John S-F

How Evil Works This post is a continuation of my focus on kindness, positive psychology, and becoming the best possible versions of ourselves. Lyrics from Katharine Lee Bates’s America the Beautiful are part of m…

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/03/12/h...

@ritaksf.bsky.social

Thanks for sharing Rita . . . you are #amazing🥰

This is @ritaksf.bsky.social's weekly blog. It has #spiritual dimensions, along with occasional #political reflections. Check it out. It's short. You may want to read it #twice😍

Two Upcoming Events Hi All, I’ve got two events coming up, one sooner and one later. This Friday, I’m doing the closing talk for Tamarack’s Grief Institute (which is on Thursday and Friday in Missoula, and available o…

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/03/02/t...

Five Stages of a Clinical Interview – Updated – with Video The following is an excerpt from a chapter I wrote with my colleagues Roni Johnson and Maegan Rides At The Door. The full chapter is in the Cambridge Handbook of Clinical Assessment and Diag…

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/02/24/f...

I don’t know why this is hard for folks to understand. The layoffs aren’t just about probationary employees. They are going beyond that. It won’t stop. It’s all about making agencies non-functional.

Did Daines, Sheehy, Zinke or Downing hold public town halls around Montana?

Thousands of Troops Guard Quiet Texas Border Towns Soldiers often face “a whole lot of nothing” as crossings continue to go down.

President Trump deployed thousands of active-duty soldiers to the border. What are they all doing? “A whole lot of nothing,” one South Texas National Guard soldier said.

Our research group at the University of Montana has another publication out, this time in the Journal of Adult Development (JADE). The JADE editor and reviewers were marvelously helpful. You can read the whole article at this link: rdcu.be/eaz2y

An amazing resignation letter to Bove from an AUSA who worked on the Adams case.

Money quote: “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”

A Declaration of Independence Author Note: As simple and naïve as this may sound, my new subversive social message and political metric is kindness. The social message is intentional kindness. Kindness everywhere; kindness as o…

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/02/14/a...

THE ASK This week, between Monday and the vote on Vought, we're asking people from all over the country to plan a visit to Senate State Offices to demand Democrats fight and to hold Republicans accountable for their complicity. DEMOCRATS MUST USE EVERY PROCEDURAL TOOL TO SHUT DOWN TRUMP'S AGENDA Yes, we need Democrats to vote no on Vought's nomination, but no is not enough. Democrats have the power to grind Senate business to a halt and force Republicans to feel the political cost of backing Trump's extremist agenda. Here's how: 1. Deny a Quorum: If Republicans don't have 51 votes in the chamber, Democrats can walk out and shut down Senate business entirely. 2. Block Unanimous Consent: Object to every procedural shortcut, forcing Republicans to take the longest possible route for every step of the confirmation process. 3. Max Out Debate Time: Use all 30 hours of debate on Vought to expose Project 2025, Musk's Treasury takeover, and the funding freeze. 4. Delay and Disrupt: Force roll-call votes, quorum calls, and procedural delays to slow everything down. 5. Blanket Opposition: Democrats cannot continue to vote for Trump's other nominees, helping to install more MAGA loyalists into powerful positions in the federal government while this power grab continues. No Business as Usual: This is a constitutional crisis. Democrats must abandon the old rules and fight with everything they have. Bottom line: Senate Democrats must block, delay, and obstruct every step of this process-no cooperation, no easy votes, no fast-tracking Trump's takeover. To learn more about how Senate Democrats can shut down Trump's agenda with procedural hardball, check out our explainer here.

Indivisible is urging people to visit their senators' local offices between now and Thursday to demand that they use every tool—including denying a quorum and blocking unanimous consent—to fight the confirmation of Project 2025 architect Russell Vought for head of OMB docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The One-Way Mirror Project and Self-Reflection: A Process of Pain and Growth This post is for my Chinese friends, or my friends who speak Mandarin . . . or anyone who wants to read about the process of self-evaluation, the pain of self-reflection, and personal/professional …

I did a #psychotherapy demo for a Chinese company. It was fun . . . and I had to watch, reflect, and comment on my performance. Not easy . . . but good in many ways! johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/02/02/t...

Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempts After Direct or Indirect Psychotherapy This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the association of direct and indirect psychotherapy with suicidal ideation and attempts.

This meta-analysis found that both direct and indirect psychotherapy interventions led to significant reductions in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The Washington Foundation Awards $9.4M to the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education to Support Montana Teachers, School Counselors, and Positive Education Hi All, As predicted, I have great news today. The University of Montana Foundation and the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education have just issued a press release announcing a $9.4M grant from…

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/01/08/t...

The Happiness for Teachers Course Starts Again the Week of January 20 If you’re an educator, you can sign up for the “Spring” version (starting in January) of our Happiness for Teachers course. This course has been very popular among teachers who ha…

Please share this opportunity with your #Montana #educator friends.

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/01/06/t...

Publication Alert — Broadening and Amplifying the Effects of Positive Psychology Courses on College Student Well-Being, Mental Health, and Physical Health We have more good news for 2025. At long last, we’ve published a research article based on Dr. Dan Salois’s doctoral dissertation. Congratulations Dan! This article is part of growing e…

johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/01/06/p...

Coming this Friday: Online Workshop — “Strategies for Integrating Traditional and Strengths-Based Approaches to Suicide” Happy Sunday Evening, Last week I shared my 2025 predictions with you. This week, I’ve got another prediction . On Friday, January 10, I’ll be doing an online, two-hour workshop (title …

Here's info on a workshop for mental health professionals, coming this Friday: johnsommersflanagan.com/2025/01/05/c...

Absolutely true. The media failed by constantly featuring negative stories about the Biden economy.

My 2025 Predictions I’ve always been fascinated with prediction. Maybe it was my mother’s interest in all things psychic? Maybe it was my father’s interest in gambling and the weather? Whatever the influences, while i…

Because I'm obsessed with the #science of #prediction, here are my Predictions for 2025.

johnsommersflanagan.com/2024/12/30/m...

It's a wildly popular book that's really quite destructive in many ways. Thanks for writing this article.

Oregon State hands UC Irvine its first men’s basketball loss of the season Damarco Minor scores 19 points and grabs nine rebounds as the 7-2 Beavers are off to their best start since 2019-20.

Big win for Oregon State MBB, as it knocks off previously unbeaten UC Irvine in convincing fashion

www.oregonlive.com/beavers/2024...

Oregon State hasn’t seen defense like this in a while, and it’s paying off on the scoreboard The Beavers are on pace this season to hold opponents to their lowest field goal percentage in nearly 30 years.

The MBB season is still early, but Oregon State is on pace for one of its best defenses in nearly 30 years following Saturday's win over UC Irvine.

www.oregonlive.com/beavers/2024...

Oregon State's 67-55 win over UC Irvine resulted in a bump to No. 42 from 51 in NCAA NET rankings.

That might be the best-ever NET ranking in program history. As a comparison, Beavers were 50 in the final 2020-21 NET, the year they last went to NCAAs.

NET rankings for WCC MBB
4. Gonzaga
42. Oregon State
43. Saint Mary’s
52. San Francisco
66. Washington State
79. Santa Clara
212. Loyola Marymount
228. Pepperdine
257. Pacific
333. Portland
336. San Diego

Absolutely! I asked ChatGPT to write up something about me. It was interesting, but not true. But, at least AI spelled my name correctly. That's something.😎

Questions (and Mindfulness) in Counseling and Psychotherapy Every day, I keep getting older. I can’t seem to stop myself. And every day, I keep running into dialectics. They’re everywhere. My aging experiences of ubiquitous dialectics seems consistent with …

johnsommersflanagan.com/2024/12/10/q...