About Dr. Aprilia West
psychologist, executive leadership and team coach, trainer and organizational consultant
"So often we are more capable than we realize. That's why I'm passionate about playing at the intersection of people, possibility and prosocial evolution"
Dr. Aprilia West is a psychologist, coach, trainer and behavioral health consultant with 20+ years experience working with founders, leaders, artists & creatives, teams, and organizations spanning U.S. Congress, tech, entertainment, Fortune 500 companies, and nonprofit advocacy campaigns. Blending behavioral science, neuroscience and positive psychology, Dr. West offers evidence-based therapy, coaching, consulting and training to individuals, leaders and teams and professionals to improve wellbeing, psychological flexibility, creativity, performance and prosocial behavior change.
Aprilia is best known as an expert in the application of contextual behavioral science for clinicians, coaches, organizations and global public policy campaigns. She developed the construct of emotional efficacy and designed and piloted the Emotion Efficacy Therapy (EET) protocol as a doctoral student in clinical psychology where she also coauthored the original clinician's guide to Emotion Efficacy Therapy, (2016). She has since developed advanced emotion efficacy training for professionals and authored the self-help book, What You Feel Is Not All There Is to help people become more effective with their emotions.
Dr. West is also author of several other books and peer-reviewed articles 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). She has trained thousands of professional therapists and coaches worldwide in applying contextual behavioral science in clinical, private and organizational settings.
Dr. West is known as an expert in the application of behavioral science and conducts professional trainings for coaches and clinicians around the world.
Previously, Dr. West served as a policy analyst, communications director, speechwriter, and press secretary on Capitol Hill where she worked on advocacy efforts to engage members of Congress in using their leadership positions to advocate for civic renewal. 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 also worked on several international and national advocacy campaigns to make complex issues relatable and actionable to U.S. members of Congress and the public, including congressional redistricting, climate change and human rights issues.
Dr. West is a professional fellow with the Harvard Institute of Coaching and is credentialed as a professional certified coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She is also a certified mediator with training from Harvard Law School’s program on negotiation and conflict resolution. In addition, she is founding member and past president of the Southern California chapter for the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) and is a member of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM), and Society of Consulting Psychology (Division 13) of the American Psychological Association.
“Aprilia has a gift for illuminating complex evidence-based ideas.”
—DR. TODD KASHDAN, PHD, director of the Wellbeing Lab at George Mason University and author, The Art of Insubordination
Listen to Dr. West Live
Dr. West is frequently invited to appear on podcasts to speak about issues related to human behavior, psychology, coaching and psychotherapy, wellbeing, elite performance, positive psychology, emotional efficacy, mental agility, psychological flexibility and organizational culture and health.
