Wisdom Therapy - Contents
Select Section 
Filter Title 
 Filter Content 
  Toggle all descriptions Collapse all descriptions
Overview top
Clinical top

We offer a wide spectrum of professional expertise provided by very caring Psychologists and Ph.D. candidates with whom you will be able to build a trusting, supportive relationship. We have in-house expertise in the areas of anxiety, stress, anger, depression, relationship and marital conflicts, parenting, work-related conflicts, loss, late life issues, health, illness, and pain.

We provide clinical services for individuals, couples, families, as well as support groups and workshops.

The initial appointment provides us with your background and needs which we can than apply to tailor a Wisdom Therapy program to be most affective for you.

Wisdom Therapy includes Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness Meditation, and the conscious cultivation of Humility.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) identifies the thoughts and behaviors that tend to lead to stress, anxiety, anger, depression and conflicts and provides the training for the skills needed to change those thoughts and behaviors.{toolycut} For example, ‘should’ and ‘must’ oriented thoughts regarding our demands as to what we, others, and the world ‘must’ be like and ‘catastrophizing’ the outcomes if they don’t match our expectations.  Other shift include a broader perspective of the system as a whole and the big picture.

CBT also addresses the body and its physiological activations that have been conditioned during emotions such as anxiety and anger and show up as body activations such as fast heart rate, sweat response, and muscle tension.  CBT includes relaxation techniques that reduce such activations.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation increases our ability to be present in our daily activities or focus on what we’re doing in the ‘here and now’ rather than on the past or the future.{toolycut} The practice of developing this skill is grounded in 2500 years of Buddhism but has been made more accessible in modern times in the West researchers and practitioners such as Jon Kabat-Zinn who, in the last two decades, has developed a modern model of this perspective that he coined ‘Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction’.  He has also verified the effectiveness of this practice though dozens of scientific studies that demonstrated its reductions of anxiety, anger, stress, health problems, pain, and a variety of other challenges.
 

Humility

Humility includes an appreciation that our perception and thoughts about others, ourselves, events, and the world are subjective and tentative. {toolycut}

‘Subjective’ means that others perceiving the same event can have very different interpretations of that event.  For example, we may argue with a loved one or colleague and later they report a very different experience of what they thought the argument was about.

‘Tentative’ suggests that each of us tends to change our own interpretation and perspective of the same event over time.  We ourselves may have a very different experience of a particular argument than we did 10 years ago.  We have phrases such as ‘when I was young and foolish’.  The important point is that we’re now young and foolish relative to our older, wiser selves.  Part of humility is practicing that appreciation and continually reminding ourselves that our way of seeing the world is changing over time.

In addition to the expectations we have of ourselves, others, and the world, we also frequently seem to have the ‘super-expectation’ that all of our expectations will be met.  This ‘super-expectation’ has 2 parts.  The first is the demand that the world must conform to our assumptions and expectations.  The second is the prediction that it will.  Unless we’re omniscient or omnipotent, those two aspects of our ‘super-expectation’ will often be unmet, leading to frustration, anger, anxiety, and depression.  Part of humility is acknowledging that indeed not all our assumptions about the world are true and not all our predictions will come to pass.  If that wasn’t the case, we would have little to learn.  The 10 million books in major libraries and billions of web pages on the internet are a testament of how much there is to yet learn.  Next time we’re certain about what we think is true, we can bring those visuals to mind and at least pause before starting the arguments with others and ourselves.

Wisdom Therapy’s construct of Humility also includes an awe and respect for the grand scale of events of nature.  Carl Sagan, in his book Dragons of Eden, provides perspective on the grand scale of events by contracting the history of the universe, some 20 billions years, into one cosmic year, with the big bang occurring on January 1 and us now being at the end of that year.  When did we as humans appear in that cosmic year?  At 10:30 p.m. on the last day, December 31, and all of human history has occurred during the last 10 seconds of that year.  Wisdom Therapy also incorporates a film by Charles and Ray Eames called Powers of 10, which broadens our perspective regarding the grand magnitude of space the same way the cosmic calendar does so with time. 

Another main tool developed by Dr. Robins to increase humility as part of Wisdom Therapy includes visual illusions.  We all have a certain amount of  certainty and arrogance regarding what we think and see.  It turns out the two are interconnected with sayings such as “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  Visual illusions serve to shake up that arrogance and facilitate a humility regarding not only what we see, but bridging that over towards uncertainty and humility regarding what we think, expect, and believe.  That humility tends to arise in late life-span development associated with wisdom.  Visual illusions, Robins argues, facilitate that development in earlier stages.

Academic top

The effectiveness of Wisdom Therapy has been empirically established through many outcome studies.  (conference presentations and invited talks).

Shani Robins, Ph.D., founded the Wisdom Therapy Institute as a place for the interdisciplinary approach to the scientific study of the clinical and organizational applications of wisdom and what he developed to be Wisdom TherapyTM. His model of wisdom and its corresponding therapy does not replace traditional Psychology and therapy but rather integrates and builds on over a century of empirical research and clinical practice in the areas of Cognitive Psychology, Lifespan Development, Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, and their applications to applied settings. For example, the current approach acknowledges the considerable evidence for the Diathesis-Stress Model of mental disorders which posits that it seems to take a combination of genetic predispositions combined with environmental stressors to produce the recipe for mental disorders. The current model posits that the acquisition of wisdom across the lifespan provides ways of conceptualizing the world that minimizes stress (anxiety, anger, depression) and additionally provides skills for dealing with stress when it does occur. By diminishing the stress part of the Diathesis model, one deprives the predispositions of mental disorders of their activators and leaves those predispositions unexpressed. This model additionally incorporates into its framework cross-cultural as well as spiritual perspectives and adds a number of new, wisdom related components that help unify this broad based approach to treatment.

At the same time, consistent with a new movement of the American Psychological Association towards Positive Psychology, the goals of Wisdom Therapy is not merely to help individuals deal with dysfunctions of clinical severity, but rather to help every individual and organization actualize their potential. The aim is not to focus on negative dysfunctions alone but rather on positive potential to develop and grow, through which the dysfunctions are ameliorated as a byproduct. The Institute seeks to facilitate the development of wisdom in thought and action, through continuing adult lifespan development of one's thinking, emotional intelligence, interpersonal and family relationships, professional accomplishments, and social interactions. It is through the positive actualization of such system-wide potential that the Institute for Wisdom Therapy aims to assist individuals and organizations, both in attaining the rewards that accompany such growth and development, as well as avoid the costs of psychological and behavioral dysfunctions that stem from a lack of such development.


Robins, S. (2008, October 29 ).  The Impact of Wisdom on Well-Being and Peace.  Organized and Chaired the Symposium at Eurotas (Annual Conference of the European Transpersonal Association), Barcelona, Spain.  Presenters included Shani Robins, Ph.D. and his current and alumni students from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, California:  Denise Arana, Ph.D. (Online Learning of Mindfulness Meditation), Cirino Zappala, Ph.D. (East-West Differences in Obtaining Well-Being), Maria Bonilla, MFTI (Wisdom Therapy Applied to Children: Raising The Consciousness of Our Future), Rochelle Adams, M.A. Ph.D. Candidate (Wisdom & Mindfulness in Corporations).
 

Robins, S. (2008, October 29).  Applying Wisdom Therapy towards the Facilitation of International Interactions and the Facilitation of Cross-Cultural Collaborations.  Presentation to be given at the European Transpersonal Psychology Association.  Barcelona, Spain.

Robins, S. (2008, August 15).    Wisdom Therapy and its Facilitation of Leadership.  Presentation at the American Psychological Association.  Boston, Massachusetts. 

Robins, S. (2008, August 15).    Wisdom Therapy:  Theory, Research, & Practice.  Presentation at the American Psychological Association.  Boston, Massachusetts. 

Robins, S. (2008, August 15).    Wisdom Therapy and Transpersonal Psychotherapy.  Invited Talk at the Division 32 Hospitality Suite of the American Psychological Association.  Boston, Massachusetts. 

Robins, S. (2008, August 7).  Wisdom Therapy and its Relationship to Integral Psychology and Psychotherapy.  Paper accepted for presentation at the first annual Integral Theory Conference.  San Francisco, California.

Robins, S. (2008, August 1).   Increasing Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace for Increased Satisfaction and Productivity.  Invited Workshop given for American Express executives, New York.
 
Robins, S. (2008,  June 6).  Wisdom Therapy and its Applications to Conflict Resolution and Cross Cultural Interactions.  Paper accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the Association for Humanistic Psychology.  Los Angeles, California.
 
Robins, S. (2008, June 1).  Wisdom Therapy:  Wisdom Therapy Applied: Reducing the Cognitive Distortions, Fear, and Anger of the Ego While Transcending that Ego.  Paper presented at the Conference of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning.  Mount Madonna, California.
 
Robins, S. (2008, May 31).  Wisdom Therapy:  Integrating Mindfulness Meditation, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Humility Training.  Paper presented at the Conference of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning.  Mount Madonna, California.
 
Robins, S. (2007, September).  Wisdom Therapy, Forgiveness, and Preventing Future Conflict.  European Transpersonal Association, Freiburg, Germany.
 
Robins, S. (2006, May).  Wisdom Therapy: Plasticity and Emotion.  Presentation in the 17th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, New York, New York.
 
Robins, S. (2005, August).  Wisdom Therapy:  Theory, Research, and Practice - Where Western and Eastern Traditions Meet.  Presentation at the European Center for Transpersonal Psychology.  London, UK.
 
Robins, S. (2005, May). Wisdom Therapy: More Than Emotional Intelligence: Empirical Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Model. Presentation in the 17th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, Los Angeles, California.
 
Robins, S. (August, 2005).  Wisdom Therapy:  Reducing Anxiety and Anger at Home and at Work.   Invited talk given at the European Center for Transpersonal Psychology, London, U.K.
 
Robins, S. (2004, August).  Wisdom Therapy in an Interconnected World.  Presentation in the European Transpersonal Psychology Conference.  London, UK.
 
Robins, S. (2004, July).  Wisdom Therapy:  Theory, Research, and Practice.  Presentation in the 112th Annual Convention of the Amerian Psychological Association.  Honolulu, Hawaii.
 
Robins, S. (2003).  Transpersonal Aspect of Wisdom Therapy.  Presentation at the Convention of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology.  Palo Alto, CA.

Robins, S. (2001).  Wisdom Therapy:  The application of an interdisciplinary concept to clinical treatment.   Invited talk given at the Colloquium Series at the Scripps Clinic Division of Mental Health, San Diego.

Robins, S. (2001).  Evolutionary Psychology:  Theory and applications to applied settings.  Guest speaker at a seminar on Integrative Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego at Alliant University.

Robins, S. (2000).  Wisdom as an integrative, interdisciplinary concept for addressing psychological phenomena.  Invited talk given at the Colloquium Series at the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego.

Robins, S. (2000).  Science and spirituality:  Humility as an overlapping theme and the potential for mutual enhancement.  Invited talk given at the Eighth Annual Multicultural Fair at the California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego, February 29, 2000.
 
Robins, S. (1998, May).  Wisdom, adaptation & automaticity as mediating links in the causal chain of cognitive appraisal and emotion.  Presentation in the 10th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society, Washington, D.C.
 
Robins, S. (1997).  Wisdom:  Cognition-emotion interactions, adaptation, life-span development, and human potential.  Invited talk given as part of the Psychology and Social Behavior Colloquium Series at the University of California, Irvine.

Robins, S. (1996).  The influence of metaphorical reasoning on the fundamental life pragmatics of wisdom.  Talk given at the Max Planck Institute, Berlin, Germany.

WTI News & Updates top

© 2008 The Wisdom Therapy Institute