EXPERTISE + EXPERIENCE MATTER

Dr. Aprilia West brings 20+ years of experience working with executives, founders, leaders, teams, and organizations spanning U.S. Congress, tech, entertainment, Fortune 500 companies, and nonprofit advocacy campaigns. Her extensive experience as a psychologist, executive coach, trainer, and consultant gives her a niche understanding of human behavior and how to facilitate wellbeing, peak performance, and prosocial change.

Dr. West's interest in human behavior and choice-making led her to develop the construct of emotion efficacy— the ability and belief that you can harness your emotions and align your actions with your values in the face of stress, distress and challenge.  She explains, “emotion efficacy is what you’d get if emotional intelligence, psychological flexibility and resilience had a love child.” She also designed tested a related assessment tool, the Emotion Efficacy Scale-2 (EES2) and an evidence-based protocol, Emotion Efficacy Therapy.

Dr. West has authored several books and publications related to psychology and decision-making including: ACT for Your Best Life (2023), What You Feel Is Not All There Is (2021) and she is coauthor of Acceptance and Commitment Coaching in the Workplace in Positive Psychology in the Workplace (Springer 2021) and the clinician’s guide to Emotion Efficacy Therapy (2016). She has trained thousands of professionals worldwide in applying contextual behavioral science in clinical and organizational settings.

Previously, Dr. West served as a policy analyst, communications director, speechwriter, and press secretary on Capitol Hill where she authored a book on renewing civil society for members of Congress. She also founded and directed two bipartisan initiatives, the Project for Social Entrepreneurship and the Initiative for Children focused on identifying proven, replicable programs for socio-economically disadvantaged individuals, families, and children.She has served in various capacities for international and national advocacy campaigns from consulting to media relations including congressional redistricting, climate change and human rights to make important and complex issues relatable and actionable to U.S. members of Congress, their constituents, and the public.

Dr. West is a fellow with the Harvard Medical School affiliate, Institute of Coaching, and she is credentialed as a professional certified coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation. Dr. West was a founding member and is past president of the Southern California chapter for the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) and is a member of the Society of Consulting Psychology (Division 13) of the American Psychological Association.