Psychology & Mental Health

Why do we love who we love? Why do we stay in unfulfilling relationships, and stray from rewarding ones? Is it ever a good idea to open a relationship? And why do some long-time couples crash and burn while others stay madly in love? Evolutionary biologist, author, and Executive Director of the world-renowned Kinsey Institute, Dr. Justin Garcia examines these questions and more in this conversation on modern mating.   

In this episode Dr. Garcia is joined by Dr. Christopher Walling, chair the Research Psychology program at CIIS, for an illuminating conversation on the science of love and sex. They discuss Dr. Garcia’s book The Intimate Animal, and the lifecycle of a romantic relationship, from the thrill of first attraction to the devotion that can last decades. Dr. Garcia reveals that the need for intimacy, even more than sex drive, is key to our species’ survival and flourishing. But therein lies the challenge. We evolved for social monogamy but not for sexual monogamy, yet these impulses are often at odds. Understanding this tension is the key to aligning our romantic choices with our true desires.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 12th 2026. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

What happens when art, therapy, and justice meet in one program? Explore how CIIS is shaping the next generation of expressive arts therapists.

Kimberly Koljat ’11 transformed personal loss into groundbreaking research on grief, embodiment, and connection in an increasingly digital world.

Groundbreaking clinic delivers affordable, clinically supervised psychedelic therapy while training the next generation of practitioners

CIIS professor Willow Pearson Trimbach and co-author Eva Tuschman Leonard explore how dreams reveal emotional truths that transform psychotherapeutic and spiritual practice.

After a decade in early childhood education and twenty years away from school, Heather Miller found renewed purpose through CIIS' Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

Professor Phil Weglarz leads CIIS' Expressive Arts Therapy program, preparing students to integrate creative modalities into mental health services and community transformation.

Senior Lecturer Cosmin Gheorghe shares how CIIS' Bachelor of Science in Psychology helps students connect disciplines and find meaning in a fragmented world.

Your roadmap to becoming a licensed clinical psychologist through CIIS' integral, holistic approach to doctoral training and professional practice.

Discover your fit among CIIS' five counseling psychology concentrations, each offering a unique path to becoming a transformative healer.

Inside CIIS’ bold approach to community mental health and healing-centered education.

A graduate’s journey integrating Eastern contemplative wisdom with Western depth psychological frameworks.

Dr. Karim Dajani, M.A. '95, Integral Counseling Psychology, joined Clinical Psychology’s annual spring conference to explore the social unconscious in the work of Wilfred Bion.

When a film touches us, makes us laugh, and has that feel-good spirit, we want more of it. We want a sequel! In this episode, psychotherapist and CIIS Assistant Professor in the Integral Counseling Psychology program Emily Marinelli is joined by therapist and activist DDS Dobson-Smith for a conversation exploring the psychology of movie sequels from the 1980s and 1990s.

Sharing personal stories and insights from their latest book Comfort Sequels, Emily dives deep into the psychology behind what makes certain movie sequels memorable, safe, predictable, and comforting. These sequels are more of the universe we love—exploring something new while maintaining something familiar. Emily interprets characters, story arcs, and major themes while sharing fun and random behind-the-scenes facts about sequels including Grease 2, Gremlins 2, My Girl 2, Ghostbusters II, Batman Returns, and more.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on August 21st, 2024. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

For over 40 years somatic sex educator Dr. Betty Martin has explored the nuances of consent. In her framework and book, The Wheel of Consent, Dr. Martin traces the fundamental roots of consent back to our childhood conditioning. As children, many are taught that to be “good” we must ignore our body’s discomfort and be compliant. As adults, this conditioning remains with us until we unlearn it. The implications of this approach to consent education extends beyond touch and intimate relationships. When we forget how to notice what we really want, we lose our inner compass. When we continue to go along with things we don’t feel are right, we lose our ability to speak up against injustice.

In this episode, Dr. Martin is joined by Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigiqueer soma-cultural sex therapist, sexuality educator, writer, activist, and musician Dr. Roger Kuhn for an empowering conversation on the psychology of consent. Drawing upon her life’s work and The Wheel of Consent, Dr. Martin shares deeply nuanced ways to practice consent as an agreement that brings integrity, responsibility, and empowerment into human interaction—starting with touch and relationships—and further expanding our understanding of consent to social issues of equality and justice.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 30th, 2024. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Generational silence is a term applied to families who have experienced suppressed thoughts or repressed emotions for at least two generations. Generational silence addresses both the cycle and impact of issues like substance abuse, religion, racism, education inequality, and parenting. In her latest book, Breaking Generational Silence, mental health expert Nicole Russell-Wharton speaks from her Black experience about how slavery left an intergenerational impact on her family and how understanding and healing the root of silence can finally break the cycle for generations to come.

In this episode, Nicole is joined by Assistant Professor of Somatic Psychology Deanna Jimenez for a transformative conversation exploring generational silence and healing from inherited trauma.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on February 13th, 2025. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

CIIS Professor Emeritus and founding director of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Richard Tarnas returned for his beloved annual lecture exploring the deeper currents of our time.

Barbara Morrill, CIIS Professor Emerita, explores the life of Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, who decried the brutality of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam during World War II.

Get access to the online workshop series on intergenerational trauma with Kini Chang, LMFT, Chair of the Community Mental Health program at CIIS

Associate Professor Christopher Walling receives the Gina Ogden Curatorial Scholarship for Integrative Approaches to Sex Research and Therapy from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University

Community Mental Health alumna Nichole Pettway on using her experiences to help others navigate uncharted waters 

A new essay, Heart-Knowing, Somatic Dreaming, and Trans-subjectivity: A Scholarly Personal Narrative, written by Daniel Deslauriers, Ph.D., explores the power of somatic dreams. 

Community Mental Health graduate Dr. Patsy Tito on bringing mental health support to the Samoan and Pacific Islander community

Exploring the 2023 TEDx Talk given by Dr. Elizabeth Markle, Associate Professor of the Community Mental Health Master's Program

New works from CIIS Professor of Clinical Psychology on the Psychological Potency of Dreams

Sasha Bainer, an East-West Psychology student, provides us with insights into their firsthand experience of Auroville.

Sibling Directors on Drama, Therapy, and Drama Therapy

NOTE: This episode features guided participatory rest practices that include moments of silence at the beginning and end of the conversation.

Restoring your body, mind, and spirit amid change is an act of courage, empowerment, and hope. Drawing wisdom from yoga philosophy and her many years of teaching experience, yoga teacher and activist Octavia Raheem offers motivation and guidance to restore ourselves through various forms of change in our lives. Her practice comes to life in her latest book, Pause, Rest, Be, where she provides simple restorative yoga poses and offers short teachings and reflections to see us through times of ending and beginning as well as liminal or transitional space.

In this episode, somatic and transpersonal psychotherapist Deanna Jimenez joins Octavia for a conversation on how slowing down, stillness, and deeper connection to our own transitions empowers us to move through personal and collective shifts with more grace as well as what it means to navigate change with presence and courage.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on April 13th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

An interview with Drama Therapy alumna Grace Walcott about her documentary, “River of Life LGBTQ+”

Read about CIIS Professor Leslie Davenport's critical work on climate distress and eco-anxiety in the July 10th issue of The New Yorker Magazine

CIIS Professor Jason Butler discusses his new book on the potential, pitfalls, and guidelines for psychedelic medicine and care in treating mental illness.

Alumna Jessica DiVento Dzuban, Global Head of Mental Health for YouTube, talks with CIIS about her mission and her passion to bring the highest quality mental health content to users worldwide, and to keep those users safe and emotionally supported.

There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City, and on years of reporting around the world, author and journalist Suketu Mehta tackles this issue head-on.

In this conversation with multicultural counseling expert Jyoti Rao, Suketu talks about his latest book This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto and his belief that immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 8, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Healthy boundaries. We all know setting healthy boundaries can help us to achieve work/life balance, cope with toxic people, and enjoy rewarding relationships. But what does “setting healthy boundaries” really mean? How can we successfully express our needs without offending others?

In this episode, licensed counselor and relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawwab is joined in conversation with licensed psychologist Elizabeth Markle. They discuss Nedra’s book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace in which she shares techniques to identify and express our needs clearly and without apology while unravelling the root problems behind codependency, power struggles, anxiety, depression, burnout, and more.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 31, 2021. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

The divides we experience within us and between us are not only a threat to our physical and emotional health—they are also the weapons and the outcomes of structural oppression. Meditation teacher and author Kate Johnson believes that through wise relationships it is possible to transform the barriers created by societal injustice.

In this episode, licensed psychologist and CIIS faculty Elizabeth Markle has a conversation with Kate about her latest book, Radical Friendship, in which she illuminates seven strategies to help us embody our deepest values in our relationships and how to show up for each other’s liberation.

This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on September 15th, 2021. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Welcome, Britton Williams!

We live in a world where entitlement, incivility, and narcissism are incentivized. How do we learn to negotiate a world that often gaslights us and empowers the loudest and most toxic voices?

In this episode, CIIS Community Mental Health professor and psychologist Elizabeth Markle has a conversation with psychologist and narcissism expert Dr. Ramani Durvasula exploring the new normal of narcissism and incivility and how to stay sane in a narcissistic world.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 2, 2020. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Listen and watch as students and alumni talk about their experiences in the Drama Therapy program at CIIS

CIIS President Brock Blomberg addresses the situation of the war in Ukraine, and offers support for the community.

The powerful new volume was edited by East-West Psychology Professor, Debashish Banerji and Professor Emeritus, Robert McDermott.

Renowned certified Gottman therapist and author Elizabeth Earnshaw offers a culturally tuned-in, LGBTQIA+ friendly approach, and an accessible guide to healing relationships and creating enduring intimacy for unmarried and married couples in her work and writing.

In her latest book, I Want This to Work, Elizabeth shares her expertise and presents for today’s generation the most effective and proven steps for relationship success. In this episode, CIIS professor and licensed psychologist Margaret Boucher joins Elizabeth for a conversation about how to navigate difficult relationship issues to create stronger and more resilient partnerships.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 9th, 2021. Access the transcript below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Counseling astrologer, writer, and CIIS alumna, Chani Nicholas talks about the path that lead her to CIIS and her social justice approach to astrology

CIIS students participate in collaborative research into school-based psychotherapy programs

Elizabeth Markle is a clinical psychologist turned radical community health innovator who brings decades of intentional community experience to her re-visioning of healthcare.

In this episode, health coach Susanna Merlo talks with Dr. Markle about her journey launching her community and “behavioral pharmacy”, Open Source Wellness, and her vision for the transformation of our nation’s clinical and social systems.

This episode was recorded during an event on February 27, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Celebrating the Achievement and Contributions of African Americans to the Mental Health Field

 Consider Play, Improvisation, or Learning Something Entirely New

The newest faculty member of the Community Mental Health program comes with a background in radical health activism

A conversation with faculty Dr. Rene Dumetz of the School of Professional Psychology and Health

A beloved counseling center on Church Street gets an important upgrade.

How Intense Emotion Can Fuel Transformation

Alumna Dr. Shefali Tsabary shares how CIIS' Drama Therapy program sent her on a journey of self-awareness and introspection

Fernando Castrillón, M.A., Psy.D., core faculty in the Community Mental Health program, explores the origins of a recently published article series

Five CIIS Authors Contribute to the New Issue of the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

CIIS hosted a two-day workshop on Suicide Intervention Skills with aim of creating suicide safer communities in the Bay Area

An Integral Counseling Psychology alum and Bay Area transplant helps promote social justice as a therapist in a Kansas prison

Helping LGBTQ individuals and couples find culturally-competent and experienced therapists 

Integral Counseling Psychology alumna Karen Martin and her daughter Amanda both grew as students at CIIS, but their experiences reflect different facets of the Institute

New Book Explores Roles and Methodologies of Therapeutic Theatre

 Universities.com ranks CIIS high on list of top ten schools nationwide

Counseling Psychology students connect with 60+ agencies at the annual Practicum Fair

Stage Ai's Summer Blossom festival brought CIIS values to life in China through arts, healing, and cross-cultural connection.

Ian's utter unconventionality opens the door to creativity by its very presence

An interview with a Somatic Psychology graduate Chris Restivo

Somatic Psychology student Adrian Orozco Blair works at the Living Arts Counseling Center. He is now completing 1 semester of post practicum at this same site.

Warrior-Healers Rise

The American Psychological Association Honors CIIS' Chair of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology

Spotlighting on the 6 degree programs in CIIS' School of Professional Psychology and Health

For more than 30 years, CIIS' 6 Psychotherapy Counseling Centers have been providing low-fee services to the Bay Area

A visual, nonlinear timeline of nine critical psychological frameworks at CIIS

Holistic psychology, to us, is not only spiritual but also scientific. 

In the Bay Area, our need for increased and better quality mental health services is urgent

Expressive Arts Therapy Alum Suraya Keating directed a production of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" starring male inmates at San Quentin State Prison

A newly-formed online degree with three focus areas that Hartelius proposed and built

Integral Counseling Psychology Alum Travis Mathews awarded $75K Filmmaking Grant

The Journal of Holistic Psychology and CIIS seeks to further enrich and extend integral-holistic perspectives in psychology through theme-based volumes.

The Integral Counseling Center at Church Street is now offering therapy in Arabic, Catalan, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, and Tagalog.

A social and emotional art-based research study will be supported

About his new book, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication

Theatre for Change pieces grow out of improvisation, methods of drama therapy, self-revelatory performance, educational theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed

Experts from multiple backgrounds in the Symposium explored solutions to the rising tide of violence facing our country.

Alum Karin von Daler co-developed the Dialectical Behavior Therapy oriented method for working with people struggling with intense emotional dysregulation

While the term “existential” conjures up questions like “why am I here?” and issues about meaninglessness, death, and our limited lifespan, existential therapy is about much more

Drama Therapy student, Angelica Medina appeared in and helped write the collaborative theater production