Dr. J. Scott Rutan, a psychologist who spent decades
training group psychotherapists, shares how he taught
therapists to create safe spaces where people could be
honest and vulnerable enough to get out of their own way
and into mutually rewarding relationships. You don't need
to be a therapist to enjoy and learn from this.

Trainer, facilitator, and instructional designer Jess Sneed
is headed to Boston Medical Center to train community
professionals in screening and brief intervention for
harmful and risky substance use. Jess also is helping
develop Macro Motivational Interviewing (Macro MI),
which promotes beneficial changes not only in individuals
but also in systems around them that make change
difficult.

Clinical psychologist, researcher, author, and group
psychotherapist Dr. Cheri Marmarosh describes how
therapy, especially group psychotherapy, heals trauma
from past relationships and helps people express who
they are and cope with who they are with.

Bilingual and bicultural psychologist Dr. Carlos Canales
expands on how humans develop emotionally, learn to
express emotions constructively or otherwise, and
become more attuned to themselves and others through
group psychotherapy.

Psychologist Dr. Joshua DeSilva and the graduate
students they train help marginalized individuals and
groups give more to and receive more from their
communities—not by telling them what to do, but by
listening to who they are.

Dr. Jessi Gold—psychiatrist, educator, media presence,
and author—describes healthcare workers and others
who delay or altogether avoid obtaining help for their own
mental health needs, which increases their risks for
burnout and worse. She encourages individuals in need
to get help promptly, encourages healthcare institutions to
set realistic expectations for employees, and has
chronicled her own journey of growth in the October 2024
book How Do You Feel? One Doctor's Search for
Humanity in Medicine. Geoff said reading it was "a
human experience worth having."

Psychologist and group psychotherapist Dr. Kavita Avula
specializes in conflict resolution and large group
dynamics. She explains how we make collaboration
possible and grow community when we "avoid the wish to
convince" people to think and feel as we do.

Guest Maria Kontarini, as a diplomat for the Greek
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the early 2000s, helped
restore stability in Bosnia after the Bosnian War—a
conflict known for human-to-human atrocities. Years later,
with a person-centered understanding of people and the
powerful influence of social context on behavior, she
believes humans' potential for good will outshine their
potential for violence, as long as we create communities
of listening, empathy, and shared responsibility.