Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Health & Fitness:Mental Health
This week on MIA Radio, we interview Professor of Psychology Dr. Steven C. Hayes.
Dr. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor in the Behavior Analysis program at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 45 books and over 625 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. He is the developer of Relational Frame Theory, an account of human higher cognition, and has guided its extension to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a popular evidence-based form of psychotherapy that uses mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based methods.
Dr. Hayes has been President of several scientific and professional societies including the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. He was the first Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for Psychological Science, which he helped form and has served a 5-year term on the National Advisory Council for Drug Abuse in the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Hayes received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and was recently named as a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In this interview we talk about his recently released book, A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters, which uses the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy to help readers overcome negative thoughts and feelings, turn pain into purpose, and build a meaningful life.
We discuss: What led Steven to his interest in psychology and, in particular, behavioral science. That his keen interest was to mix an understanding of human experience with analytical science. How he came to be standing on stage in Nevada at a 2016 TEDx talk, relating his experiences of panic disorder and ‘hitting bottom’. How Steven has dedicated his life to helping people understand how they can be their whole selves while dealing with their problems and distress. How his book ‘A Liberated Mind’ was in part based on his own experiences but also presents the voluminous research that underlies Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). That ACT is based on the psychological flexibility model and involved pulling at the threads of cognition and language to understand the fundamentals. How ACT is a combination of acceptance and mindfulness processes and commitment/behaviour changes, referred to in the book as ‘pivots’ and ‘turning towards’. That ACT allows us to be present with our difficulties in a way that we can learn from distress without becoming entangled. That the book defines six basic processes: defusion, self, acceptance, presence, values and action. How it is important not to believe that we need ‘fixing’ before we can move on with our lives. That acceptance is often seen as giving up or tolerance but is better viewed as the response to receiving a gift. How acceptance opens us up to the validity of our experiences and can help to achieve a healthy distance from distressing experiences. How pain, judgement and comparison impact our lives. That reliance on medications can mean that we become numb to experiences that we could learn from if we turned or pivoted towards them. That the guide to happiness is hidden within our misery. Relevant links:Steven C Hayes
The Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters
TEDx Nevada – Psychological flexibility: How love turns pain into purpose
Acceptance and commitment therapy and contextual behavioral science: examining the progress of a distinctive model of behavioral and cognitive therapy
© Mad in America 2019
Art and Transformation - Creating Justice in Mental Health Care
David Healy – Polluting Our Internal Environments: The Perils of Polypharmacy
Morgan Shields - Breaking Academia's Silence on Inpatient Psychiatry
Anders Sørensen - Tackling Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal Through Research and in Practice
Justin Karter - Exploring the Fault Lines in Mental Health Discourse
Jim Flannery - Sorry It's Not Funny – Comedy, Hip-Hop and Activism
Diana Rose - Is Service-User Research Possible in Mental Health?
Jon Jureidini – Evidence-Based Medicine in a Post-Truth World
Liam MacGabhann, Martha Griffin, Harry Gijbels and Elaine Browne - The Launch of Mad in Ireland
Beverley Thomson – Antidepressed - Antidepressant Harm and Dependence
John Read and Jeffrey Masson - Biological Psychiatry and the Mass Murder of “Schizophrenics”
Kaori Wada - How Grief Became a Disorder and What This Means About Us
Andrew Scull - Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
Kristina Marusic - Pollution's Mental Toll
Jessica Taylor - Pathologized Since Eve - Women, Trauma, and Sexy but Psycho
Jock McLaren – The Biopsychosocial Model is a Mirage, Time for a Biocognitive Model?
Tara Thiagarajan - Mental Wellbeing Among Internet-enabled Populations of the World
Bruce Cohen - The Failings of “Mental Health”: How a Seemingly Benign Concept Might be Dangerous
Jennifer Barkin - New Tools to Support New Moms
Alice and Kenneth Thompson - Bringing Integrative Community Therapy to Pittsburgh
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Good Mood Revolution
Mental Health Insights
MQ Open Mind
Speaking of Suicide
The Suicide Prevention Movement
Depression Talks Podcast