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 Shani Robins, Ph.D. pioneered the field of Wisdom Therapy TM in 1998. He is a licensed Psychologist (PSY18795) by the California Board of Psychology and is the founder and director of the Wisdom Therapy Institute since 2000. He is an instructor at Stanford University Medical School’s Health Improvement and BeWell Programs and the Director of Clinical Training at Sofia University (Institute of Trans-personal Psychology). Dr. Robins received his B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from UCLA in 1989, his M.A. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Experimental Psychology from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1996, completed a 2-year National Institute of Mental Health Postdoc at U.C. Irvine in 1999 and a Ph.D. re-specialization in Clinical Psychology in 2002. He has published and has given numerous clinical workshops, invited talks, scientific conference presentations, and corporate consultations nationally and internationally on Wisdom Therapy TM and its relationships to cognition's, emotions, stress reduction, relationships, work place effectiveness, coping, emotional intelligence, performance, and organizational consulting. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the California Psychological Association, and has won many honors & awards. In his spare time Shani plays racquetball, chess, and GO, roller blades, salsa dances, runs marathons, and watches sun rises.
Shani Robins, Ph.D., founder and director of the Wisdom Therapy Institute, has developed Wisdom TherapyTM as an interdisciplinary approach to the scientific study and clinical and organizational practice of wisdom and what he developed to be Wisdom Therapy. 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.
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