Michael P. Twohig

Mentor Spotlight

The ABCT Academic Training and Education Standards committee annually solicits nominations for the Spotlight on a Mentor recognition to highlight the diversity of excellent mentors within the membership ranks of ABCT. Its goal is to spotlight promising early-career and well-established mentors across all levels of academic rank, areas of specialization, and types of institution. We asked the three 2023 winners to share some wisdom related to their own influential mentors, their mentorship philosophy, and advice for mentees and aspiring mentors.

Find out more information about the program on our Mentor Spotlights page.

Dr. Twohig is a psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at Utah State University, where he co-runs the ACT Research Group. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of British Columbia Hospital. He is past-President of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science.

He focuses on of ACT for obsessive compulsive and related disorders. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and 9 books. His research has been funded through multiple sources including the NIMH and the IOCDF. In 2022, he and USU were rated as the leading ACT researchers.

From Dr. Twohig:

“Professionally, I am where I am today because of my mentors. While many people have influenced me, two people stand out: Doug Woods in Wisconsin, and Steve Hayes in Nevada. Doug and Steve continually stressed that the importance of the work we do. They taught me that science and teaching can make the world better. That enthusiasm kept me going and I never felt like graduate school was work. The second thing they taught me was that anything was possible, and then they supported me in everything I tried to do. It does show a bit of my privilege that I believed them, but I think these grandiose approaches to our work has helped me. Without Doug and Steve’s guidance I would not be a Professor of Psychology at Utah State University co-running the ACT Research Group with Dr. Mike Levin.

Professionally, I am where I am today because of my mentors. While many people have influenced me, two people stand out: Doug Woods in Wisconsin, and Steve Hayes in Nevada. Doug and Steve continually stressed that the importance of the work we do. They taught me that science and teaching can make the world better. That enthusiasm kept me going and I never felt like graduate school was work. The second thing they taught me was that anything was possible, and then they supported me in everything I tried to do. It does show a bit of my privilege that I believed them, but I think these grandiose approaches to our work has helped me. Without Doug and Steve’s guidance I would not be a Professor of Psychology at Utah State University co-running the ACT Research Group with Dr. Mike Levin.

This leads into my second point, every student is different and has their own aspirations and goals. We work hard to meet the students where they are and help them move along this path in the way that works well for them. This has been interesting because sometimes it means we have to pick up our game to keep up, and other times it means giving them space to explore what they want. Each student is unique, and we do our best to support them in what they need and where they hope to go.

A third focus in our lab is that we model and reinforce finding a way to live a meaningful life that is integrated with the professional work that we do. Working in psychology has few highs, lots of mediums, and a handful of lows. We need to find ways to live comfortably within stress; otherwise, motivation is going to be hard to find, and burnout might be close behind. We always promote finding meaning in our work, collaborating with enjoyable colleagues, loving the projects we are doing, and living purposeful lives. We try to make our work motivating and the pressure somewhat low. If we put meaning and value into the work, then the pubs, grants, and books will just naturally happen. We try and teach the student to focus on the process over the outcome. If a student says they, “just want this paper off their computer,” we might ask them to also connect with why this paper is meaningful and what motivator they can find in the moment.

The same goes for non-university activities. We hope our students have enjoyment that is not in this field. We model working in reasonable and logical ways. This means that we don’t work 24 hours a day, and we don’t expect them to either. Sometimes, when something big is due, we must put in a lot of hours, and that’s OK too. We want students to make a difference in the world while living gratifying, meaningful lives.

Fourth, we strive to model ways to have successful and pleasing professional relationships with one’s colleagues. Psychology is unique in that we have important ethical standards we should maintain, while enjoying those we work with. Graduate school can be a great setting to model how to balance multiple relationships. We aim to be clear on the boundaries of a student/mentor relationship while showing caring. We want our students to feel comfortable bringing issues to us, but also understand and appreciate our roles as student/mentor. This issue relates back to the first point of learning how to function as a professional. Our profession is inherently a social one and we work to teach our students how to successfully navigate that.

Thank you to my students for nominating me. I’m not sure I deserve it, but I really appreciate it.”