Self Careapist Therapist Podcast

Mindfulness, Intuition, and Continued Education with Dr. Nikki Rubin

Lorain Moorehead

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0:00 | 58:38

What if mindfulness is not a homework assignment you give clients, but the thread running through every single clinical decision you make? In this episode of Self Careapist Therapist, I sit down with Dr. Nikki Rubin, licensed clinical psychologist, ACT specialist, assistant clinical professor at UCLA, and co-founder and COO of Mind Science Collective, a continuing education platform built by clinicians for clinicians. We trace the full history of cognitive behavioral therapies from first wave behaviorism through second wave cognitive interventions to the third wave approaches that define evidence-based practice today, including ACT, DBT, and CFT. Dr. Rubin breaks down how mindfulness functions as a core behavioral tool in the therapy room, how it connects to clinical intuition, and how to help clients distinguish between what their gut is really telling them versus what anxiety is projecting. We also dig into behavioral case formulation, the entrepreneurial path in private practice, and what it looks like to build a values-driven continuing education business. Stay until the end for a live guided mindfulness exercise, and use code SELFCAREAPIST10 at checkout for 10% off any MindScience Collective course.

0:00 - Intro

1:27 - How Dr. Rubin's passion for teaching and training clinicians began

4:48 - The founding of Mind Science Collective and what it offers

10:33 - How CE courses work and the range of topics available

13:18 - ACT values, creativity, and what drives the entrepreneurial instinct

13:38 - The history of CBT waves from Skinner to the third wave

18:06 - What might come after the third wave

21:09 - Reframing the therapist's relationship to marketing and business

27:22 - How mindfulness functions as the foundation of every clinical intervention

29:55 - A clinical example of moment-to-moment mindfulness with a patient

32:28 - Live guided mindfulness exercise with Dr. Rubin

37:12 - Processing the exercise and debunking myths about mindfulness

41:00 - The link between mindfulness and clinical intuition

43:35 - Distinguishing intuition from anxiety in session and in life

47:45 - Upcoming course: The Science of Intuition

48:27 - Supervision training and its parallels with behavioral case formulation

50:27 - What clinicians most commonly miss in case formulation

54:03 - Mindfulness as a thread across theoretical orientations

56:24 - Dr. Rubin's personal approach to self-care


Episode Highlights:

Mindfulness is a core behavioral practice that threads through every clinical intervention, from conceptualization to treatment planning to in-session responses, and carries far more clinical utility than assigning meditation as homework.

Third wave CBT therapies, including ACT, DBT, and CFT, emerged in the mid-1980s through a formal integration of acceptance-based and mindfulness-based practices alongside second wave cognitive techniques.

ACT values extend beyond the

The Self Careapist Therapist Podcast is a biweekly conversation with Lorain Moorehead, LCSW a therapist in private practice.  With guests ranging from expert psychologists, therapists, researchers and authors, each episode offers a deep dive and keeps listeners from intern to advanced supervisor  in mind while dropping gems and aha moments for everyone who loves to learn! If you love learning and want to keep track of some future learning opportunities, grab your personal curriculum here!

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