Category: Experts

Erwin Benedict Valencia is currently the Team Physical Therapist and Assistant Athletic Trainer of the New York Knicks. He also acts as the team’s Wellness Lead, initiating the team’s mindfulness program, including the first ever daily in-season breathwork program in the NBA, a passion he’s been personally practicing for more than 30 years. He brings a truly “whole-listic” approach to athlete wellness and performance, combining his knowledge in sports science and rehabilitation, manual and movement therapies, mindfulness, positive psychology, biohacking, and well-being coaching.

Raised and educated in the Philippines, Erwin is the first Filipino to be on the medical staff for both an NBA and Major League Baseball team. Prior to joining the Knicks, he was the Major League Rehabilitation Director of the Pittsburgh Pirates for eight seasons. In 2013, he founded the socially-responsible global education company KINETIQ, that changed the way sports medicine workshops were done by bringing an element of personal growth in each of the “Happenings” around the world and launched the first ever co-working space curated specifically for sports performance enthusiasts South Korea in 2016. His social initiative, #BeyondMedyo brings mental health awareness to the underserved youth of the Philippines about the changing landscape of possible successful industries they can get into beyond what culture dictates as “normal”, and his non-profit 501(c)3 mentorship program, Grasshopper Project, brings true mentorship possibilities to many in the health, wellness, and performance fields otherwise left without guidance to succeed in the industry. He continues to serve as the Director of Medical and Performance Services for Baseball New Zealand and is a Mindfulness/Mental Conditioning Consultant to Watford Football Club, and consults for the South African Baseball Union, Czech Republic National Baseball Team, LG Twins Professional Baseball Team, and is the Sports Physical Therapy Expert for the Philippine Physical Therapy Association.

He holds Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy from the University of the Philippines-Manila, a Masters of Education in Athletic Training & Sports Medicine from Plymouth State University, and a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree with a concentration in Manual and Manipulative Therapies from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. He also completed post-graduate fellowships at Yale University and Regis University, and holds an Advanced Diploma in Coaching (Executive & Leadership) from New York University and a Graduate Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Erwin has also recently begun his journey to complete his PhD in GRATITUDE at the University of Granada’s Faculty of Clinical Medicine and Public Health in Spain. 

He begins everyday in GRATITUDE and has found it his duty and responsibility to truly live life zestfully– with the purpose of inspiring young Filipinos (and non-Filipinos) to pursue their dreams, be in service of others, and bring global impact, in whatever field they’re passionate about.

Dr. Cheavens is a Professor of Psychology at The Ohio State University and a licensed clinical psychologist. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas under the mentorship of C. R. Snyder, developer of Hope Theory. Her research interests are related to increasing the efficacy of treatments for individuals with mood disorders, specifically depression and borderline personality disorder, through both basic and applied research efforts. She is particularly interested in identifying and targeting constructs that interfere with (e.g., emotion dysregulation) or amplify (e.g., validation, hope) efficacious treatments.

Learn More About Dr. Cheavens: 

https://psychology.osu.edu/people/cheavens.1

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N-B6Ga0AAAAJ&hl=en

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jennifer_Cheavens

Robert Waldinger is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and Zen priest. He is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest-running studies of adult life ever done. The Study tracked the lives of two groups of men for over 83 years, and it now follows their Baby Boomer children to understand how childhood experience reaches across decades to affect health and wellbeing in middle age. He writes about what science and Zen can teach us about healthy human development.

Dr. Waldinger is the author of numerous scientific papers as well as two books. He teaches medical students and psychiatry residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and he is a Sensei (Guiding Teacher) in Boundless Way Zen.

Dr. Tomasulo is the Academic Director and core faculty at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute (SMBI), Teachers College, Columbia University, and is on the teaching staff at the University of Pennsylvania where he works with Martin Seligman. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology, MFA in writing, and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology special section Positive Psychology, Dr. Tomasulo was also recently honored by Teachers College, Columbia University with their 2021 Teaching Award.

Sharecare honors Dr. Tomasulo as one of the top ten online influencers on the issue of depression. His award-winning memoir, American Snake Pit  (2018) tells of the first experimental group home releasing inmates from America’s most notorious asylum, Willowbrook. His book, Learned Hopefulness, The Power of Positivity To Overcome Depression, is hailed as: “…the perfect recipe for fulfillment, joy, peace, and expansion of awareness.”  by Deepak Chopra, MD: Author of Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential. Martin Seligman, Ph.D., author of Flourish, adds: “This is the best go-to book on how to use hope to relieve your depression.”

Dr. Tomasulo recently published his new book entitled “The Positivity Effect: Simple CBT Skills to Transform Anxiety and Negativity into Optimism and Hope”. Learn more about the new book here.

A world-renowned expert on the psychological science of smell, Dr. Rachel Herz is a neuroscientist, TEDx speaker, and published author of both books and numerous research publications. She is also a valued consultant to international corporations, an entrepreneur, and is on the faculty at Brown University and Boston College.

Chan Hellman, PhD is internationally renowned for his work on building a hope centered response to trauma. With over 150 scholarly publications and countless workshops in the areas of child maltreatment, domestic violence, homelessness, etc., Chan has focused his work on sharing the science and power of hope in our ability to overcome trauma and thrive. 

Chan has trademarked Hope Centered and Trauma Informed as the evidence based framework to guide individual practice, and coordinated community responses to trauma.

Myron is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, and Senior Associate in Psychiatry at the Children’s Hospital of Boston. Dr. Belfer is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He is on the Affiliated Faculty of the Harvard Center for the Developing Child.

He received an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He served as Special Assistant to the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, US Department of Health and Welfare. Dr. Belfer is former Senior Adviser in the Department of Mental Disorders and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization in Geneva where he led the child mental health program from 2000 to 2005. In that capacity he was instrumental in supporting a number of global child mental health initiatives.

He is past-President of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP). He co-directs the Children’s Hospital Boston Global Child Mental Health Observership Program and directed for the Harvard Center on the Developing Child a comprehensive child mental health needs assessment in schools in Shanghai with Chinese colleagues. He was a consultant to the Temasek Foundation (Singapore) project on child mental health capacity building for disaster response in Indonesia.

His current interests are in global child mental health policy and building school mental health capacity. As a clinician he worked closely with plastic and reconstructive surgeons on understanding the development of body image in children.