Steven C. Hayes
Clinical psychologist and professor
Steven C. Hayes is an American clinical psychologist and co-developer of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). He wrote A Liberated Mind.
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American Born 1948
About Steven C. Hayes
Steven C. Hayes was born in 1948 and works as a clinical psychologist. He holds the Nevada Foundation Professor title in the psychology department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He joined the university's psychology faculty in 1986. He is known for relational frame theory, an account of human language and thought, and for co-developing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a form of psychotherapy that draws on mindfulness, acceptance and values-based methods. He is also the person who introduced the phrase clinical behavior analysis. Hayes's interest in the field grew out of personal pain: as a young professional he developed panic disorder, and in 1981 he found a way forward by turning toward his suffering. A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters (2019) tells that story and explains psychological flexibility. It took him 11 years to write.