Glenn Hartelius Wins Prestigious Psychology Award

Glenn Hartelius, director of the Integral and Transpersonal Psychology doctoral program at CIIS, was named the recipient of the 2017 Carmi Harari Early Career Award by the American Psychological Association.

The Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) award recognized Hartelius' work to advance the field of transpersonal psychology since he received his Ph.D. in East-West Psychology in 2009.

“Transpersonal psychology doesn’t see the person as separate from their community and their world,” says Hartelius, who analyzed 160 definitions of the field as part of his dissertation.

There is an intimacy connecting us that psychology is only beginning to understand, and transpersonal psychology offers the framework to lead in this research.”

Hartelius co-edits the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, (IJTS) which has featured sections on transpersonal anthropology, sociology, medicine, feminism, and psychotherapy. Other special section topics have included arts and consciousness, spirituality, ecopsychology, parapsychology, shamanism, and psychedelics.

IJTS now claims a readership of more than 80,000. Another other publication that he edits is The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology, the field’s first professional handbook.

CIIS' Ph.D. in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology

In 2014 Hartelius was invited back to CIIS to develop and lead a new Ph.D. in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology for working professionals who want to advance their education and contribute to scholarship and research in their areas of specialization.

Opportunities that students in the part-time online degree program will have include participating in projects at a soon-to-be built campus laboratory that will bring whole-person perspectives to neuroscience research, using the lab for their own research, and interning for IJTS. The doctoral program launched in Fall 2016.

In the meantime, Hartelius continues to pursue his own work developing new understandings of attention and embodiment for the purpose of defining states of consciousness. One research project he is working on is funded by CIIS supporter and former board member Ashok Vaish; the other, on psi capacity, from the BIAL Foundation.

“Once we learn how to define states of consciousness in clear, direct ways,” Hartelius says. “We will be able to work together with neuroscience to bring transpersonal psychology to fruition, and open up whole new areas of research.”

Hartelius received the honor at the 125th APA convention in Washington, D.C., in August 2017.

Related Academic Program

Ph.D. in Psychology, Concentration in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology