Bio

Kirk Schneider, Ph.D., is a leading spokesperson for contemporary existential-humanistic psychology. Dr. Schneider is the president-elect of the Society for Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, recent past editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2005-2012), cofounder and vice-president of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI), and adjunct faculty at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Dr. Schneider has published over 100 articles and chapters and has authored or edited 10 books (several of which have been translated into Chinese, Korean, German, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Russian, and Slovakian).  These books include The Paradoxical Self, Horror and the Holy, The Psychology of Existence (with Rollo May), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology (with James Bugental and Fraser Pierson—now being updated for a second edition), Rediscovery of Awe, Existential-Integrative Psychotherapy, Existential-Humanistic Therapy (with Orah Krug—accompanying APA videos also available), Humanity’s Dark Side: Evil, Destructive Experience, and Psychotherapy (with Art Bohart, Barbara Held, and Ed Mendelowitz), Awakening to Awe, and most recently, The Polarized Mind. Dr. Schneider is the recipient of the Rollo May Award from Division 32 of the APA for “Outstanding and independent pursuit of new frontiers in humanistic psychology,” the “Cultural Innovator” award from the Living Institute, Toronto, Canada, a psychotherapy training center which bases its diploma on Dr. Schneider’s Existential-Integrative model of therapy, and an Honorary Diploma from the East European Association of Existential Therapy. Dr. Schneider is also a founding member of the Existential-Humanistic Institute (ehinstitute.org) in San Francisco, which in August, 2012 launched one of the first certificate programs in Existential-Humanistic practice to be offered in the U.S.A.  The institute is to receive the Charlotte and Karl Buhler Award for an outstanding organizational contribution to humanistic psychology from Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) of the APA in August, 2016.  In April, 2010, Dr. Schneider delivered the opening keynote address at the First International (East-West) Existential Psychology Conference in Nanjing, China, and has frequently been invited to speak at various similar venues in China—as well as Japan--over the last several years.  He is slated to deliver a workshop at Sigmund Freud University, Paris followed by akeynote address at the First World Congress of Existential Psychotherapy in London in May, 2015. For more information on Dr. Schneider’s work go to kirkjschneider.com.