Many women and couples have experienced pregnancy loss and infertility, yet despite this common experience it is something so rarely talked about. This episode of POTC is breaking the silence. Co-host Diana Hill shares her story of stillbirth and how she grappled with applying the processes of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to her own loss. Alexis Bachik, a professor of positive psychology, shares how hard it was to stay positive in the face of years of exhausting and devastating infertility treatments. Author and yoga teacher, Anne Cushman reads from her powerful memoir about love and loss in motherhood. If you or someone you care about has experienced reproductive trauma, please join us in raising awareness by listening and sharing this episode.

About Diana Hill

Dr. Diana Hill is a clinical psychologist and co-author of ACT Daily Journal: Get unstuck and live fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Through her online teachings, executive coaching, clinical supervision, and private therapy practice Diana encourages clients to build psychological flexibility so that they can live more meaningful and fulfilling lives. Diana has a knack for unpacking complex, science-based concepts and making them applicable to daily life in work, parenting, relationships and health. She completed her undergraduate work at UC Santa Barbara, majoring in Biopsychology, followed by a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at CU Boulder where she researched mindfulness and acceptance based approaches for eating disorders. Diana practices what she preaches as a mom of two, homesteader, and yoga teacher. Learn more about her latest offerings here and get more at drdianahill.com. Also follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to get tools to build psychological flexibility into your daily life.

About Alexis Bachik

Dr. Alexis Karris Bachik, Professor of Psychology, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and completed her doctoral internship at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is also a Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University, where she studied psychology and economics. Dr. Karris Bachik’s teaching interests are in the Clinical/Counseling area of Psychology, including the following courses: Positive Psychology, Theories of Personality, Abnormal Psychology, and Introduction to Clinical and Counseling Psychology. Dr. Karris Bachik is most interested in research related to Positive Psychology, the scientific study of optimal human living, a new branch of psychological study supported by the American Psychological Association. Specifically, she has been measuring positive character traits in college students and testing how these traits relate to mental health outcomes such as depression, drinking, and anxiety, as well as well-being outcomes such as student success, happiness, and resiliency.

About Anne Cushman

Anne Cushman is a leading national pioneer in the integration of mindfulness, embodied meditation, and creative expression. A member of the Teachers’ Council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, she founded the first multi-year Buddhist meditation training for yoga teachers. Her books include the memoir The Mama Sutra, the novel Enlightenment for Idiots, the mindful yoga book Moving Into Meditation, and the India pilgrimage guide From Here to Nirvana; and her essays on spiritual practice in daily life have appeared in the New York Times, Yoga Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, and many other publications. She directs the mentoring component of the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, which enrolls over 1500 students from 47 countries. She leads regular meditation retreats with a focus on creativity, embodiment, and daily life practice.