@profpash
clinical psychologist and psychology professor at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan; here to learn; interested in psychotherapy, existential psych research, and undergrad teaching; my views only; he/him
Stand Up For Science Founder and CEO Colette Delawalla speaking at the Washington D.C. Take Back Our Science Rally!
Stand Up For Science Founder & CEO Colette Delawalla states three demands:
1. Remove RFK Jr.
2. Reinstate the American Dream of Science.
3. Science should be driven by scientists not political appointees.
Join the fight!
standupforscience.net/march7
NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US
It's up to us to save science, protect health and defend this democracy!
Stand up! Speak out! Hit the streets on March 7th!
Join us on the streets at rallies nationwide on March 7th.zurl.co/Rcwcl
#ItsUpToUs #standupforscience #rally #March7
I love that comedy/acting so explicitly invites people to use their full selves and emotional experiences to inform the work. Necessary wellspring of inspiration.
We absolutely do so in psychology/therapy too, but many struggle with shame or denial about it.
e.g., open.spotify.com/episode/0Fxz...
Therapy modalities as conversant with and about the current social-historical themes, they "translate human suffering into the psychological language a culture finds credible at a particular moment in history." Neat brief piece, I appreciated the perspective.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/navi...
Idk who runs the music at @spirithockeyohl.bsky.social games but they make my little millennial heart sing. Y’all are awesome.
#BangerAfterBanger
Image of a poster titled "Learning my disorder isn’t real: Critical pedagogy and existential meaning in abnormal psychology" by Isaac Zamora-Ayres and Travis Pashak, presented at the 2026 virtual meeting of the International Society for the Study of Existential Psychology. Text displays details of a mixed-methods study on employing critical pedagogy in an undergraduate psychopathology course, featuring findings that students perspectives do appear to become less biogenetically-essentialist as a result of readings on the reification fallacy, nominal fallacy, and other materials which emphasize a psycho-social-cultural and existential/dynamic perspective on mental health.
Many thanks to the folks who visited Isaac and me during our virtual break-out room this morning! We had some very *meaningful* and fascinating conversations about infusing existential perspectives into teaching about mental health and mental disorder.
#ISSEP
#SPSP2026
@theissep.bsky.social
Is there a clinical use for suicide risk scales to predict suicides?
Sobering truth:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
perhaps most irritating about the use of “underrated” is that I most often see it in a context where there is literally no rating data anywhere at all
you’re just saying “I like this thing!” in a complete absence of any info about how much anyone else likes it whatsoever aside from vibes
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
irrelevant low-stakes gripe:
there’s no such thing as *underrated*
when people say something is underrated, I think they typically mean “I like this thing more than other people do on average”
potentially could also mean “the sampling for the ratings was not representative” but I doubt it
Happy match day, to those who celebrate! ❤️
Folks. I am downright giddy about the new stuff from @ibuiltthesky.bsky.social. Like holy crap.
🔥🔥🔥
#PromiseMeYou'llThrive
youtu.be/Y-fqdLt63FI?...
Recruitment flier for Makiya Tunstull's study titled "Denied, Delayed, Dismissed: The Crisis of Black Mental Health Access." Notes that eligible participants must be 18 or older, identify as a Black American, and have experience with seeking or receiving mental health services. Study consists of a brief survey and possible invitation for a 60-minute interview session. All procedures confidential and voluntary. Makiya's email address is mtunstull@mail.roosevelt.edu.
Study invite, please spread the word!
Researcher: Makiya Tunstull @ Roosevelt
Goal: Understand mental health service access/barriers
Sampling: Black Americans ages 18 and over in the US
Tasks: Brief survey and a possible interview invite.
Link: qualtricsxmy9gcwk7hw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
For anyone attending #ISSEP this year, look for my student Isaac Zamora-Ayres at the morning poster session!
His presentation on critical pedagogy for psychopathology (i.e., challenging reified/biogenetic conceptions of disorder ontology with existential thinking) should be a great chat!
Social psychologist and co-developer of Terror Management Theory, Jeff Greenberg, and I (Travis Pashak) chatting at the 2025 ISSEP poster session. I'm making a stupidly excited face.
The 2026 @theissep.bsky.social meeting is next Tuesday!
Last year I was lucky to meet Jeff Greenberg; had a great chat about his retirement, meaning in life, and of course terror management theory. Stoked for more connections next week!
Thx @kennethvail3.bsky.social for sneakily grabbing this pic!
Viktor Frankl, shortly after his release from the concentration camps, on humor as a lifeline to sanity and survival even, and especially, amid the most unsurvivable circumstances www.themarginalian.org/2019/08/19/v...
Invited to speak on a panel today re: mental health leadership at a student convention on campus.
Got prompts about burn-out, self-care, stigma, etc. I think audience prob expected to hear about mindfulness and whatnot.
Panel argued need for systemic change and to fight oppression. Love to see it.
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university.
1. Polish
2. Ice Ages
3. Marching Band
4. Physics of Music
5. Sociology of Family
(Plus loads of psych, but that goes without saying. These seemed the five most interesting to mention in retrospect.)
Do my students a very quick favor?
Click, respond, share, thanks!
www.surveymonkey.com/r/craft375
This is my impression of an owl in academia.
(Who, 2026)
Clinical psychology, when it's good, is unglamorous- it's rarely about clever techniques or 'reframes'.
It's about being alongside people, people who are in all different kinds of pain, & really listening & trying to make sense of what someone's going through, what someone needs, & what might help.
Cover of an ebook reads "Teaching Tips: A Compendium on Conference Presentations on Teaching, 2024-2025" from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
Abstract title reads "Bolstering meaningful learning experiences in undergraduate clinical topics by applying existential-dynamic principles."
The new "Teaching Tips" ebook is available now from @stpteachpsych.bsky.social! Happy to have a note on my roundtable meeting included, it was a great time. Link here:
teachpsych.org/ebooks/teach...
Looking forward to more connections and shared ideas this April in Chicago for MPA!
My syllabi for this semester all say “Winer 2026” at the top.
Best time to catch that is definitely the second day of class, after they’ve been printed and handed out to everyone. Yup.
Things are going great.
The final title of this piece is:
“Confronting Crisis and Reclaiming Purpose in Psychological Science”
with @lluaces.bsky.social @sheilacrowell.bsky.social @junegruber.bsky.social @tinaboisseau.bsky.social @anthonyperillo.bsky.social @jenperillo.bsky.social
Now in press at Nature Mental Health
BlueSky shoutout on Abbot Elementary!
A hastily cut piece of paper features the words “Travis, I am leaving because I have had enough of your fucking nonsense” as well as a crudely drawn male figure exiting a room while naked.
My former clinic director (wonderful human being and mentor of mine the past decade), has now retired after a gradual handoff of several months to the new director.
Today she left me this, uhm, goodbye card?
I will cherish its chaotic hilarity forever.
Beautiful episode, glad that it’s become an annual tradition for the show to revisit. Kudos to Marina Alessandri and Sean Illing for the existentially acute and emotionally vulnerable conversation.
“It’s ok not to be ok” on #TheGrayArea
open.spotify.com/episode/12g5...
It's Festivus, so I'm going to air some grievances.
1. If you're going to write a year end story about how scientists responded to authoritarianism and *NOT* include @standupforscience.bsky.social in the write up or cite that the photo you used as your header is from one of our rallies...that's bs.
Every Tuesday I have lunch with Garry, a fellow therapist at my clinic.
I’m 39, he’s 67. I see adults, he sees kids. We talk theory and cases, or politics and personal life, or just bullshit and puns. I offer my radishes and he always refuses.
We laugh. It’s great.
I recommend finding your Garry.
I showed my bluesky account to my psychiatrist and she said I could pick whatever medication I want
