Award Winning American Singer & Songwriter

Chase Bryant

“This is my shot at redemption,” says Chase Bryant. “This is the second chance I never thought I’d have.”

In fact, by all objective measures, Chase Bryant shouldn’t be here right now, and yet he’s never sounded more alive, more vital, more himself than he does on his extraordinary new album, ‘Upbringing.’ Recorded in the aftermath of a season of darkness and despair, the record is a searing, honest portrait of struggle and resilience from a songwriter finally learning to love and trust himself, flaws and all. Though the journey to this moment nearly put him in the grave, Bryant’s stronger now for his struggles, with a clear head, an open heart, and a remarkable full-length debut to show for it. Some may call it a comeback, but truth be told, it’s really more like a homecoming.

Born and raised in rural Orange Grove, Bryant grew up dreaming of a life in music, inspired in part by his grandfather, who performed with Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings, and his uncles, who co-founded the chart-topping band Ricochet. Those dreams came true faster than Bryant could have anticipated, though, and fame and success arrived with a hefty price. By 21, he already had two Top 10 singles and tours with the likes of Brantley Gilbert and Tim McGraw under his belt, but it all felt inauthentic, like he was playing a character with expectations he could never live up to. The harder he pushed back, the worse things got, and soon, Bryant barely recognized the man he saw in the mirror.

“I was a very confused individual,” he confesses. “I was cocky. I was arrogant, I was sick. And that led me down a pretty dark hole.” Rock bottom came in a gas station parking lot, when Bryant’s anxiety and depression led him to put a loaded .357 revolver to his head. When no sign arrived from above, Bryant screamed that he was sorry and pulled the trigger. He opened his eyes a few moments later, certain he was dead and waking up on some alternate plane of existence only to realize that something miraculous had happened, that he was somehow still alive. Opening the cylinder on the revolver, he found only five bullets instead of the six he was sure he’d loaded. The empty chamber had spared his life.

And so Bryant began the long and arduous road to recovery, checking into a mental rehabilitation center and enrolling in intensive therapy. He spent the next several years facing his demons head on, learning to be comfortable in his own skin, to make peace with being alone, to be okay with not being okay all the time. In search of perspective, he eventually left Nashville altogether, moving back to Texas and purchasing an old ranch house that had been in his family since the 1960s. There, far removed from the trappings of the music industry and all the baggage that came with it, Bryant felt a weightlessness he hadn’t experienced since childhood, a release from the pressure and expectation that had dogged him ever since he landed his first record deal at the age of 15. With the floodgates open, Bryant entered one of the most prolific creative periods of his life. This time around, though, he wasn’t writing for the radio or the charts; he was writing for himself and anyone else who needed to hear what he had to say.

“I wanted to be that empty chamber for somebody else,” Bryant explains. “I wanted to help people realize that they’re not alone in this fight, that somebody’s out there listening and has their back.”

Leading Jungian Analyst & Author

James Hollis, Ph.D.

James Hollis, Ph.D.is a Jungian analyst in practice in Washington, DC and the author of 19 books, the latest being The Broken Mirror and A Life of Meaning.

His virtual lunch presentation and conversation on “happiness” is the initial chapter of his next book Borrowed Dust: A Celebration of Lifecoming out next January.

Originally a humanities Professor, Dr. Hollis retrained at the Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland and has been Director of Training at the Philadelphia Jung Institute and Executive Director of the Houston and Washington Jung societies.

Co-Founder & CEO of the Center for Motivation & Change, Licensed Psychologist, & Award Winning Author

Carrie Wilkens, Ph.D.

Carrie Wilkens, Ph.D., is a psychologist with over 25 years of experience in the practice and dissemination of evidence-based treatments for substance use and Post-Traumatic Stress. Dr. Wilkens is the Co-President and CEO of the CMC:Foundation for Change, a not-for-profit with the mission of improving the dissemination of evidence-based ideas and strategies to professionals and loved ones of persons struggling with substance use. The CMC:FFC team’s Invitation to Change approach is an accessible set of understandings and practices that empower families to remain engaged and be effective in helping their struggling loved one make positive changes. The approach has been widely used across the country and is utilized in trainings with laypeople and professionals.

She is co-author of the award-winning book Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, a practical guide for families dealing with addiction and substance problems in a loved one based on principles of Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), and co-author of The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends: Evidence-Based Skills to Help a Loved-One Make Positive Change.

Dr. Wilkens is also the Co-Founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Motivation and Change, a group of clinicians serving all ages in NYC, Long Island, Washington, DC, San Diego, CA, and CMC:Berkshires, a private, inpatient/residential program for adults.

Dr. Wilkens has been a Project Director on a large federally-funded Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant addressing the problems associated with binge drinking among college students. She is regularly sought out by the media to discuss issues related to substance use disorders and has been on the CBS Morning Show, Katie Couric Show, frequent NPR segments, and podcasts, including Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris. She is also in the HBO documentary Risky Drinking. Dr. Wilkens is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the American Association of Addiction Psychiatrists.

Chaplaincy Trained Buddhist Leader, Author, Speaker, & Visiting Fellow - University of Michigan

Chenxing Han

​​​​​Chenxing Han (she/her) is the author of “Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists (2021)”; “One Long Listening: A Memoir of Grief, Friendship, and Spiritual Care (2023)”; and over twenty articles and book chapters for both academic and mainstream audiences. She is a regular contributor to Lion’s Roar and Tricycle magazines and a frequent speaker and workshop leader at schools, universities, and Buddhist communities across the nation. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hemera Foundation, the Lenz Foundation, and elsewhere.

Chenxing holds a BA from Stanford University, an MA in Buddhist Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, and a certificate in Buddhist chaplaincy from the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. She is co-teacher of Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard at Phillips Academy Andover; a co-organizer of May We Gather: A National Buddhist Memorial for Asian American Ancestors; and founding facilitator of Roots and Refuge: An Asian American Buddhist Writing Retreat at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. For the 2023–2024 academic year, she is the Khyentse Visitor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan.

Award Wining Professor, Psychologist, Scientist, & Author at University of Michigan

Ethan Kross, Ph.D.

Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships.

Ethan attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude. After earning his PhD in Psychology from Columbia University, Ethan completed a post-doctoral fellowship in social-affective neuroscience to learn about the neural systems that support self-control. He moved to the University of Michigan in 2008, where he founded the Emotion & Self Control Laboratory.

Ethan’s research has been published in Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other peer-reviewed journals. He has participated in policy discussion at the White House and has been interviewed on CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper Full Circle, and NPR’s Morning Edition. His pioneering research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, USA Today, The Economist, The Atlantic, Forbes, and Time.

Ethan is the author the National Bestseller CHATTER: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It, which was chosen as one of the best new books of the year by the Washington Post, CNN and USA Today and the Winning Winter 2021 selection for Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain and Dan Pink’s Next Big Idea Book Club. CHATTER is scheduled to be translated into over 40 languages.

Psychologist and International Consultant

Brian C. Miller, MSW, Ph.D.

Brian Miller, Ph.D. provides training and consultation on topics of secondary trauma, trauma informed supervision, and implementation processes nationally and internationally. His book, Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress: Skills for Sustaining a Career in the Helping Professions was released in July of 2021 and is scheduled for a second edition in late 2024.

Dr. Miller’s experience includes tenure as Director of Children’s Behavioral Health at Primary Children’s Hospital, Director of Mental Health Services for Salt Lake County; Director of the Trauma Program for Families with Young Children at The Children’s Center in Salt Lake City; Clinical Director of Davis Behavioral Health, Associate Director of the Utah State Division of Mental Health; and as a psychotherapist in private practice. He holds a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was a Mandel Leadership Fellow. He is the past board president for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Utah Chapter, and serves on the editorial review boards for the journals Traumatology and Contemporary Psychotherapy and the Secondary Traumatic Stress Consortium and is a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Licensed Professional Counselor and Specialist Working with Men and Adolescent Boys

Ward V. B. Lassoe, LPC

Ward Lassoe is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in private practice in Charleston, South Carolina. He works exclusively with teenage boys and adult men, so he’s definitely a “guy” therapist.

He has an unusual background for a counselor. He started out as a TV reporter for local and national networks. He then earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and transitioned into working in the digital media industry. He also served as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston. Today, he uses his experience in journalism, business, and education on a regular basis in his psychotherapy practice.

Co-Founder & CEO of the Center for Motivation & Change, Licensed Psychologist, Clinical Research Scientist, & Award Winning Author

Jeffrey Foote, Ph.D.

Jeff Foote, PhD is a psychologist and nationally-recognized clinical research scientist with over 30 years of experience utilizing evidence-based treatment approaches for the treatment of substance use issues and Post-traumatic Stress.

Dr. Foote is the Co-President and CEO of the CMC:Foundation for Change (CMC:FFC), a not-for-profit organization with the mission of improving the dissemination of evidence-based ideas and strategies to the families of persons struggling with substance use. The CMC:FFC team’s Invitation to Change approach is an accessible set of understandings and practices that empower families to remain engaged and be effective in helping their struggling loved one make positive changes. The approach has been widely used across the country and is utilized in trainings with laypeople and professionals. He is co-author of the award-winning book Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, a practical guide for families dealing with addiction and substance problems in a loved one based on principles of Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), and co-author of The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends: Evidence-Based Skills to Help a Loved-One Make Positive Change.

He is also the Co-Founder of the Center for Motivation and Change (CMC) outpatient programs in NYC, Long Island, Washington, DC, and San Diego, CA, and the residential program CMC:Berkshires in Western Massachusetts.

Dr. Foote was a psychologist for the NY Mets for 11 years and has continued in sports psychology as an independent performance consultant to professional athletes. Before co-founding CMC in 2003, Dr. Foote was the Deputy Director of the Division of Alcohol Treatment and Research at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in NYC and Senior Research Associate at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) in NYC. From 1994 to 2001, Dr. Foote served as Chief of the Smithers Addiction Treatment and Research Center and Director of Evaluation and Research. Dr. Foote is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the American Association of Addiction Psychiatrists.

Co-Director - Center for Trauma & Embodiment

Jenn Turner, LMHC, TCTSY-F

Jenn has had the honor of working with survivors of trauma for all of her career. Along with working in private practice as a trauma-informed therapist, Jenn is the Co-Director of the Center for Trauma and Embodiment where she works to oversee training and supports the development of body-first interventions for healing from trauma.

Jenn also leads trainings in Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) throughout the U.S, provides consultation to organizations on how to become more trauma informed at all levels. In 2021, Jenn edited the book Embodied Healing: Survivor and Facilitator voices from the practice of Trauma Sensitive Yoga.

Certified Jungian Analyst, Author, and Podcaster

Lisa A. Marchiano, LCSW, NCPsyA

Lisa Marchiano is an author, podcaster, and certified Jungian analyst. She is the author of two books published by Sounds True, Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself, and The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire.