Category Archives: Invited Speakers

Dr. Jingping Xu (Positive Psychology In Action, Inc.) will be presenting on Meaning, Emotions, and Decision Making in the Ultimatum Game.

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Leo Michel Abrami, Arizona Institute of Logotherapy, author of an introduction to logotherapy “Une Démarche Thérapeutique: la Logothérapie” Paris, 2006

Leo Abrami will be presenting a workshop entitled Demonstration of an Experiential Seminar on Meaning.

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Charles P. Chen, PhD, is Professor of Counselling Psychology and a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto.  He is an Honorary/Guest Professor at several major universities around the world. He is also a keynote/plenary speaker at conferences.  His book: “Career Endeavour” received the 2008 Canadian Best Counselling Book Award.  He is a prominent social scientist featured in Canadian Who’s Who and Who’s Who in the World.

Dr. Chen will be presenting a lecture on Human Agency and Action in Life-Careers.

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Dmitry A. Leontiev, Ph.D., Dr.Sc., Professor of Psychology, Moscow State University, Russia, Vice-President of Moscow division of Russian Psychological Society, Board Member of International Society for Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy. Professor Leontiev is an expert in personality theory, research and assessment, psychology of art and psychology of advertising. His teaching and research topics vary from assessment techniques to personality theories, from advertising to existential issues; he also does much editorial and publishing work introducing classical and contemporary Western authors to Russian readers.

After his recent book “The Psychology of Personal Meaning” (1999), where he developed a comprehensive theory of meaning-based regulation of activity and mental processes in humans, Dmitry A. Leontiev is focusing at the existential approach to the autodetermined human being as complementary to the traditional mainstream approach to the determined human being. He has become the founder and the head of Institute of Existential Psychology and Life Enhancement (EXPLIEN) in Moscow (2001).

Dr. Leontiev will be presenting a lecture on Meaning and Well-being: From Confrontation to Synergy.

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Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Asia University, Taiwan.

Dr. Chang will be presenting lectures entitled Mediating Role of Rumination on Core Belief and Posttraumatic Growth for Acehnese Survivors and The Comparative Predictive Power between Empathy and the Just World Belief of Adolescent’s Bullying Behaviors in Taiwan.

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Dr. Klingberg will be presenting a lecture entitled Harbinger and Paradox: Viktor Frankl and Positive Psychology.

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Kathryn Heninger Britton is a coach, author, editor, consultant, and educator with a focus on applied positive psychology. Her personal mission is to put the research findings from positive social sciences into the hands of everyday people in ways that help them increase personal and organizational well-being.  In 2006, she graduated in the first class of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2007, she finished a 30-year software engineering career mostly with IBM that included extensive experience as a team leader and mentor.  She co-teaches Managing Project Teams in the Project Management Department at the University of Maryland, a course founded on positive workplace concepts.  She is an associate editor for the online publication, Positive Psychology News Daily (PPND), where she has published more than 50 articles.  She is also co-author of three books on practical ways to apply positive psychology.  Her latest book is Smarts and Stamina: The Busy Person’s Guide to Optimal Health and Performance.

Kathryn Britton will be presenting an invited lecture entitled I Did and Now I Am: The Evolution of Well-being and Meaning as People Age.

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Charles McLafferty, Jr. earned his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Virginia and is a National CertifiedCounselor. Charles has been a member of the (United States) Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy since 1993, and served on the Board of Directors from1994 to 1997. He has served on the editorial boards of several academic journals and recently was named “Reviewer of the Year” for Research in the Schools.

Dr. McLafferty Jr. is the founding director of Purpose Research, LLC, which is committed to education, research, and publication of ideas related to purpose and meaning. He has argued that the quantitative dominance of research in counseling, education, medicine, and psychology will inevitably be subsumed by a four-dimensional understanding that also includes—and extends—qualitative and mixed methods research. He has illustrated this postulate in national and international journals (including American Psychologist and The Lancet) by examining faulty assumptions underlying research on core issues such as nature vs. nurture, happiness, career choice, and prayer.

Dr. McLafferty Jr., will be presenting a lecture on The Future of Logotherapy: Frankl’s Greatest Omissions.

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Lisa Firestone, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and the Director of Research and Education at the Glendon Association and Senior Editor at PsychAlive.org. She is the co-author of Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice; (New Harbinger Publications) Creating a Life of Meaning and Compassion(APA Books)  Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships (APA Books).and  The Self Under Siege (Routledge) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She has also produced educational films in the areas of suicide and violence.

Dr Firestone has been involved in clinical training and research in the areas of suicide and violenc which resulted in the development of the assessments : Firestone Assessment of Self-destructive Thoughts (FAST), Firestone Assessment of Suicide Intent the (FASI), as well as the Firestone Assessment of Violent Thoughts (FAVT) and the FAVT-A for Adolescents (PAR).

Lisa Firestone maintains a private practice and consults on the management of high risk clients.

www.glendon.org and www.psychalive.org

Lisa Firestone will be presenting on the topic Differentiation and the Search for Meaning.

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Due to unforeseen circumstances, Ms Rosemary Henrion is no longer able to present at the conference.

Dr. Sundararajan has an interdisciplinary background, with a Ph.D. in History of Religions from Harvard University, and an Ed.D. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University. She is past President of Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) and the current chair of its Task Force on Indigenous Psychology. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, and currently works as a forensic psychologist. Dr. Sundararajan has over fifty publications, including Happiness Donut: A Confucian Critique of Positive Psychology and Hope as Rhetoric: Cultural Narratives of Wishing and Coping. Her research interests range from Chinese poetics to semiotics.

Dr. Sundararajan will be presenting an invited lecture on A Confucian Critique of Positive Psychology of Emotions.

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Dr. Ishu Ishiyama is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (U.B.C), Canada, where he is currently the coordinator for the Master’s and Ph.D Programs in counsellig psychology. He is also an Associate Member of the Department of Psychiatry at U.B.C. He is registered with the College of Psychologists of British Columbia, and is a certified Morita psychotherapist. As a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo (2009-2010), he recently taught multicultural counselling and Morita therapy in the clinical psychology program during his sabbatical. He was a former David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education at U.B.C., and has been active in developing and teaching a social justice model called “Anti-discrimination Response Training (A.R.T.)” in Canada and overseas.

Dr. Ishiyama currently serves as the Secretary General for the International Committee for Morita Therapy (http://moritatherapy.org/) and a member of the Executive Board of Directors for the Japanese Society for Morita Therapy. He received the prestigious Shoma Morita Award in 2007. He regularly conducts lectures and training workshops on Morita therapy nationally and internationally, and will be running an International Course on Morita Therapy for those seeking certification in this therapy in Vancouver (August 3-4, 2012). He will be co-chairing the 30^th Annual Conference on Morita therapy in Tokyo in November, 2012.

Dr. Ishiyama will present an invited workshop on Morita Therapy.

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Dr. Medlock currently serves on the faculties of the Wright Graduate Institute for the Realization of Human Potential, the University of Chicago Graham School of Professional Studies, and Purdue North Central Department of Social Work. He also works as a Senior Talent Management Consultant with HRIZONS. Dr. Medlock completed his Ph.D in philosophy at Yale University, focusing on existential philosophy, psychology, and phenomenology. Recent publications include The Evolving Ethic of Authenticity: From Humanistic to Positive Psychology.

Dr. Medlock will present an invited address on Authenticity as a Core Virtue within the Normative Framework of Positive Psychology.

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Jonathan D. Raskin is a professor of psychology and counseling at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he currently serves as director of the counseling graduate program. Dr. Raskin’s scholarship focuses on constructivist psychology and psychotherapy. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, he is a past recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. Dr. Raskin is managing editor of the Journal of Constructivist Psychology and co-editor of the Studies in Meaning book series. He is licensed as a psychologist in New York, where he maintains a small private practice.

Dr. Raskin will present an invited workshop on What’s Coming in DSM-5 and What Does it Mean for Psychotherapists?

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Nedra R. Lander, Ph.D., C.Psych. is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, and has served as a clinical psychologist at The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Danielle Nahon, Ph.D., C.Psych. is a clinical psychologist with a community psychological practice, and serves as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ottawa.

As clinical psychologists, authors, and educators, Nedra and Danielle have evolved the Integrity model, a values- and morality-based approach providing a philosophical framework for a mindful and meaningful understanding of self, life and daily living. Their co-authored book,The Integrity Model of Existential Psychotherapy in Working with the “Difficult Patient” (Routledge) elucidates the philosophical framework of Integrity and its applicability across demographics and environmental constructs. Special areas of focus include gender issues, organizational health, issues in academic medicine and physician wellness, mentoring, diversity, disability, clinical populations, therapeutic impasses, and spirituality.

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