Our Expert Instructors

Matthew D. Skinta, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Matthre Skinta is a Clinical Health Psychologist, certified FAP trainer, and ACBS Peer-Reviewed ACT trainer based in Chicago, IL, at Roosevelt University. He is passionate about the connections between shame, vulnerability, intimacy, and how these impact our health and wellness. In his clinical practice and research experience, his primary focus is on using FAP, ACT, and compassion-based interventions to work across lines of sexual orientation, gender diversity, and racial and ethnic difference. Matthew is particularly passionate about FAP’s potential to heal the impact of living as a minority in an increasingly divided culture. He has written several books on applying FAP, ACT, and CFT to work with gender and sexual minorities, including Mindfulness and Acceptance for Gender and Sexual Minorities: Contextual Strategies to Foster Self-Compassion, Connection, and Equality. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, by M. Skinta & A. Curtin.

Mailae Halstead, MS

Mailae Halstead is a Nationally Certified Counselor from Louisiana who completed her Masters of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Southern Connecticut State University. She is a therapist at the Behavioral Wellness Clinic located in Tolland, Connecticut, where she primarily treats clients with OCD and PTSD, in addition to a variety of anxiety disorders. Mailae is passionate about serving clients and communities through trauma-informed counseling practices using a lens of cultural humility. In addition to OCD and PTSD, Mailae is specifically passionate about the use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD and depression in diverse communities. She is trained in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and is currently completing training in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy through MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). Mailae has found the use of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) to be an indispensable modality as part psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and when treating OCD.

Barbara Kohlenberg, PhD

Dr. Barbara Kohlenberg is a licensed clinical psychologist in Reno, Nevada. She is a full professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, and the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She is also a clinical psychology graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno. Barbara is co-investigator on a research team that was awarded a Federal grant to study suicide attempts. Her interests include functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), relationship-focused and acceptance-based therapy, stigma, shame, intimacy, trauma, addiction, values, and interpersonal problems. Read her article, Human Suffering and Living Life with Love and Meaning.

Monnica T. Williams, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Monnica Williams is a board-certified clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. Her work focuses on ethnic minority mental health and psychopathology research. She completed her undergraduate studies at MIT and UCLA and received her doctoral degree from the University of Virginia. She was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania for four years, followed by five years at the University of Louisville, where she served as Director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities. Her research is focused on OCD, trauma, and cultural issues. She also provides diversity trainings nationally for clinical psychology programs, conferences, and organizations. She has a book coming out, a co-edited volume, entitled Eliminating Race-Based Mental Health Disparities published by New Harbinger Books.

Amanda M. Muñoz-Martínez, PhD

Dr. Muñoz-Martínez received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is a Certified Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Trainer (FAP trainer) and member of the FAP Certification, Policy, and Ethics Board (FAP CEP). Amanda is currently an Assistant Professor at the Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia). Amanda’s main research interest is optimizing and evaluating process-based therapies for improving clients’ and stakeholders’ well-being. She is the director of ContigoLab which focused on the following research areas: (a) psychotherapy's behavioral mechanisms of change, and (b) treatment optimization and evaluation across diverse contexts and populations, particularly, Latinx population. She wants to develop clear paths for treatment implementation by connecting practice and basic explanatory principles. She is currently conducting research on the scalability and implementation of Contextual Behavioral Science through technology-mediated. In 2021, she received the ACBS Research Development Grant Award to study contextual and behavioral mechanisms associated with adherence to cardiac rehabilitation. As a FAP trainer, she has facilitated several pieces of training for English- and Spanish-Speakers to enhance interpersonal skills and create meaningful relationships.