Harvesting Happiness

Dr. Lissa Rankin, Mind Over Medicine

Lissa Rankin, M.D. is a physician whose research led her to discover that our bodies have natural self-repair mechanisms that can be activated or disabled based on thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that originate in the mind. She is on a mission to heal our broken health care system, help patients play a more active role in healing themselves, and encourage the health care industry to embrace and facilitate, rather than resist, the body's self-healing capacities. Lissa has written 3 books, speaks around the world, blogs at LissaRankin.com, paints professionally, and founded the Whole Health Medicine Institute.She leads a mentoring program for visionaries, founded the wellness communities HealHealthCareNow.com and OwningPink.com, and teaches online programs, such as "Find Your Calling" with Dr. Martha Beck and Amy Ahlers, and "Visionary Ignition Switch," an online business school for visionaries co-created with Amy Ahlers. Her work has been featured extensively in the national media, including O magazine, The New York Times, CNN, Health, Women's Health, Self, Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan.

Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener and Cheryl Hunter, Coaching vs. Therapy

Dr. Biswas-Diener is widely known as the "Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology" because his research on happiness has taken him to such far-flung places as Greenland, India, Kenya and Israel. Dr. Biswas-Diener is a leading authority on strengths, culture, courage, and happiness. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and multiple books on diverse psychological topics. He is best known for his pioneering work in the application of positive psychology. Dr. Biswas-Diener is the foremost authority on positive psychology coaching and has consulted with a wide range of international organizations on performance management and leadership development. Cheryl Hunter was born and reared in the remote Colorado Rocky Mountains. She is a cowgirl who grew up on a horse ranch, training horses and riding rodeo. Today, Cheryl is a bestselling author, speaker and high-performance expert who specializes in providing Fortune 100 caliber coaching for individuals. Her expertise is in guiding her clients to architect a very specific blueprint for their businesses and their lives that produces dramatic results in a very short window of time. Cheryl was drawn to her work as a result of her own life path; she overcame a traumatic, life-altering experience that ignited a strong desire to contribute to others.

Naomi Kryske and Jody Bremer, PTSD without the "D"

Naomi Kryske is a Hurricane Katrina survivor whose fear and helplessness in the devastating Category 5 storm gave her insight into traumatic stress. Determined not just to survive the experience but to triumph over it, she wrote The Witness, an intense crime/suspense novel set in London and told from the victim's point of view. Naomi shares with us that overcoming PTSD comes in many formats, and for her, it was writing fiction. Jody Bremer is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a Masters of Arts in Clinical Psychology with Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. Jody received a special certification and verification from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists in Working with Military and Their Families in Private Practice. Servicemen from the Marines, Navy, Army and Air Force are a significant specialty, allowing her to provide personalized care for all of the military members and their families struggling with the specific hardships the military incurs, such as long-term separations, deployments, and PTSD.

Dr. Ellen Langer, Mindfulness

Ellen Langer is a Yale PhD, Harvard Professor of Psychology, and artist. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and three Distinguished Scientist Awards, the World Congress Award, the NYU Alumni Achievement Award, and the Staats award for Unifying Psychology, and has authored eleven books and over 200 research articles on the illusion of control, perceived control, successful aging, decision-making, to name a few of the topics. Each of these is examined through the lens of her theory of mindfulness. Her research has demonstrated that by actively noticing new things-the essence of mindfulness-health, well being, and competence follow. Her best selling books include Mindfulness; The Power of Mindful Learning; On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity; and her most recent book, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility.

Jamie Catto, Living Whole-Heartedly

Jamie Catto co-produced and directed the double Grammy nominated film ‘1 Giant Leap' which encountered high profile writers, thinkers, spiritual gurus and entertainers including Bob Geldof, Robbie Williams, Steven Fry, Susan Sarandon, Deepak Chopra, Michael Stipe, Brian Eno, and Dennis Hopper. Having sold over 300,000 albums, and won numerous awards globally. '1 Giant Leap' was subsequently commissioned and made into a Channel 4 documentary series in 2008 to explore the complexities of human nature through music. As founder member, singer, art director and video director of Dance Music super-group Faithless, Jamie has been part of continued run-away successes in music since the Faithless greatest hits album became the fastest selling dance album of all time in 2005. Jamie now holds creative master classes throughout the year to help others emulate his own success. ‘Transforming Shadows', ‘What About You?' and ‘What About Us' are workshops which provide a highly accessible concoction of light humour and love, designed with the use of his own genius music to spark both professional and personal breakthroughs. Jamie also speaks and performs at conferences, events and festivals all around the world.

Tim Freke, The Mystery Experience

Tim Freke is a 'standup philosopher' who makes profound ideas fun and easily accessible. He is an internationally respected authority on world spirituality and is often featured in documentaries on the BBC, the History Channel, and other global media. He is the bestselling author of many groundbreaking books translated into 15 languages, including Lucid Living and The Jesus Mysteries, which was a Daily Telegraph 'Book of the Year'. He runs 'mystery experience retreats' internationally, in which he guides others directly to a spiritually awakened state.

Bryan Single, Jane Ekayu, and Cynthia Travis Discuss Child Soldiers

Bryan Single is the director and producer of "Children of War", an award-winning documentary filmed in Uganda over a period of three years which follows a group of former child soldiers of war criminal Joseph Kony as they escape the battlefield, enter the sanctuary of a rehabilitation center, and undergo a remarkable process of trauma therapy and emotional healing. To learn more about Bryan and his work, visit: childrenofwarfilm.com Jane Ekayu is a trauma counselor for former child soldiers of Joseph Kony and founder of Children of Peace Uganda, a nonprofit which works to heal and empower these youth through psychosocial therapy, creative arts therapy, education, and empowerment programs. Since 2004, she has helped over 3,000 of these children rehabilitate and return home to their communities. Ms Ekayu also travels around the world to raise awareness on the issues of child soldiers and post-war rehabilitation. She has captivated audiences in schools, universities, community groups, human rights organizations, political embassies, and in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. To learn more about Jane and her work, visit: childrenofpeaceuganda.com Filmmaker Cynthia Travis has worked in Liberia since 2003, where she's developed innovative grassroots approaches to conflict resolution with her non-profit organization everyday gandhis. Her most recent film, THE FIGHT TO FORGIVE, follows former child soldiers who were forced to fight in Liberia's brutal civil war. THE FIGHT TO FORGIVE teaches that perpetrators of violence have an extraordinary capacity as peace builders. With an academic background in human development and creative writing, and a professional life in mediation and conflict resolution in vulnerable communities, Cynthia believes that storytelling is a powerful tool in conflict resolution. To learn more about Cynthia and her work, visit: www.everydaygandhis.org and www.thefighttoforgive.com

Ashley Michelle Williams and Kirsty Spraggon, Women in Transformational Media