The Science of Happiness: A Greater Good Gathering

• 

  Jack Kornfield, Ph.D.

  Best-selling author and renowned Buddhist teacher 

  Trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, Jack Kornfield is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practices to the West. He has been teaching worldwide since 1974, and the thousands of practitioners and teachers who have studied with him agree: Jack has played a pivotal and vital role in making Eastern practices accessible to a Western audience.

  From the Buddhist masters Venerable Ajahn Chah and Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw to Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein, Jack has worked alongside many of the great teachers of our time. With a degree in Asian studies and a doctorate in clinical psychology, he is the cofounder of two of the country’s most revered meditation centers: Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California.

  A teacher at centers and universities worldwide, Jack has led International Buddhist Teacher meetings, and has written more than a dozen books including The Wise Heart; A Path with Heart; After the Ecstasy, the Laundry; and more. His books have been translated into 20 languages and have sold more than a million copies. His most recent book is No Time Like the Present: Finding Freedom, Love, and Joy Right Where You Are.

  A father, husband, and activist, Jack combines lovingkindness and self-compassion with the practice of mindfulness. He strives to build a stronger bridge between Eastern and Western psychology.

• 

  Richard Davidson, Ph.D.

  Neuroscience pioneer 

  Richard J. Davidson, PhD, is the New York Times best-selling coauthor of The Emotional Life of Your Brain and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin‰ Madison, where he is also the director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior.

  He has popularized the idea that, based on brain-plasticity research, a person can learn skills for happiness and compassion just as a person can learn to play a musical instrument‰ it is possible to train a mind to be happy. A friend and confidante of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and named by Time magazine in 2006 as one of the most influential people in the world, Dr. Davidson is the recipient of numerous awards for his research, including a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Scientist Award and the Paul D. MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine.

  In 2008, he founded the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, a research center dedicated to the study of positive qualities such as kindness and compassion. Dr. Davidson has been featured widely in popular media, including ABC‰’s Nightline, National Public Radio, Time magazine, Newsweek, the Charlie Rose Show, Harvard Business Review, and O, The Oprah Magazine, along with many other national and international news outlets.

• 

  Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D.

  Groundbreaking pioneer in positive psychology 

  What is love? This is one of the many questions Barbara Fredrickson is asking. A leading scholar in social psychology, affective science (the study of emotion), and positive psychology, her renowned research unpacks the science behind love, joy, inspiration, and pride, among other positive emotions.

  After getting her doctorate from Stanford University and teaching at the University of Michigan for a decade, Dr. Frederickson became Kenan Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she is the director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory (PEP Lab).

  In Dr. Frederickson’s first book, Positivity, she explains how positive emotions broaden people’s minds, build their resourcefulness, and help them achieve what they formerly thought impossible. In her most recent book, Love 2.0, she investigates the supreme emotion of love, looking at micro-moments of connection and how love can affect our biological and cellular makeup over time.

  Recognized with numerous honors, Dr. Frederickson’s research has received more than 16 consecutive years of funding from the National Institutes of Health.

• 

  Dacher Keltner, Ph.D.

  Psychology professor, founding director of the Greater Good Science Center

  The founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Dacher Keltner studies the social functions of emotion—looking at how our emotions help us navigate and respond to a complex, dynamic, and interpersonal world. He’s also the host of the renowned podcast The Science of Happiness, which has become a global phenomenon.

  The recipient of numerous national prizes and grants, Dr. Keltner’s research has been covered in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the BBC, CNN, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and many other outlets, and has been a focus in two panels with the Dalai Lama.

  A student and colleague of Paul Ekman, Dr. Keltner’s work on emotions has made him a sought-after teacher and advisor: he worked with the engineers at Facebook to help them develop their “Stickers” and “Reactions”; consulted with Google on altruism and emotions; and collaborated with Pixar in preparing their 2015 film Inside Out.

  Dr. Keltner is the coauthor of two textbooks, as well as the best-selling author of Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life; co-editor of The Compassionate Instinct; and most recently, author of The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence. He has published over 190 scientific articles, has written for the New York Times, the London Times, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, and Utne Reader.

• 

  Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Ph.D.

  Neuroscientist, science director of the Greater Good Science Center 

  Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas is a leading expert on the neuroscience and psychology of compassion, kindness, and gratitude. She is the science director of the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) at the University of California, Berkeley, where she oversees the GGSC’s fellowship program and is a co-instructor of its renowned Science of Happiness online course. She also helps run its Expanding Gratitude project. 

  Dr. Simon-Thomas studies the science that connects health and happiness to social affiliation, caregiving, and collaborative relationships, and her work examines the potential for—as well as the benefits of—living a more meaningful life. She has presented on the science of happiness and compassion to the Dalai Lama and audiences worldwide. 

  She was formerly the associate director and senior scientist at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University.

• 

  Rev. Jennifer Bailey

  National leader in the multi-faith movement for justice

  Named one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress, Rev. Jennifer Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian, and emerging national leader in multi-faith movement for justice.

  She is the founder and executive director of the Faith Matters Network, a Womanist-led organization equipping community organizers, faith leaders, and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability, and accompaniment. Reverend Bailey comes to this work with nearly a decade of experience at nonprofits combatting intergenerational poverty.

  She is the co-founder of The People’s Supper. Since January 2017, The People’s Supper has hosted over 1,400 suppers in 121 communities nationwide focusing on bringing people together to engage constructively on issues affecting their communities. Along the way, the project has teamed up with ordinary citizens, schools, workplaces, faith communities, and neighborhood organizations to create space of collective healing over nourishing meals and conversation.

  An Ashoka Fellow, On Being Fellow and Truman Scholar, Reverend Bailey is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church—the first historically black Protestant denomination in the world.
   

• 

  Lama Tsomo, MA

  Tibetan Buddhist teacher, author 

  Lama Tsomo is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author. She is a founding board member of the Ewam Buddhist Center and is overseeing the planning and construction of the Namchak Montana Retreat Ranch, a gathering place for Tibetan Buddhist learning and study in western Montana, where she lives. Known for her warm, candid, and humorous style, Lama Tsomo teaches Tibetan Buddhist practice in the United States and abroad.

  Born Linda Pritzker, into a prominent Midwestern Jewish family, she studied at Antioch University and earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology with a focus on Jungian analysis. Motivated by a desire to help people find happiness in their lives, Pritzker started her psychotherapy practice in Colorado and began a path of spiritual inquiry in Tibetan Buddhism.

  Under the tutelage of Tulku Sangak Rinpoche, holder of the Namchak Lineage of Tibet, Pritzker completed extensive study and spiritual retreat in the United States and Nepal. After a decade of practice, Pritzker learned to speak Tibetan fluently, and she was ordained in 2005 in Nepal as one of the few American lamas in Tibetan Buddhism. At that time, she was given the name Lama Tsomo (Lama Sangak Yeshe Tsomo).

  Lama Tsomo is the author of The Princess Who Wept Pearls: The Feminine Journey in Fairy Tales and Why Is the Dalai Lama Always Smiling?: A Westerner’s Introduction and Guide to Tibetan Buddhist Practice, which won the 2016 Independent Publisher Award.

• 

  Eve Ekman, MSW, Ph.D.

  Emotion regulation and mindfulness trainer, director of training for the Greater Good Science Center

  Eve Ekman, MSW, Ph.D.,  is the director of training at the Greater Good Science Center. She is also a UC Berkeley- and UCSF-trained social scientist and teacher in the field of emotional awareness and burnout prevention and her work is inspired by her past experience as a medical social worker in the emergency department of San Francisco General Hospital. 

  In addition to her academic training, Eve is a second-generation emotion researcher and has had meaningful collaborations with her father, renowned emotion researcher Dr. Paul Ekman. Their most recent project, The Atlas of Emotions, is an online visual tool to teach a language for improving our emotional awareness that was commissioned and supported by the Dalai Lama. 

  Eve is the co-lead instructor for Cultivating Emotional Balance, an evidence-based meditation and emotion regulation training developed by Dr. Ekman Sr. and Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace.

  Eve’s writing on empathy, burnout, and compassion has appeared in peer-reviewed journals as well as invited chapters in Oxford handbooks of positive psychology and the science of compassion. She has been an invited speaker to conferences from her own Bay Area to Sao Paolo, Singapore, and beyond.

• 

  Zahra Noorbakhsh

  Comedian and performer

  Zahra Noorbakhsh is a comedian and co-host of the award-winning podcast, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, which has been featured in O, the Oprah Magazine and was invited to record an episode at the Obama White House. Zahra has been named one of the "top 100 people shaping the future of culture" by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and has performed for The Moth and Snap Judgment; her personal essays have been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air and in The New York Times.

  Her one-woman show, “All Atheists are Muslim: a Romantic Comedy,” was originally directed by W. Kamau Bell and dubbed a highlight of the Int’l NYC Fringe Theater Festival by The New Yorker. Her new show, “On Behalf of All Muslims: A Comedy Special,” is slated for world premiere by Golden Thread Productions in June of 2019. For more about Zahra, visit ZahraComedian.com.

• 

  Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Ph.D.

  Expert in intergroup relations

  
  Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton is professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, where he is currently Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Division of Social Sciences. Childhood experiences living in Mexico, the U.S., Ivory Coast, and Thailand cemented an early interest in cultural differences and intergroup relations. He received his BA from Yale University and his Ph.D. from
  Columbia University.

  Mendoza-Denton’s professional work covers stereotyping and prejudice from the
  perspective of both target and perceiver, intergroup relations, as well as how these processes influence educational outcomes. He received the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence in 2015, and the University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018.

• 

  Serena Chen, Ph.D.

  Social psychologist

  Serena Chen is a professor and the Marian E. and Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research at UC Berkeley.
  She received her B.A. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from New York University. After spending her initial years as a faculty member at the University of Michigan, Dr. Chen joined the UC Berkeley faculty.

  
  Her research focuses on the self and identity, interpersonal relationships, and social hierarchy and power. She is a Fellow of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, American Psychological Association, and Association of Psychological Science. Dr. Chen was also the recipient of the Early Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity, and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Social Sciences Division of UC Berkeley.

  
  At present, she serves as the Faculty Director of the Berkeley Collegium, a group of faculty dedicated to the improvement of and innovation in undergraduate
  education at UC Berkeley. Dr. Chen’s research has been published in top scholarly journals including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
  Psychological Review, and Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, as well as other professional outlets such as the Harvard Business Review. Her work has also received popular news attention from outlets including the New York Times.

  In addition to teaching, mentoring, and conducting research with undergraduate and graduate students at UC Berkeley, Dr. Chen teaches Executive Education courses on authenticity, self-compassion, mindsets, culture, and leadership, and serves as a consultant for various major consumer businesses and advertising firms on related topics.
   

• 

  Pawan Bareja, Ph.D.

  Mindfulness trainer, trauma expert 

  Pawan Bareja, Ph.D., has had a spiritual practice since age six and found
  Vipassana in 2001. She is currently in the Spirit Rock Retreat Teacher Training and is a graduate of their Buddhist Ritual Minister and a Community Dharma Leader programs. Pawan is trained in trauma healing and brings
  that perspective to her offerings at Spirit Rock, SFI, EBMC, Against the Stream and Esalen. She works with a diverse population of clients in her private practice as a Trauma Resolution Practitioner and holds a management position in the business world.
   

• 

  Diana Gameros

  Musician, Social Justice Activist 

  Diana Gameros is a singer, songwriter, composer, guitarist, and teacher. She was born into a musical family surrounded by traditional Mexican songs of love and revolution. Singing mostly in Spanish, Diana creates authentic music at the borderlands between cultures, languages, and genres. Diana has shared the stage with the San Francisco Symphony, Bebel Gilberto, and Natalia Lafourcade, among others. In 2013 she released her first album Eterno Retorno, a soulful retrospective of her journey as an immigrant, and in 2014 she received the Emerging Leader Award from the Chicana/Latina Foundation for her work in music and social justice activism. Her songs and story have been featured on Billboard, NPR, Mother Jones Magazine, and PBS Newshour. 
   

• 

  Stacy Bare

  Outdoor education leader

  Stacy Bare is a husband, father, skier, rafter, and climber. He is also a veteran of the Iraq war and co-founded the Great Outdoors Lab (GO Lab) in 2014 to put scientifically defensible data behind the idea of time outside as healthcare in partnership with Dr. Dacher Keltner at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Stacy is a 2014 National Geographic Adventurerof the Year and the 2015 SHIFT Conservation Athlete of the Year. In 2015, he and Alex Honnold put up new climbing routes in Angola and in 2017, he and two fellow veterans completed a first ski descent of Mt. Halgurd in Iraq as part of his Adventure Not War project. He also runs Bare, LLC, a consulting firm helping organizations that are focused on connecting people and communities to nature for improved health and wellness grow and thrive. Stacy holds degrees from the Universities of Mississippi and Pennsylvania and is at home in the Wasatch Range of Utah with his wife, daughter, and their Hemingway cat.

• 

  Claudia Biçen

  Visual Artist, Creative Director for Project Wayfinder

  Claudia is the Creative Director of Project Wayfinder, a purpose education non-profit, and an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University where she co-teaches a course called "Journey into Purpose”. As a visual artist, her work has focused on how people construct meaning in a transient world. Her project Thoughts in Passing, a series of pencil portraits and audio interviews with hospice patients, was exhibited the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, featured in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and San Francisco Chronicle. The project has been shared in universities, high schools, hospitals and senior living centers across the US and UK and is now on permanent display at UCSF. Claudia holds a BA in Philosophy & Psychology from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Social Anthropology from University College London. 

• Adrian Michael Green

  Educator, Director of School Engagement for Project Wayfinder

  Adrian Michael Green is the Director of School Engagement for Project Wayfinder, a purpose education non-profit.  A proud Denver native, Adrian Michael believes deeply that identity and purpose drive humans to make meaning. For the last decade he has helped shape the lives of youth in their pursuit of finding their way. As an elementary school teacher in Tulsa, Adrian Michael taught 2nd grade in one of the lowest performing schools in Oklahoma. At the Office of Diversity Affairs at the Leeds School of Business (University of Colorado) he worked primarily with first-generation college students and currently teaches a class called “Wayfinding Your Purpose” at UC Berkeley.

  In 2014-2018 Adrian Michael served as the inaugural Director of Inclusivity at Colorado Academy while simultaneously teaching 7th grade social studies. During his tenure Adrian Michael re-branded diversity day and co-presented at the NAIS People of Color Conference. He helped bring in world-renowned speakers to engage the school and broader community in important conversations about race while facilitating cultural competency development across faculty and staff. 

  An accomplished writer, Adrian Michael has self-published ten books of poetry and prose centered on love and is the founder of lovasté. Adrian Michael is a speaker, diversity trainer, facilitator, teacher, husband, and father.   

• 

  Connie Sobczak

  Author, co-founder of The Body Positive

  Connie Sobczak is the author of Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!), her book in which she skillfully and lovingly reconnects readers to their precious bodies, life force, and beauty. Connie’s experience with an eating disorder in her teen years and the death of her sister Stephanie inspired her life’s work to create a world where all people are free to love their bodies. In 1996, she and Elizabeth Scott, LCSW, co-founded The Body Positive, a nonprofit organization that liberates people from self-criticism and negative embodiment, so they can live engaged and joyful lives. In 2015, Connie and Elizabeth were chosen by La Repubblica, Italy’s leading newspaper, to be on their top 10 list of badass women for their role in founding The Body Positive movement. Connie’s passion is watching the light that emerges when people recognize and embrace their magnificent, authentic selves.

• 

  Brooke Deterline

  CEO of Courageous Leadership LLC

  Brooke Deterline and her colleagues help boards, executives, and teams develop the understanding and skills to act with ethical courage and ingenuity to transform challenging social and business issues into learning and growth. Building on her experiences as the founding Corporate Director for the Heroic Imagination Project with Phil Zimbardo, she combines social and cognitive psychology and a strategic focus with a passion for leadership, equity and empowerment, collaboration and impact.

  Previously, Brooke co-founded Street Smart IR, a San Francisco-based investor relations firm, focusing on leadership candor and credibility and corporate social responsibility. A former journalist at SmartMoney magazine and trained mediator, she focuses on building positive relationships, surfacing individual and systemic challenges that interfere with collaboration, and helping teams achieve structural, team, and individual patterns that support long-term integrity, equity and success. Brooke has a passion for working with multi-cultural teams and organizations focused on making a difference.  Brooke has completed numerous courses in leadership, multi-cultural facilitation and systems analysis and social entrepreneurship, including certifications in CSR and corporate board training at Berkeley’s Haas School, mediation training at the Justice Center of Atlanta, and executive finance at Stanford.  Recently, Brooke completed a certificate program with the Eikenberg Academy for Social Justice and an intensive professional course on Positive Neuroplasticity with Rick Hanson, PhD.

• 

  Simone Harris

  Executive Consultant, Courageous Leadership LLC

  Simone is an executive consultant at Courageous Leadership. Using the wisdom of Emotional Intelligence & Mindfulness practices as anchors, Simone’s coaching technique focuses on working with the client to cultivate a deeper self-awareness, design equitable actions, and then foster sustainable learning and growth. Her work with clients on the individual and corporate level, begins with supporting the recognition of patterns of behavior that are no longer serving the clients’ highest good. As growth opportunities within those patterns are identified, Self-Compassion techniques and practices are tightly woven into each learning session.

  Starting her journey as an Emotional Intelligence Coach and Mindfulness Practitioner while working as a Wellness Programs Manager at the largest single-site jail in the U.S., Cook County jail in Chicago, IL.  She realized that the only way to address the needs of the detainees recidivating within the system, was to go deeper into understanding the residual effects of emotional trauma.

  In all of her work, Simone continues to support individuals and work teams, in focusing on navigating the wisdom of their unnamed emotions. Simone has initiated projects and learning sessions helping work teams to connect to the emotions and tensions surrounding power and hierarchy, racial injustice, and gender inequities masked in the internal operations of organizations. Her intention in this work is to continue to support individuals in their journey to achieving peace, even in high-stress work environments and challenging personal experiences.

• 

  Kathy Simon, Ph.D.

  Leading educator in nonviolent communication and communication across difference

  
  Kathy is passionate about teaching skills for communicating across difference, whether the differences arise across the kitchen table, in the classroom, the board room, or across religious, racial, and political divides. Drawing on the insights of Marshall Rosenberg’s nonviolent Communication, Kathy coaches and teaches workshops for couples, parents, teachers, and non-profit organizations. With a degree in literature from Harvard, Kathy began her career as a high school English and drama teacher. She then earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Teacher Education at Stanford, and directed the Coalition of Essential Schools, a national school-reform organization focused on creating more equitable and vibrant schools. Kathy is the author and co-author of several books on curriculum, teaching, and school reform, including Moral Questions in the Classroom, Teaching as Inquiry, and Choosing Small. Kathy is a certified trainer with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication.
   

• 

  Stephen Leeper

  Educator specializing in the practice of gratitude

  Stephen is an educator, writer, and abolitionist living, dismantling, and creating in the SF Bay Area. Currently, he teaches Ethnic Studies at Aptos Middle School and Curriculum and Instruction for Social Studies at the University of San Francisco. He is also a member of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee with the California Department of Education. When he is not teaching (in a classroom setting) he spends time with his wife, Aidah, who is a photographer and filmmaker as well as his daughter, Solène, whose expertise includes play and baby parkour.
   

• 

  Cindy Fox

  Social worker and "The Science of Happiness" course participant

  Cindy Fox is an LCSW who retired last August after almost 16 years at Pelican Bay State Prison. She struggled to find meaning in her work with mentally ill prisoners in an environment that was threatening and bleak. She attended her first silent meditation retreat in 2011 and has maintained a daily practice since then.  In 2012 her younger daughter was murdered.  While meditation was essential in helping her balance her mind after her daughter’s death, she had trouble with negative, self-critical thoughts and depression. In 2014 she enrolled in the Science of Happiness and immediately benefited from the practices. She shared the material from the course with the men on her caseload, and found it very rewarding when many of them used it to develop a sense of well-being while living through the harshness and deprivation of prison life.

• 

  Jason Marsh

  Greater Good Editor-in-Chief and the Greater Good Science Center’s director of programs

  Jason Marsh is the founding editor in chief of Greater Good magazine and is the Greater Good Science Center’s director of programs. He is the co-editor of The Compassionate Instinct and Are We Born Racist?, and his articles have explored everything from the psychology of the bystander to the reasons why he should finally start meditating. You can find his intelligent and provocative writing in the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Utne Reader, among other publications, and he writes regularly for the opinion section of CNN.com.

   

• This 3-day gathering is the next step in deepening The Science of Happiness experience: embrace it.
• Enjoy expansive opportunities to find and connect with members of The Science of Happiness community along with time for individual reflection—all aided by the tranquility of the 1440 campus.

Beautifully nestled in the California redwoods near Santa Cruz, 1440 Multiversity's 75-acre campus is within easy reach of San Francisco and Silicon Valley and is less than an hour away from San Jose International Airport.

1440 Multiversity is a place to spend time engaging some of life's most meaningful personal questions and to enjoy, restore, and reenergize yourself as you do it.

You'll find new energy through immersion learning—setting aside daily urgencies and dedicating uninterrupted time to focus on important, but often elusive, priorities. Our unique collaboration with world-class faculty coupled with an original, inspirational curriculum and magnificent grounds make this a place like no other. Add in fresh, redwood-scented air, delicious and healthy food, deep reflection, fun exercise, and good sleep and you've pretty much captured what you'll experience here.

Please inquire about accommodations when you call to register.

This seminar is approved for 13 CE hours. Continuing Education is co-sponsored by R. Cassidy Seminars.

Register for CEs separately here or call 866.992.9399.

Satisfactory Completion
Participants must have paid tuition fee, signed in and out each day, attended the entire seminar, and completed an evaluation in order to receive a certificate. Failure to sign in or out each day will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates available after satisfactory course completion at www.ceuregistration.com

Psychologists
R. Cassidy Seminars is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to offer continuing education for psychologists.  R. Cassidy Seminars maintains responsibility for this program. 13 CE hours.

Psychoanalysts
NY: R. Cassidy Seminars is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts. #P-0005. (13) clock hours.

Social Workers 
R. Cassidy Seminars, ACE provider #1082, is approved as a provider for social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) www.aswb.org, through the Approved Continuing Education (ACE) Program. R. Cassidy Seminars maintains responsibility for the program. Approval Period: April 15, 2018-April 15, 2021. Social workers should contact their regulatory board to determine course approval. Social workers participating in this course will receive 13 continuing education clock hours.
CA: The Board of Behavioral Sciences has deferred CE course approvals to APA and ASWB for its licensees. See those approvals under Psychologists and Social Workers
NY: R. Cassidy Seminars is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider (#0006) of continuing education for licensed social workers. This program is approved for 13 contact hours Live.
OH: Provider approved by the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for (13) clock hours, #RCST110701

Counselors/Marriage and Family Therapists
CA: The Board of Behavioral Sciences has deferred CE course approvals to APA and ASWB for its licensees. See those approvals under Psychologists and Social Workers.
Other States: If your state is not specifically listed, nearly all state Counselor and MFT boards accept either APA or ASWB approval, or are reciprocal with other state licensing board approvals, such as those listed below. Check with your board to be sure. The Ohio Board includes Counselors.
IL: Illinois Dept of Professional Regulation, Approved Continuing Education Sponsor, #168-000141.  (13) hours.
NY-LMHCs: R. Cassidy Seminars is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board of Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0015. (13) contact hours.
NY-LMFTs: R. Cassidy Seminars is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board of Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists. #MFT-0011. (13) contact hours.
OH: Provider approved by the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker and Marriage and Family Therapist Board for (13) clock hours, #RCST110701
TX: Approved CE Sponsor through the Texas State Board of Examiners of Marriage & Family Therapists. Provider #151 for 13 CE hours.

Creative Arts Therapists
NY: R. Cassidy Seminars is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board of Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. #CAT-0005. (13) contact hours.

Chemical Dependency Counselors
CA: Provider approved by CCAPP, Provider #4N-00-434-0220 for (13) CEHs. CCAPP is an ICRC member which has reciprocity with most ICRC member states
TX: Provider approved by the TCBAP Standards Committee, Provider No. 1749-06, (13) hours general, Expires 3/31/2020 Complaints about provider or workshop content may be directed to the TCBAP Standards Committee, 1005 Congress Avenue, Ste. 460, Austin, Texas 78701, Fax Number (512) 476-7297. 

Nurses
CA: Provider approved by the CA Board of Registered Nursing, Provider #CeP12224, for (13) contact hours. Many state nursing boards are reciprocal with those of other states. Check your licensing board to be sure.

Occupational Therapists
R. Cassidy Seminars is an American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Approved Provider No. 6782. This course is offered for (13) CE Clock Hours (1 Clock Hour = .1 AOTA CEUs). The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.

Teachers/Educators
TX: R. Cassidy Seminars is an approved provider with the Texas Education Agency CPE# 501456. This course is (13) CE Hours.

Many state boards of education are reciprocal with those of other states. Check your licensing board to be sure.

ICF Coaches: These (13) CE hours are considered RD hours with ICF.  These (13) hours are useful for coaches who attend this program, but the material is not directly related to the ICF Core Competencies.

Disability Access: If you require ADA accommodations please contact our office 30 days Or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification.

Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often And while we attempt to stay abreast of their most recent changes, if you have questions Or concerns about this course meeting your specific board’s approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling.

To learn more about the presenters, click the "Faculty" tab above. You can also download this PDF listing all breakout descriptions and breakout leader bios.

Friday, May 3rd

Emotion Mapping, led by Eve Ekman, Ph.D.

In this session, you will navigate the terrain of your emotional experiences from trigger to response with a simple mapping tool you can bring back to your daily life. This emotional mapping emerges from the Atlas of Emotion project funded by the Dalai Lama and created by Eve and her father, emotion expert Paul Ekman, to develop our emotion vocabulary and steer us away from difficult emotion responses and towards a calm mind. The session will include teaching on the science of emotion from western psychological and eastern contemplative approaches, mapping and reflecting, and brief guided meditations to work with our emotions.

Self-Compassion: Science and Hands-on Practice, led by Serena Chen, Ph.D.

In this breakout session, we will briefly review what self-compassion is and why it's important, then dive into the science that supports it before walking through a series of experiential practices. Understanding the broader scientific context of self-compassion should help provide insight into why and how self-compassion confers psychological and other benefits. Throughout, we'll keep an eye on how the research informs the actual practice of self-compassion. The session will include hands-on practice with the key facets of self-compassion, both individually and in pairs or small groups, encouraging participants to practice the self-compassionate way of thinking and viewing the self and the world. Reflection and sharing will be facilitated.

Awe Walk: Intentionally Seeking Awe and Incorporating It Into Your Everyday Experience, led by Stacy Bare

Come join National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and US Army veteran Stacy Bare to explore both the emotion of awe and the 1440 Multiversity Campus. You may have read some of the recent press about the power of the outdoors to support physical and mental health. Most of that research is based on studies focused on the emotion of awe as a key trigger to unlocking significant health benefits. The foundational study was done in partnership with Stacy and the Greater Good Science Center, involving military veterans and youth who had been exposed to environments likely to induce trauma. In this breakout, Stacy will build on that work by leading an “awe walk” that fosters a sense of wonder, presence, connection, and well-being while taking in the beauty of the 1440 campus. Get curious, get rested, and get connected to the world and those around you.

Self-Love & Beauty Embodied, led by Connie Sobczak

Transform your fears into love and your “flaws” into beauty in this workshop with Connie Sobczak, author of embody and co-founder of The Body Positive. Through experiential process and storytelling, we will explore what it means to be boldly embodied. You will engage in activities to deepen a compassionate connection with your body and to find love, forgiveness, and even humor when your critical voice come for a visit. By turning toward your fears with kindness, you can learn to relate to your inner critic in a way that transforms it from an oppressor to an ally. The workshop will offer actions you can take to make peace with your unique body and bravely declare your ancestral beauty to the world. Even in our short time together, you will be inspired to come home to your body in a way that allows you full access to your internal wisdom, beauty, and power.

Exploring Your Purpose: How Your Personal Identity Can Support a Purposeful Life, led by Claudia Biçen and Adrian Michael Green

In this workshop, leaders from Project Wayfinder will explore how uncovering the nuances of our personal identities can support us in building purposeful lives. Together we will create "landscapes" of our identities, mapping out the parts of who we are that have made our lives more challenging and those that have provided us advantages. In acknowledging that all these experiences have given us resources and tools, we will consider the ways we can draw upon both our hardships and privileges to meaningfully contribute to the world around us.

Saturday, May 4th

Using Connection to Reduce Stress, led by Eve Ekman, Ph.D.

In this interactive session, we will apply transformative practices of connection which naturally provide feelings of ease, safety, and openness. These scientifically studied practices include loving kindness (imagining our own flourishing) and conversational questions to create closeness (the tools for feeling close to anyone in under 10 minutes). This session will review cutting edge research on the consequences and solutions for our increasingly busy, stressed and disconnected world. These connection practices will be delivered as reflective writing, guided meditation, and structured conversations.

Reconnecting with Yourself through Loving Kindness Practice, led by Pawan Bareja, Ph.D.

Our desire for love is a basic need. Yet despite having many Facebook friends and spending more time on social media and our phones, we may feel disconnected, lonely, isolated, and depressed. Research by Barbara Fredriskson and others suggests that the practice of Loving Kindness nurtures a sense of safety within yourself, so you are present to “micro-moments of connection” with yourself, your loved ones, and anyone around you. This practice has immense health benefits and opens you to love, joy, wisdom, and wonder in your daily life.  

Come and see for yourself how this ancient yet simple Buddhist practice of Loving Kindness can create a flood of positive emotions within you. Using guided meditation, experiential exercises and movement to free up energy, we will explore how to cultivate feelings of tenderness, warmth, and compassion for ourselves and another person by wishing them love, peace, strength, and general well-being. 

Courageous Inclusion: Learning to Hold All of Ourseles and Each Other, led by Brooke Deterline and Simone Harris

“Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.” ~ Adrienne Maree Brown

"We yearn to end the lovelessness that is so pervasive in our society.”  bell hooks

The human-made hierarchy of value called race is woven into each of us, as well as our societal fabric. This Courageous Inclusion workshop offers an opportunity to increase our awareness, skills, and social support to create more inclusive and equitable relationships and environments.

Workshop leaders Simone Harris and Brooke Deterline have trained Fortune 500 companies and national nonprofits in the skills of having courageous conversations. With a life-affirming approach based in neuroscience, they will offer ways to embrace all of ourselves and each other by managing key evolutionary and socially-based traps, as well as by leveraging the saving graces of what it means to be human. Come see our common humanity, observe and experiment with different approaches, share and support each other, and increase our ability to help build a more compassionate, inclusive, and equitable society. We're in this together, so let's cultivate the compassionate courage and consciousness to face what keeps us separate and realize the reality of our oneness as a human family.

Bridging Difference from the Inside Out, led by Rev. Jennifer Bailey             

Many people struggle to have constructive dialogue across difference, whether it’s within the four walls of their own home or in the wider communities in which they serve. What does it look like to forge resilient relationships across political, racial, generational, and other divides? Drawing on lessons from The People’s Supper, this session will share about the ingredients that go into creating “Brave Space,” and how these principles can apply in dialogues across difference. In an experiential learning environment, we will explore together how to craft conversations that center personal storytelling, build empathy across divergent perspectives, and allow people to feel seen, heard and understood in the stories and experiences that shape us.

Attuned Listening for Professionals, Parents, and Partners, led by Kathy Simon, Ph.D.

Our family members, clients, and colleagues want us to hear them — to understand their feelings, take in their pressing concerns, help them navigate divergent opinions. We, too, want to be heard — to lead, teach, and inspire, and also to share our concerns and vulnerabilities. When we speak, we want to be honest, and of course we would always prefer to be kind.

But we don’t always see how honesty and kindness fit together. In short, communication is core to our relationships, but communication is complicated. It requires listening well, even when we don’t like what we hear; it requires speaking our truths in ways that can be heard, even when the audience isn’t particularly receptive. Based on the principles of Nonviolent Communication© (NVC), this interactive workshop will highlight the listening side of the equation—attuning to others in ways that bring mutual understanding and a sense of new possibility. Designed for experienced listeners, our time together will deepen your skillset and help you show up even more fully in all of your roles.