My guest this week is Dr. Steve Hayes, one of the most influential psychologists of our time. The first time I had Steve on the podcast back in 2020 we discussed the fundamentals of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This time you’ll see what those ideas look like in action. The second half of our discussion is Steve leading me through a series of invitations and explorations. It was a pretty incredible experience that I can’t really capture by trying to describe it, so I’m glad I can share it with you in this episode.

Topics we discussed included:

• The main causes of suffering from the perspective of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• The values of awareness, openness, and life engagement
• Opportunities to create modern minds for a modern world
• Ways that opportunities for liberation are increasing
• Getting behavioral science out of the little box it’s been stuck in
• Why commitment to valued action is an essential element of well-being
• Self-compassion that is not self-indulgent
• The true meaning of being “comfortable”
• An extended exercise between Steve and me based on my experience with illness and depression
• Depression as what you feel when you’re afraid to feel
• Diving into the feelings we’re afraid to feel
• Finding gifts in pain
• The freedom in letting go
• Finding your way into the present through your body and your interactions with others

Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and President of Institute for Better Health, a 45-year-old charitable organization dedicated to better mental and behavioral health.

His work has been focused on developing a new behavioral science approach called Contextual Behavioral Science.

He originated its underlying philosophy of science (Functional Contextualism), its basic science of human higher cognition (Relational Frame Theory or “RFT”), its application to individual psychological change (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training, “ACT” in either case), and co-developed its application to the development of more cooperative groups (Prosocial).

Steve has helped develop a model of human suffering and human prosperity (the Psychological Flexibility Model), a new method of analyzing processes of change (idionomic analysis), a new vision of what evidence-based intervention should be (Process-Based Therapy), and he has extended multidimensional and multilevel evolutionary thinking to human problems of all kinds.

His work has been celebrated with several awards, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Impact of Science on Application Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis.

With 47 books and nearly 700 scientific articles published, Steve is one of the most cited psychologists in the world as he continues to innovate in the field of psychology.

Find Steve online at his website. You can also check out the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science and the ACT manual on the WHO website.