Show 358: Kelly McGonigal

Pain, the Brain, Compassion and Willpower: An interview with Kelly McGonigal

Audio here!

How can we cope with chronic pain, and how is it tied into memory and our outlook in ways that other sensations are not? How can cultivating self-compassion help us achieve our goals and cope with life challenges? And, most important, where is the empirical evidence that shows how well, and for whom, these mind-body systems work?

This Sunday, ETFF host Michael O’Neil will interview  Kelly McGonigal, PhD, who is a health psychologist at Stanford University and a leading expert on the mind-body relationship. She teaches for the School of Medicine’s Health Improvement Program and is a senior teacher/consultant for the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Her popular public courses through Stanford’s Continuing Studies program including the Science of Willpower and the Science of a Calmed Mind demonstrate the applications of psychological science to personal health and happiness, as well as organizational success and social change.

McGonigal authored Yoga For Pain Relief for New Harbinger Press and will release The Willpower Instinct before the end of 2011. She has written for Psychology Today and numerous publications, and her videos and talks can be found online.