Category Archives: Linguistics

The MWS Podcast 39: Steven C. Hayes on Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Linguistics, Meditation, Psychology, ,

My guest today is Steven C. Hayes, who is Nevada Foundation Professor and Director of Clinical Training at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. He’s the author of many books including the popular Get out of your mind and into your life which for a while was the number one best-selling self-help book in the US. He’s the co- founder of Acceptance and Commitment therapy or ACT as it’s more commonly known and he’s going to talk us today about ACT, what’s unique about it, what are its goals, how it pans out in practice, and how it might relate to the Middle Way. The podcast is a bit longer than usual but I can assure you it’s well worth listening to and I feel the ACT approach is very congruent with many of the aims and values we hold in the society.

If you’re interested, here is also a link to a wonderful initiative of the ACT movement to bring psychotherapist support to people traumatized by the ebola epidemic.


MWS Podcast 39: Steven C Hayes as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_39_Steven_C_Hayes

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The MWS Podcast 35: Susan Wright on understanding creativity in early childhood

Education, Linguistics, Meaning, Podcast, The Arts, , ,

This week’s guest is Professor Susan Wright who is chair of arts education at the University of Melbourne and author of ‘Understanding creativity in early Childhood’. She is going to talk to us today about her research regarding young children’s meaning-making and communication using symbol systems and multi-modal forms of expression and why she feels the arts deserve a pre-eminent place in education and culture.

In the second half of the interview we look at and discuss some children’s drawings that formed part of her research. The children were asked to draw ‘What the future might be like’.


MWS Podcast 35: Susan Wright as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_35_Susan_Wright

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The MWS Podcast: Episode 15, Lesley Jeffries and Jim O’Driscoll

Linguistics, Podcast, , , , , , ,

In this episode, Professor Lesley Jeffries and Doctor Jim O’Driscoll talk to us about Language in Conflict, a project set up to look at the potential contribution of linguistics to conflict studies by examining the use of language in conflict situations and resolution at all levels. They talk about the roles they have in the organisation, what they have achieved so far and their hopes for the future. We also talk about what conflict is, some examples of the conflictive nature of language, embodied meaning, incrementality and cognitive biases and what their understanding is of the Middle Way.


MWS Podcast 15: Lesley Jeffries & Jim O’Driscoll as audio only:
Download audio: MWS_Podcast_15_Lesley_Jeffries_&_Jim_ODriscoll

Previous podcasts:

Episode 14: The writer and journalist Mark Vernon on agnosticism.
Episode 13: Robert M. Ellis on his life and why he formed the Middle Way Society.
Episode 12: Paul Gilbert on Compassion Focused Therapy
Episode 11: Monica Garvey on Family Mediation
Episode 10: Emilie Åberg on horticultural therapy, agnosticism, the Quakers and awe.
Episode 9: T’ai Chi instructor John Bolwell gives an overview of this popular martial art.
Episode 8: Peter Goble on his career as a nurse and his work as a Buddhist Chaplain.
Episode 7: The author Stephen Batchelor on his work with photography and collage.
Episode 6: Iain McGilchrist, author of the Master and his Emissary.
Episode 5: Julian Adkins on introducing MWP to his meditation group in Edinburgh
Episode 4: Daren Dewitt on Nonviolent communiction.
Episode 3: Vidyamala Burch on her new book “Mindfulness for Health”.
Episode 2: Norma Smith on why she joined the society, art, agnosticism and metaphor.
Episode 1: Robert M. Ellis on critical thinking.