Dennis Tirch, Ph.D., is associate director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, the founder and director of the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion-Focused Therapy, and serves as adjunct assistant clinical professor at Weill-Cornell Medical College. He is coauthor of books and articles on mindfulness, acceptance, and compassion, and maintains an active research program in these areas with Robert Leahy. He is a fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and founding copresident of the New York chapter of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. Dr. Tirch is passionate about the pursuit of wisdom, personal liberation and enlightenment, in psychotherapy and everyday life.