Today it’s great to have Dr. Steven Hayes on the podcast. Dr. Hayes is a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. The author of forty-three books and more than six hundred scientific articles, he has served as president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and is one of the most cited psychologists in the world. Dr. Hayes initiated the development of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and of Relational Frame Theory (RFT), the approach to cognition on which ACT is based. His research has been cited widely by major media, including: Time magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Men's Health, Self, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Salon.com.

In this episode we discuss:

• Steven Haye’s journey to studying the science of liberation
• The lessons you can learn from your own pain and suffering
• How you can apply psychology to human prosperity
• Some limitations of the CBT approach (“CBT gone bad”)
• How we all have a “dictator within”
• Scott and Steven roleplay an ACT session
• How to apply ACT principles to dieting
• How Steven defines values
• The definition and importance of “psychological flexibility”
• How to get out of the “anxiety trap”
• How to pivot to what you really want
• How consciousness connects us to the infinite
• The 6 things that get in the way of pivoting
• The social/environmental side of ACT
• “What does it gain us to give up on people?”
• ACT and social transformation
• What is love?

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