Mitch Hall
Background
Background
During my career, I have gained rich life experience as a wellness counselor for disadvantaged, traumatized, inner-city youth and for adult patients with complex medical and psychological needs; a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Togo, west Africa; a peace and environmental movement organizer in Europe with the Fellowship of Reconciliation; a professor, adviser to international students at Stanford University and Norwich University, academic program director, and academic dean in higher education; a French-English interpreter for African refugees; a writer, translator, storyteller, and more.
Languages
I am fluent in French, proficient in Spanish, and have studied and practiced other languages as well.
Education
As an undergraduate at Columbia University, I earned a B.A. in religion, a major I chose because I wanted to learn what the spiritual traditions could contribute toward reducing violence and building peace on earth.
My graduate studies were in sociology at the University of Chicago, where I earned an M.A., and in psychology at Saybrook University, where I was enrolled in the doctoral program with an emphasis on social transformation. These studies were motivated by the same abiding interest in healing and peace building.
In February, 2013, the Indian Board of Alternative Medicines, located in Kolkata, awarded me a Ph.D. (h.c.) in Alternative Medicines in recognition of my lifetime achievements in this field, including my scholarly work, publications, mindful movement and meditation teaching, practice of holistic healing modalities, wellness counseling work, and teaching in higher education.
In recent years, I have taken professional development training in holistic trauma treatment with, among others, Bruce D. Perry, MD and Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD.
Professional Speaking
I have twice been an invited speaker at the professional summit conferences, "National Leaders in Nonviolence and the Child," three times as a speaker in peace psychology symposiums at annual meetings of the American Psychological Association, and at the 12th International Conference on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma. For five years, I was an invited speaker in the San Francisco State University Season of Nonviolence Series.
Service
I have served with such organizations as the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Peace Corps, which gave me intercultural, peace building experience in Europe and Africa respectively. For ten years, I was academic director of a service learning program at Norwich University. The program combined local community service projects with courses to prepare students for collaborative service projects in culturally diverse contexts.
Scholarship
In my talks and writing, I elucidate personal and social implications of research findings in such fields as prenatal and perinatal psychology, primal health research, interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory and research, psychohistory, trauma treatment, peace psychology, and spiritual practice. I also tell stories which come from the heart.
I am a scholar of emergent research in such fields as neurobiology and psychoneuroimmunology. As a faculty member of the Niroga Institute’s Yoga Therapists’ Training Program, I taught about the immune system in holistic perspective, the nervous system, and trauma-sensitive yoga.
Affiliations
Centerpeace Project
Training and Curriculum Design Consultant,
"Our vision is guided by the philosophy of building community by empowering the younger generation to learn new ways of communication, heal generational wounds and trauma and to come up with co-creative, and innovative solutions for fostering peace in their community."
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Nonkilling Psychology Research Committee
Member
This committee is one of several, interdisciplinary networks of scholars and practitioners established through the Center for Global Nonkilling to promote the advancement of scientific evidence on the possibilities of reducing and eventually eliminating the killing of human beings by one another.
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Task Force on Indigenous Psychology
Member
Indigenous Psychology is an intellectual movement across the globe, based on the following factors:
1. A reaction against the colonization/hegemony of Western psychology.
2. The need for non-Western cultures to solve their local problems through indigenous practices and applications.
3. The need for a non-Western culture to recognize itself in the constructs and practices of psychology.
4. The need to use indigenous philosophies and concepts to generate theories of global discourse.
