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First Person: A conversation with Kelly McGonigal
The Stanford health psychologist and lecturer discusses her life and work

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Stanford health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., discusses her wide-ranging research and teaching with Lisa Van Dusen.

McGonigal shares her knowledge, spreads joy and builds community wherever she goes, demonstrating the applications of psychological science to personal health and happiness, as well as organizational success and social change.

A leading expert on the mind-body relationship, she is an author; blogger for Psychology Today; senior teacher/consultant for Stanford's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE); yoga teacher and yoga-teacher trainer; Zumba, meditation and Stanford Continuing Studies instructor; compassion cultivator; and resident of downtown Palo Alto.

Starting long before she arrived at Stanford to pursue her Ph.D. in 1999, McGonigal has been exploring how people (including herself) can relieve their physical and emotional suffering, as well as bring optimism and compassion into their lives while creating supportive communities.

Her upcoming book -- "The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It" -- explores cutting-edge research on motivation, temptation and addiction, as well as what it takes to make a successful change. The book will be published in January 2012.

Interview by Lisa Van Dusen. Video by Rachel Hatch.

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Comments

Posted by Irene, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Oct 31, 2011 at 12:09 pm

Go, Kelly! I've taken one of her classes at Stanford and I look forward to the book.


Posted by Inapppropriate style, a resident of the Greenmeadow neighborhood, on Dec 15, 2011 at 11:38 pm

Odd way to dress for a newspaper interview. Maybe that's how she dresses for yoga class but her judgement is poor regarding what a professional woman should wear at a public event. Makes it hard to take her seriously.


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