Dr.Harris Friedman has been teaching and supervising doctoral dissertations at Sofia for over a quarter of a century, and is now on the core faculty. He retired as Research Professor of Counseling Psychology at University of Florida, and has served on the faculties of many schools in the US and globally, including three years as Visiting Scholar at Harvard. He also served as chair of a mainstream clinical psychology PhD program and academic dean at a humanistic university, and has held other academic leadership roles. He has published over 300 papers and more than a dozen books, and is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop provider at conferences. He is the Senior Editor of the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies and has served in editorial roles for many other journals. His contributions are recognized by mainstream psychology, such as being a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Association of Psychological Science. His doctorate in clinical psychology was the first-known awarded through an accredited university with a concentration in transpersonal psychology. He is past President of both the International Transpersonal Association and the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. He has won many recognitions, such as the Excellence in Teaching Award at Sofia and the Abraham Maslow Award from the American Psychological Association for lifetime achievement. He also practices clinical and coaching psychology part-time, and has worked in more than a dozen nations as an organizational consultant. In addition, he holds high-rank in several martial arts and identifies most with the practice of aikido.
University Email: harris.friedman@sofia.edu
Program: PhD in Transpersonal Psychology (Chinese Language)
Education:
- Ph.D., Georgia State University (in Clinical Psychology with a cognate in Sociology)
- M.A., Emory University (Sociology)
- B.A., Emory University (Psychology)
Educational Research:
Ph.D. dissertation: The Self-Expansiveness Level Form: A conceptualization and measurement of a transpersonal construct.
Licensures & Certifications:
Florida Licensed Psychologist
Florida Certified Supervisor (for licensed mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists, as well as for psychologists)
Board Certified (Diplomate) both in Clinical Psychology and in Organizational and Business Consulting Psychology from American Board of Professional Psychology
Research & Training Interests:
Assessment (e.g,, test construction & validation), culture (e.g., adaptive leadership & transcultural competence), growth methods (e.g., coaching, hypnosis, meditation, psychedelics, and psychotherapies), research methods and methodology (e.g., mixed & innovative), somatics (e.g., bioenergetics & martial arts), transpersonal psychology (e.g., self-expansiveness & awe), transspecies studies (e.g., human-animal interaction & ecopsychology)
Publications (a few select ones):
Bloom, T., & Friedman, H. (2013). Classifying dogs’ (Canis familiaris) facial expressions from photographs. Behavioural Processes, 96, 1-10.
Brown, N., Sokal, A., & Friedman, H. (2013). The complex dynamics of wishful thinking: The critical positivity ratio. American Psychologist, 68(9), 801-813.
Friedman, H. L. (2018). Transpersonal psychology as a heterodox approach to psychological science: Focus on the construct of self-expansiveness and its measure. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 6(1), 230-242. doi.org/10.1037/arc0000057
Friedman, H. L. & Bonner, E. (2026). The concept of awe and the construct of transpersonal self-expansiveness. American Psychologist, 81(1), 123–125. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001618
Glover, G., Friedman, H., & Jones, G. (2002). Adaptive leadership: When change is not enough—Part One. Organizational Development Journal, 20, 15-31
