University of Louisiana at Lafayette - Emily Sandoz (ACT processes, RFT, Behavioral); MS, USA)

Submitted by Emily K Sandoz on July 14, 2010 - 11:14pm
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There's something special about Lafayette.  I first entered the Psychology Department at UL Lafayette as a student 13 years ago. In August 2010, I returned as an Assistant Professor of Psychology. I've not been back but a few months, and I can feel it, though I'm having trouble articulating it. I think it's something to do with people being there by choice. People don't just reside in Lafayette, they Live here, with intention and commitment. 
 
Since landing back here in August 2010, I've picked up a handful of master's students, two handfuls of undergrads, some curious colleagues, a couple of cool folks from the Lafayette community, and frequent visitors from just about anywhere. 

Broadly, my lab is a community of folks inspired by the idea of a world in which folks get to embrace their ongoing experiences and actively create lives that they care about AND dedicated to building a science of that. We build that science using specific theoretical perspectives grounded in behaviorism with an emphasis on Relational Frame Theory and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. We apply these perspectives to places where we see folks (even folks in the mirror) getting stuck and alienated from the things that matter to them. We do projects that we care about and I say "we" because a lab member's projects are the lab's projects.

So far this has included us launching projects in disordered eating, body image flexibility, relational responding in second language acquisition, psychological flexibility and relationship quality, and acceptance-based reentry programs for criminal offenders. My lab is so young, and growing, and changing and I honestly don't know exactly how it will look in a month or a year or ten years, but I am committed to making it a community in which its members have space to grow into the folks we want to be, a little at a time, everyday.

Some of you have been coming around and have heard me say stuff like this before, and have come to sort of like it. Others are probably wondering if I'm about to ask for  your first-born or offer you participation in the chicken ritual.  Let me say this - if this sounds like something you would work for, I'd love to be able to call my lab "ours."

Feel free to contact me with any questions about the work we're doing or the format of our program.  I will continue updating our page as our work becomes more clear.

Much Love,

emily

 

Emily K. Sandoz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
UL Lafayette
Psychology Department

Girard Hall 202-A
P.O. Box 43131
Lafayette, LA 70504-3131
emilysandoz@louisiana.edu
337.371.5440 (cell)
337.482.6587 (fax)

"Trudy, the play was soup...the audience - art."