insights from neuroscience.
3. use exercises designed to internalize self-loyalty via the lenses of morality, self-compassion, and resilience, while understanding and being able to describe how these elements can lead to neurobiological changes that support well-being.
4. improve their use of the therapeutic power of uncertainty and curiosity in therapy, enhancing client-therapist relationships by fostering an environment where both parties can grow and learn from the unknown.
5. critically analyze personal and societal factors that undermine one's sense of mattering, using both CBS tools and brain-based strategies to promote self-care and self-worth.
6. describe how being valued by others can reinforce personal values and commitments, thereby enhancing one's sense of purpose and belonging in both personal and therapeutic contexts.
7. discuss the principles of idionomic analysis and its use in tailoring therapeutic interventions
8. describe the practical implications integrating ACT's focus on values with neuroscience insights on motivation and behavior,
9. demonstrate to a greater degree how to blend empirical science with wisdom traditions to enrich clinical practice,
10. demonstrate a wider set of practical tools and strategies derived from the workshop's discussions and exercises, that can be implemented in their personal lives or therapeutic work to promote lasting change and resilience.
Target audience: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Clinical, Research
Components: Conceptual analysis, Literature review, Original data, Experiential exercises, Didactic presentation_, Case presentation, Role play
Topic Areas: Clinical, Functional contextual neuroscience, Theoretical and philosophical foundations, Idionomic analysis
Package Includes: A general certificate of attendance
CEs Available (13 hours): CEs for Psychologists