🎈Join us for a special Open Mind conversation with Dr. Marc Brackett, Yale professor, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and bestselling author of “Dealing with Feeling - Use Your Emotions to Create the Life You Want”. He’ll be in conversation with Dr. Nastassia Hajal, Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of Research and Evaluation in the Division of Population Behavioral Health.
Together, they’ll explore emotional wellbeing, resilience, connection, and what it truly means to live with emotional intelligence.
Dr. Brackett’s groundbreaking research has transformed the way we understand emotions, wellbeing, and human connection. He has spent decades helping people recognize that emotions aren’t obstacles to success and fulfillment, that they are the foundation of it. Together with his deeply compassionate approach, he has influenced educators, parents, leaders, and mental health professionals around the world, making emotional intelligence not just a concept, but a daily practice for living better and relating more meaningfully to others.
Dr. Brackett s work reminds us that understanding our feelings is one of the most powerful tools we have for creating healthier relationships, stronger communities, and more authentic lives.
✨ This is a conversation you won’t want to miss.
Register now at link in bio or visit /events reservations/dealing-with-feeling
@marc.brackett@yalechildstudycenter@dgsomucla@yalepsych@yaleschoolofmed@teencouncilsemelfriends
#emotions #socialintelligence #ucla #psychiatry
Join us for an inspiring Open Mind program with Dr. Helen Lavretsky, renowned integrative psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and author of “Living From the Soul: The Neuroscience of Human Awakening”
Dr. Daniel Siegel, founder of the Mindsight Institute and co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center will join Dr. Lavretsky in a conversation that will explore the intersection of neuroscience, mindfulness, and human awakening and discover how science and spirituality can come together to support well-being, resilience, and deeper connection.
Save the date and be part of this meaningful dialogue 💫
🗓 May 12
⏰ 5–6 PM PT
Virtual
Reserve at link in bio or visit
#OpenMind #Neuroscience #Mindfulness #Wellbeing #ucla
@drhelenlavretsky@drdansiegel
It was an honor to host yesterday’s Open Mind program with Dr. Helen Lavretsky, UCLA renowned integrative psychiatrist, neuroscientist and author of the highly anticipated new book “Living from the Soul: The Neuroscience of Spiritual Awakening.”Dr. Daniel Siegel, Founder and Director of Education of the Mindsight Institute, founding co-director of UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, renowned psychiatrist, and NY Times bestselling author, joined Dr. Lavretsky in a lively and inspiring discussion about the neuroscience of spiritual awakening and living from the soul.
Together, the two UCLA superstar psychiatrists and neuroscientists, explored the intersection of spirituality and neuroscience based on research, utilizing both to optimize spiritual and mental health.
Dr. Lavretsky also offered tools and exercises designed to support spiritual awakening and reconnect us with our Soul, or higher consciousness and guided our audience of over 500 viewers through a beautiful and calming meditation, inviting golden light into our minds and bodies and created a shared experience of reflection, peace, and connection.
It was a most memorable and meaningful Open Mind presentation. If you missed it, you can view it now on our YouTube Channel-link in bio /pastevents/living-from-the-soul
@drhelenlavretsky@drdansiegel
#psychiatry #neuroscience #spiritual #spirituality #ucla
The Friends of Semel is excited to share that Arash Bellafard, PhD has been named the 2026–2028 Calabrese Family Friends of Semel Research Scholar.
Dr. Bellafard’s research focuses on the neural circuit mechanisms underlying cognition, with an emphasis on how working memory representations break down in brain disorders. Using large-scale neural recordings and targeted circuit-level approaches, his work aims to uncover the principles that shape cognitive function and advance a deeper mechanistic understanding of psychiatric disease.
Each Friends of Semel Scholar receives a grant of $25,000 per year for up to two years for their original study. The grant is focused primarily in providing research funding to assist early career investigators in their development of research in neuroscience and human behavior within the Semel Institute.
Congratulations to Dr. Arash Bellarfard on this well-deserved recognition.
#ucla #memory #neuroscience #psychiatry
#brain
I had the honor of being at the 6th Annual Open Mind Film Festival — a Friends of Semel Institute event that reminds me every year why this work matters.
The First Place winner was Happy Birthday was a short film by @mooreafriedmann . Her film follows the spectrum of an eating disorder from the inside out. And what stopped me wasn’t just the storytelling. It was watching her capture what so few people ever put into words — the way an eating disorder disconnects you from your own body. The inability to feel yourself from the inside out.
As a therapist, I spend my days trying to help people restore that connection — what we call interoception. The ability to sense and feel your own internal signals again. Moorea put it on a screen and made a room full of people feel it.
Congratulations @moorea friedmann. And thank you to the incredible @sarahgilman18 for not only hosting but for all you do to support #mentalhealthawareness and everyone at @uclafriendsofsemel and @openmindfilmfestival for creating a space where these stories get told.
Xx Susan
#mentalhealthawarenessmonth Follow @susanzinntherapy for more.
🎈🎉We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Galen McNeil has been awarded a Friends of Semel Research Scholar Grant for 2026-2028. Each Friends of Semel Scholar receives $25,000 a year for two years for their original and innovate project.
As Friends of Semel Scholar, Dr. McNeil will conduct a pilot test of this therapy – the Youth Intervention for Positive Emotion Enhancement (YIPEE) – as compared to a time and parent-involvement matched CBT control group. This project will examine acceptability, feasibility and the initial efficacy of YIPEE as well as explore the interpersonal emotion dynamics between parent and child changes in positive emotions during the intervention.
The novel target (positive emotions) tested in this project is important given that reductions in anxiety or depression do not naturally lift positive affect (and there is evidence that the opposite is true: lifting positive emotions may reduce negative affect) and because low positive affect is a likely barrier to CBT success. As several childhood conditions are characterized by negative emotions, there is considerable transdiagnostic potential should YIPEE prove successful.
Dr. McNeil received her B.A in psychology from Stanford University and her doctorate in clinical psychology from UCLA. She is an attending psychologist in UCLA’s Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program and the ABC Child Partial Hospitalization Program. Her research interests center on positive emotions such as joy, gratitude, compassion and awe; how they are expressed among children and parents; and how a new approach that emphasizes the upregulation of positive emotions can inform the next generation of transdiagnostic interventions for youth mental health. Her work bridges research on specific positive emotions, family dynamics, health behaviors, and clinical science to examine how children’s emotions develop – in both favorable and maladaptive ways – over time. Supported by AIM Youth Mental Health, Dr. McNeil’s post-doctoral research focused developing a downward adaptation of the Positive Affect Treatment
Congratulations Dr. McNeil 🎈🎉
#ucla #psychology #youth #emotion
@galenmcneil@aimmentalhealth
Pearls of wisdom from Vic Mensa and Dr. Eraka Bath
Really appreciated this powerful moment at the UCLA Youth Mental Well-being Symposium. @vicmensa is a thoughtful and intriguing speaker—check out his award-winning Orange Tree Series—and @dr.erakabath expertly facilitated throughout the day.
@uclafriendsofsemel@aimmentalhealth
Are you a high school student in the LA area who is ready to take your passion, curiosity, and advocacy about brain health and mental wellbeing to the next level? Joining the Friends of Semel Teen Advisory Council (TAC) is a launchpad for engagement and a career foundation for becoming a next-generation leader in the fields of medicine, science, and advocacy surrounding neuroscience and human behavior - come join us! 🧠❤️
#brainhealth
#teenmentalhealth
#stigma
#advocacy
🎉 Exciting News from Friends of Semel! 🎉
We are proud to announce that Dr. Lauren Wagner has been named a Breen Family Friends of Semel Scholar (2026–2028)!
Each scholar receives $25,000 per year to support a two-year research project, and Dr. Wagner’s work is at the forefront of understanding early brain development.
Currently a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior in the Hernandez Laboratory, Dr. Wagner studies how genetic variation shapes brain development during infancy, helping uncover how psychiatric conditions such as autism may emerge.
Her impressive journey includes multiple prestigious fellowships, including NIH and NICHD awards, supporting her research on language development, neuroimaging, and autism.
With support from the Friends of Semel Fellowship, Dr. Wagner will expand her research to explore how the balance of brain activity in infants, known as excitation-inhibition balance
relates to early psychiatric symptoms. Using large-scale genetic data and advanced MRI techniques, her work aims to deepen our understanding of how early brain differences influence later development.
👏 Congratulations, Dr. Wagner! We look forward to the impact of your groundbreaking research.
#brain #autism #genetics #research #ucla
We are excited and proud to announce that B. Erika Luis Sanchez, PhD, is one of our 2026-2028 Friends of Semel Reseach Scholars! Each Scholar grantee receives $25k per year for 2 years.
Dr. Sanchez (she/her/hers), is a Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Scholar at UCLA TIES for Families, an interdisciplinary program serving youth with foster care histories and their families.
Dr. Luis Sanchez’s research centers on developing and expanding access to evidence-based interventions for ethnically and racially diverse, marginalized, and system-impacted populations.
Born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico, she is fluent in English, Spanish, and Zapoteco, an Indigenous language of Oaxaca. Dr. Luis Sanchez earned her doctoral degree in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed her predoctoral internship at the UCLA Semel Institute where she specialized in providing trauma-informed, asset-based, and culturally responsive services to youth and families experiencing stress and trauma, including foster care–involved youth and their caregivers. Her clinical and dissemination work includes providing Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in both English and Spanish, as well as contributing to efforts to expand PCIT access in Mexico and South America.
As a Friends of the Semel Institute Research Scholar, Dr. Luis Sanchez will lead a project evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a foster care/adoption-specific intervention designed to promote youth mental health and support ethnic–racial socialization within multiracial families.
#fostercareyouth
#reseach #scholar #psychology #ucla
@ucla_psychology@uclatiesforfamilies
The Friends of Semel was honored to host the U.S. premiere screening of “The Narcissist’s Playbook: Empathy Not Included”, a powerful and thought-provoking documentary that sheds light on the complexities of narcissistic personality disorder and its impact on relationships, mental health, and everyday life.
Director Mark Vicente and producers, Scott Altomare and Lynn Davis Lear participated in an insightful and engaging post-screening discussion with Dr. Ramani Durvasula, New York Times bestselling author of “It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People” and Dr. April Thames, Professor in UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and a nationally recognized clinical neuropsychologist, who expertly moderated the conversation.
Together, they unpacked the nuances of narcissism, explored paths to healing, and answered questions from our audience that sparked meaningful dialogue that resonated deeply with our audience.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this impactful program and to our incredible filmmakers and mental health experts for for sharing their expertise andperspective.
#narcissism #mentalhealth #ucla
#film #documentary
@thenarcissistsplaybook@markvicente@teencouncilsemelfriends@openmindfilmfestival@doctorramani@dr_april_thames
