Clinical Psychology

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

In his latest book, How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories, psychologist Jonathan Lassiter pulls back the curtain on the mental health system and reveals the hurdles that Black psychologists and students are forced to endure in the field.

In this episode, Dr. Lassiter is joined by CIIS Expressive Arts Therapy core faculty Chevon Stewart, for a thought-provoking conversation exploring his experience as a Black gay man working as a psychologist under culturally insensitive supervisors and colleagues in America. They discuss how white ideology has harmed Black patients and how it dominates America’s mental health practices. Drawing from his research, and his own therapy, Dr. Lassiter shares the benefits we can all find when we center culture in our healing practices.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 4th, 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.

Dr. Rene Dumetz teaches CIIS' Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program, training therapists to work with the unconscious, relationships, and holistic human experience.

Professor Lani Chow explains how CIIS' Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program takes an integrative approach to training therapists in depth psychological traditions.

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

Why do we assume romantic relationships are more important than friendships? 

In this episode, clinical psychologist Margaret Boucher — Assistant Professor in the Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program —has an illuminating conversation with NPR journalist Rhaina Cohen on the power of platonic partnerships and how the thrill, intimacy, and commitment we seek is often found through meaningful friendship. Sharing insights from her years of original reporting and social science research, Rhaina argues that we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them and diminish friendships by expecting too little of them. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed, divorced, or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Rhaina challenges us to ask what we want from our relationships—not just what we’re supposed to want—and helps us to examine how we define a fulfilling life.

This episode was recorded during an live online event at California Institute of Integral Studies on July 31st, 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.

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.

Dr. Thema Bryant is a psychologist and leading mental health expert with more than two decades of experience in clinical psychology and trauma recovery. As a trauma survivor herself, she knows that trauma and everyday challenges can cause us to disconnect and fall into survival mode. In her latest book, Reclaim Yourself, she shares accessible and practical steps toward creating the life you want while processing stress and trauma.

In this episode, Rachel Bryant talks with Dr. Thema Bryant about her life and work and how Dr. Bryant’s approach can help trauma survivors heal their emotions and actively take steps toward growth.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on July 11th, 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.

This special episode features CIIS Professor Emeritus and cultural historian Richard Tarnas sharing illuminating insights into the nature of human consciousness and the cosmos.

In this talk, Richard explores one of C. G. Jung’s most crucial contributions to psychology–the recognition that the unfolding of a human life is at a deep level a spiritual journey. He also explores the powerful archetypal principles and forces that deeply influence human experience and behavior.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 6th, 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.

Lifelong activist and educator Dean Spade dares us to decide that our interpersonal actions are not separate from our politics of liberation and resistance. Many activist projects and resistance groups fall apart because people treat each other poorly, trying desperately to live out the cultural myths about dating and relationships that we are fed from an early age. How do we bring our best thinking about freedom and justice into step with our desires for healing and connection?

In this episode, Dean is joined by CIIS Anthropology and Social Change Associate Professor Targol Mesbah in a liberating conversation on how to combat cultural scripts and take our relationships into our own hands, better preparing us for the work of changing the world.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on February 28, 2025. 

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

We live in a turbulent time with storms everywhere, of every size and shape. And like every generation before us, we must learn the art of surviving them, so we can help each other endure. In his work, bestselling author and spiritual teacher Mark Nepo explores the art and practice of finding the strength to meet adversity by using the timeless teachings of the heart.

In his life’s work as well as in his latest book, Surviving Storms, Mark articulates the heart’s process of renewal and connection with insight and accuracy. In this episode, Mark is joined by CIIS Professor and Program Chair for the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing Cindy Shearer for an empowering conversation on learning to overcome the storms of life.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 30th, 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.

Koans are the record of provocative, and often paradoxical, exchanges between Zen masters and their students developed in medieval China. In her practice and writing, renowned Zen teacher Joan Sutherland reimagines the koan tradition with allegiance to its root spirit and to its profound potential for vivifying, subverting, and sanctifying our lives.

In this episode, Joan is joined by clinical psychologist Megan Rundel in a conversation exploring how practice with Zen koans makes us permeable to the joys and the anguish of this life—and to the primordial mystery we glimpse behind the veil of the everyday.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on July 27th, 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.

At the heart of every healthy, fulfilling relationship lies the unshakable knowledge that we can trust another person with the care of our whole well-being. Yet most of us arrive at our relationships with triggers, traumas, and old patterning that can make this kind of intimacy challenging.

Renowned psychotherapist and couples therapy expert Stan Tatkin explores all the common complaints and conflicts we encounter in our relationships and provides key insights on how to navigate even the most contentious topics with understanding and respect in his latest book, In Each Other’s Care.

In this episode, Dr. Tatkin is joined by licensed psychologist and CIIS Associate Professor of Community Mental Health Elizabeth Markle for a conversation offering insights for therapists and couples alike about repairing relationships and reigniting love.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on June 1st, 2023. 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 plans to expand its community health services with the launch of a new psychedelics clinic that will provide patients with ketamine-assisted treatments, the first of its kind to be associated with a university in the United States.

Fika and Fellowship at the Psy.D. Conference

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

Joy and resilience: we need both to thrive. But even though resilience is rightly buzzing as a self-care goal, we live in a world that makes it attainable to some and inaccessible to others.

In her latest book, Joyous Resilience: A Path to Individual Healing and Collective Thriving in an Inequitable World, Pakistani American Clinical Therapist Anjuli Sherin offers a culturally informed, body-centered model of healing accompanied by the compelling and diverse stories of Black, POC, LGBTQIA+, Immigrant, and other marginalized people, who found ways to thrive and embrace joy using this model to heal intergenerational and collective trauma.

In this episode, Monique LeSarre, executive director of Rafiki Coalition joins Anjuli for a moving and joyful conversation about her work as a therapist and the lessons she shares in Joyous Resilience.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 26, 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.

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.

In unsettling and uncertain times, the individual and collective heartbreak that lives in both our bodies and our communities can feel insurmountable. Many of us have been conditioned by the dominant culture to not name, focus on, or wade through the difficulties in our lives. But in order to heal, we must make space for grief, prioritizing our wholeness and humanity.

Social justice activist, social worker, and yoga teacher Michelle Cassandra Johnson offers the tools people need to be present and open hearted with their grief. In this episode, program innovation leader in mindfulness, trauma, and racial healing Jenée Johnson talks with Michelle about her latest book, Finding Refuge, as well as her life and work helping people to process family, community, and global grief.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 4th, 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 field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has been growing rapidly in recent years with decriminalization efforts moving forward on local, state, and federal levels. Ketamine was first developed in the 1960s as a surgical anesthetic for humans. In recent years, it was discovered that ketamine also has rapid acting anti-depressant and anti-obsessional properties.

In this episode, clinician Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold has a conversation with psychologist Raquel Bennett about her experience working as a ketamine specialist over the past 19 years and the exploding field of therapeutic ketamine.

Learn more about Raquel's personal experience using Ketamine in an interview.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 4, 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.

It is well known that mental healthcare and therapy are not systems that are readily accessible to everyone, especially those from marginalized communities. Created and maintained by white men, most traditional therapeutic practices do not address systematic oppression, ancestral trauma, LGTBQIA+ mental health and wellness, and the general mental, emotional, or physical plight of BIPOC and marginalized communities.

Psychologist and CIIS alumni Dr. Jennifer Mullan has spent much of her career addressing these inequities and providing spaces for healing through the use of decolonizing practices like centralizing historical and intergenerational trauma, which she identifies as ancestral trauma.

In this episode, educator and sexologist Bianca Laureano joins Dr. Mullan for a warm and powerful conversation exploring how we can tend to our emotional and mental health while also holding systemic oppression accountable.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 11, 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.

Most of us understand grief as sorrow experienced after a loss—the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a change in life circumstance. According to author and Buddhist end-of-life caregiver, Breeshia Wade, grief is bigger than what’s happened to us, larger than a reaction to a one-time event. It is something that is connected to what we fear, what we love, and what we aspire to.

Drawing on stories from her own life as a Black woman and from the people she has midwifed through the end of life, Breeshia connects sorrow not only to specific incidents, but also to the ongoing trauma that is part and parcel of systemic oppression. She broadens the mainstream conception of grief to explore its intersections with race, gender, social justice, and trauma.

In this episode, licensed clinical psychologist Bree McDaniel has a conversation with Breeshia about her life, her work, and her latest book, Grieving While Black: An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow.

This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on March 18, 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.

MDMA is currently in phase three of clinical trial research studies for the treatment of trauma in the United States, Canada, and Israel.

In this episode, clinician and CIIS professor Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold has a conversation with Israel-based MAPS clinician-researcher Keren Tzarfaty on the benefits and therapeutic applications of MDMA assisted psychotherapy. Keren and Gisele go deep into the nature of the psychedelic experience, the principles that guide the therapeutic work, and the new paradigm this study offers to treatment of PTSD and to psychotherapy in general.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on April 6, 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.

Psilocybin has been decriminalized in many cities in the United States and most recently has been approved for use in psychotherapy in the state of Oregon. In the latest studies, psilocybin has shown efficacy for patients suffering from depression, addiction, and end-of-life distress.

In this episode, clinician and CIIS professor Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold has an illuminating conversation with UCSF psychiatrist Brian Anderson on the benefits, risks, and therapeutic applications of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on May 6, 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.

With the second renaissance and re-emergence of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, the general public and therapists alike are confronted with new areas of exploration, but with few systematic frameworks available.

With questions surrounding legal access to care, ongoing criminalization, and medical restrictions to care limiting the therapies available, the immediate future of psychedelic-assisted therapy remains shrouded in uncertainty, even in the face of expanding interest. On the cusp of this new era—one of excitement but also uncertainty—one of many ways to explore this emerging landscape is through the lens of the psychospiritual and the therapeutic uses of psychedelics.

In this episode, clinical psychologist, founder of the Center for Existential Exploration, and author Kile Ortigo is joined by licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and social justice advocate Mary Sanders for a conversation on Dr. Ortigo's latest book, Beyond the Narrow Life, an exploration of the psychospiritual and therapeutic use of psychedelics, which includes the process of psychedelic integration.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 26th, 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.

In this episode, author Stephen Jenkinson and Richard Buggs explore what it means to live, and die well. A transcript is available below.

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

Chef Nik Sharma talks with Richard Buggs to share the stories and recipes that have shaped his life and work. This conversation was part of The Haresh & Joan Shah Lecture & Performance Series.

This episode was recorded during an event on December 4, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. A transcript is available below.

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.

As a body justice advocate and leader Dr. Joy Arlene Renee Cox believes that the spaces carved out by third-wave feminism and the fat liberation movement fail at achieving true inclusivity and intersectionality. She believes that fat Black women need to create their own safe spaces and community—instead of tirelessly working to educate, chastise, and strive against dominant groups.

Dr. Cox’s latest book, Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Communities of Our Own, breaks down the myths, stereotypes, tropes, and outright lies we’ve been sold about race, body size, belonging, and health.

In this episode, educator and sexologist Bianca I. Laureano talks with Dr. Cox about rejecting the myths and lies that hold back fat Black women, and ways for their communities to flourish.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 7, 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.

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), has been a relentless advocate for developing legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics paired with psychotherapy for decades. He is also a teacher for the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research.

In this episode, licensed psychotherapist Gisele Fernandes has a fascinating conversation with Rick about the future of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Diving into his vast knowledge of the science of psychedelics, Rick discusses how drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA affect your brain. He shares how, when paired with psychotherapy, psychedelics could change the way we treat PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and more.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 23, 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.

CONTENT ADVISORY: This episode contains references to the existence of traumatic events such as assault, rape, and suicide.

The stress, conflict, and crises of the outer world are a signal: the time has come to awaken your inner shaman. However, you don’t need to be initiated into concealed mysteries to answer the call from Spirit. Internationally renowned shamanic teacher Marcela Lobos teaches us how to use the maps offered by the shamanic Medicine Wheel and the hero’s journey to activate our inner wisdom and live a self-realized existence of discovery, healing, and wholeness.

In this episode, CIIS faculty and psychologist Susana Bustos has a conversation with Marcela about her life, her work, and her latest book: Awakening Your Inner Shaman: A Woman's Journey of Self-Discovery through the Medicine Wheel.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on May 14, 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.

As a New York Times bestselling author and renowned clinical psychologist, Dr. Shefali’s work teaches women how to transcend their fears and illusions, break free from societal expectations, and rediscover the person they were always meant to be: fully present, conscious, and fulfilled.

In this episode, Enneagram expert and life coach Lara Heller talks with Dr. Shefali about her latest book, A Radical Awakening, and how to uncover our inner truth and powers to help heal ourselves and our planet.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 4th, 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.

Over 18 million people of Asian descent live in the United States today. Many in the Asian American community are experiencing a renewed connection to their identity, inspiring them to radically reconsider the cultural frameworks that enabled their assimilation into American culture. As Asian Americans investigate the personal and societal effects of longstanding cultural narratives, their mental health becomes increasingly important, yet they are the racial group least likely to seek out mental health services.

Through her work and in her latest book, Permission to Come Home, Taiwanese American clinical psychologist Jenny Wang confronts and destabilizes the stigma Asian Americans face in caring for their mental health. In this episode, Dr. Wang is joined by CIIS Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the CIIS Psychological Services Center Lani Chow for a powerful conversation about the intersection between Asian American identity, mental health, and social justice.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on June 30th, 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.

Being a healer today often means navigating complexities and challenges. Healers of all modalities can feel sidelined, underfunded, or delegitimized within a Western capitalist framework.

In this episode, licensed psychologist and CIIS faculty Elizabeth Markle talks with somatic psychotherapist, author, and podcaster Laura Mae Northrup about her latest book, Radical Healership, in which Laura offers an authentic, spiritually grounded approach to finding a true path to working in a healing profession.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 2nd, 2022. Access the transcript below.

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

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.

In this episode, addiction expert Gabor Maté is joined in conversation with CIIS Chief of Staff and licensed clinical psychologist Richard Buggs to discuss his groundbreaking work on trauma and the mind/body connection.

This episode was recorded during an event on March 8, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few.

In Mikki Kendall's latest book, Hood Feminism, she takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hyper-sexualization, she delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux and issues a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists.

In this episode, psychologist and CIIS Professor Danielle Drake talks with Mikki about writing Hood Feminism, her life, and the lessons she has learned.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on September 23, 2020. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Drawing on her decades of clinical experience with couples, and incorporating spiritual practices, social justice perspectives, current news stories, and neuro-scientific findings, Dr. Molly Howes has developed an unsparing, accessible and ultimately optimistic model for apologies.

In this episode, Artificial Intelligence scientist and a Buddhist teacher Nikki Mirghafori talks with Dr. Howes about her work, her latest book, and how we can all learn to craft an effective apology.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 20, 2020. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

After observing modern shamanic trainings with a growing concern, clinical psychologist and scholar Anotonio Ramirez began exploring more traditional forms of shamanism by interviewing elder shamans in Latin America.

In this talk, recorded at CIIS on May 21, 2019, Antonio shares his ideas about the dangers of shamanism as it is practiced today in urban areas, how these practices are affecting native shamanism, and suggests ways to avoid falling prey of unethical practitioners.

In this episode, modern mystic Thomas Hübl and cosmologist Brian Swimme explore the cosmos and discuss ways to move from being a society informed by trauma to a society that heals trauma.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on May 9th, 2020. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Suzy Ross is an assistant professor and coordinator of recreation therapy and complementary and alternative medicine at San Jose State University, California.

In this episode, psychologist Richard Buggs talks with Dr. Ross about finding our path in life, journeys of personal transformation, and her book The Map to Wholeness.

This episode was recorded during an event on April 2, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

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

Join renowned ethnopharmacologist and author Dennis McKenna for this engaging talk combining ethnobotany, psychopharmacology, history, and the philosophical reflections of a luminary in this field.

This episode was recorded during an event on November 21, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, bioethics professor Osagie K. Obasogie talks with author George Estreich about what he has learned as the father of a young woman with Down syndrome exploring the troubled territory where biotechnology and disability meet.

This episode was recorded during an event on September 19, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this conversation, psychologist Christine Brooks talks with author and social critic Erica Williams Simon about how she got “story smart” to challenge the narratives about fear, work, identity, success, love, and life that we have all been taught.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 15, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

Join Native American psychologist Leslie Gray for this conversation with don Jose Ruiz about his life and work traveling the world to share the teachings of his ancestors.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 8, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

Join Stanford’s social media expert, Jeff Hancock, and Director of the Trust Project, Sally Lehrman, as they examine the erosion of truth online, how our psychological and social dynamics impact our culture, and what we can do to rebuild our collective grasp on the truth.

This episode was recorded during an event on July 18, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this episode, psychotherapist and CIIS professor Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold has a conversation with social anthropologist and researcher Beatriz Labate about the risks and benefits of the globalization of ayahuasca through the lens of her research on new and traditional uses of psychoactive substances.

This episode was recorded during an event on July 11, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

Journalist Ed Morales is joined by CIIS Professor Antonio Ramirez for this conversation on the American Latinx experience and the powerful cultural impact of this frequently overlooked community.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 6, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

Psychedelic therapist Daniel McQueen and CIIS faculty Natalie Metz explore the potential for healing and personal transformation through the intentional use of cannabis and psychedelics.

This episode was recorded during an event on March 27, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

CIIS Professor and psychologist Nicolle Zapien discusses her recent research into cases of infidelity, and how we can reframe the way we think about infidelity and sexuality in our relationships.

This episode was recorded during an event on January 9, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Psychologist and NYU researcher Dr. Tony Bossis reviews one of the first FDA-approved clinical trials of psychedelic drugs since research was effectively banned in the 1970s. His work is part of the recent renaissance in psychedelic studies, with results suggesting that psilocybin and other hallucinogens may help treat anxiety, addiction, end-of-life distress, and shed light on the neurobiology of mystical experience.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 22, 2015 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Physician and award winning author, Dr Gabor Mate, discusses his research at the intersection of addiction, science, psychology, and compassion.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 30, 2015 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Author and Professor of Psychology at CIIS, Dr. Brant Cortright, talks about his work at the cutting edge of neuroscience, clinical psychology, and brain health.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 15, 2015 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

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

In this episode, inherited family trauma expert Mark Wolynn is joined in conversation by Richard Buggs to discuss how the traumas of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents can affect us. Mark shares how inherited family trauma shapes who we are and how he works with patients to end the cycle.

This episode was recorded during an event on May 10, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Clinical psychologist and interpersonal neurobiology expert Dr. Dan Siegel is joined in conversation by Rick Hanson to take a deep dive into the mysteries of the human mind.

This episode was recorded during an event on September 17, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, psychologist and professor Alinne Barrera joins psychiatrist and UCSF Clinical Informatics fellow Steven Chan to explore how recent advances in technology and artificial intelligence are changing the way we seek and provide mental health care.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on September 12, 2018.

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

Self compassion researcher Kristin Neff joins Michael Klein to examine how self compassion can lower anxiety and depression, and support more satisfying relationships.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 1, 2017.

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

In this episode, ICU doctor and palliative care expert Dr. Jessica Zitter is joined in conversation by CIIS Dean of Alumni Richard Buggs to discuss her drive to help patients find a better path to the end of life.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on April 5, 2017.

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

In this episode, author Joy DeGruy was joined in conversation by former CIIS Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Denise Boston to explore how trans-generational trauma and systems of oppression influence race relations in America.

This episode was recorded during an event on January 19, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, psychologist and author Stuart Ablon is joined in conversation by Nicolle Zapien to explore the science of how people change.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 29, 2018.

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

Learn more about the Psy.D. program's experientially rich clinical training and why we no longer pursue APA accreditation

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

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

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

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