Foundation
Understanding an Afrocentric World View: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology
The 1988 book that introduced Optimal Psychology and the worldview at its heart. Now with a companion Reflective Journal.
Optimal Psychology Institute
Building to eternity a just, sacred, sustainable world.
This is the home of the Optimal Psychology Institute where researchers, practitioners, and those seeking to learn and live this tradition come together.
The work
What is Optimal Psychology?
Optimal Psychology, also called Optimal Conceptual Theory, is the framework Linda James Myers, Ph.D. has developed and taught for almost five decades. Drawing on the wisdom tradition of African deep thought and the heights of quantum and neuroscience, it holds that the worldview we carry shapes the quality of our lives, our relationships, and our societies.
Its psychotherapeutic/psycho-educational approach, Belief Systems Analysis, helps people examine the beliefs and assumptions underlying their experience and move toward a more holistic, integrated way of knowing and being.
Oneness
All is interrelated: spirit and matter, the individual and the collective, the ancestors and the yet unborn.
Worldview
A fragmented, materialist conceptual system produces suffering and the isms beneath it. An optimal one fosters peace, worth, and an ethical life supported by knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
Lived Experience
Processes for bringing the theory into daily life, in therapy, in classrooms, in organizations, and in community supports people in shifting their consciousness to a higher level of human development.
Self-knowledge is the basis of all knowledge.
Featured
The Reflective Journal
A chapter-by-chapter companion to Understanding an Afrocentric World View, created by Cheyennis Doom, M.S. with Linda James Myers, Ph.D. Instructive Quotes, clarifying questions, and space to write what the book stirs in you, for personal reading, study circles, and classrooms.
Books
Optimal Psychology from its source
Designed for Individual and Collective Growth
Our Health Matters: Guide to an African (Indigenous) American Psychology and Cultural Model for Creating a Climate and Culture of Optimal Health
Optimal Psychology applied to health for creating the conditions for well-being.
Enhancing Spiritual Development
Blessed Assurance: Deep Thought and Meditation In the Tradition and Wisdom of Our Ancestors
Short readings to sit with one week at a time, and to return to whenever you need grounding.
Informed works
Informed by Optimal Psychology
Books and journals by others, informed by this psychology.
Optimal Psychology Practitioners
People and places continuing the work
Organizations, educators, and practitioners who build on Optimal Psychology and Belief Systems Analysis in their own work.
Featured practitioner · Akron, Ohio · In person and online
Kindred Spirit Behavioral Health
Founded by Tania Lodge, Ph.D., a former student of Linda James Myers, Ph.D.
A community approach to wellness guided by the seven virtues of Ma'at. Therapy for individuals, couples, and families, school-based counseling, psychological evaluations, and psychiatric care, with a sliding-scale fee.
Visit Kindred SpiritFor practitioners
Kindred Optimal Coaching
A four-month virtual certification cohort for mental health practitioners, led by Dr. Lodge and grounded in Optimal Conceptual Theory. Open to practitioners of all backgrounds, with consultation and supervision after the course.
About Kindred Optimal CoachingAffiliate
Marcus Garvey Institute for Human Development
A not-for-profit carrying forward the legacy of Marcus Garvey, with a vision to educate humans to their full potential as spiritual, mental, and physical beings. Optimal Psychology is one of its seven pillars. Dr. Linda James Myers serves on its board and will teach courses through its Education Academy.
Visit the InstituteDo you practice or teach Optimal Psychology? Join the practitioner network so people looking for this work can find you.
Join the practitioner network
Library
Research, interviews, and citations
The articles, chapters, and conversations of Linda James Myers, Ph.D., and the newest research building on Dr. Linda James Myers' work across psychology, Africana studies, education, and health.
1,273 citations across 39 works, as counted by OpenAlex
Gather with us
Courses, talks, and gatherings
Learn and practice Optimal Psychology in community, online and in person.
Community events are hosted by others whose work draws on Optimal Psychology. We list them after reading each one.
Invite us
Invite us to your campus, practice, congregation, or community for a talk, workshop, book circle, or retreat.
Hosting your own?
Share a circle, class, or talk that draws on Optimal Psychology. We read each one before it appears here.
Share your eventWhere we’ve been
Past appearances
Conferences, talks, and gatherings already held — a window into the work for people discovering us, and a trail of where Optimal Psychology has been shared.
From recent gatherings
Moments
Photos from past courses, talks, and retreats — ready to share and a window into the work.
Reflections
How this work lives in people
Words from readers, students, retreat circles and practitioners.
All
With Dr. Linda James Myers
From the community
The Institute
Who we are
Linda James Myers, Ph.D.
Founder · Developer of Optimal Psychology
An internationally recognized scholar whose work places the wisdom tradition of African deep thought at the forefront of a paradigm shift now supported by contemporary science. She developed Optimal Psychology, Belief Systems Analysis, the Optimization Process, and the HeartFeather Strategy.
Academy Professor Emerita at The Ohio State University and past president of the Association of Black Psychologists.
Cheyennis Doom, M.S.
Digital and operations · Reflective Journal co-author
Cheyennis R. Doom, M.S., is an Optimal Industrial-Organizational psychologist, and lifelong student and teacher of liberation. She earned her M.S. in Applied Psychology from USC, and holds an adjunct faculty appointment in psychology at Bethune-Cookman University. Her work centers African-centered psychology, culture, racial and occupational harm, and healing. She founded CultureROOTS, a restorative and regenerative applied psychology methodology grounded in African wisdom, and serves on the board of Safe Black Space. She co-authored Understanding an Afrocentric World View: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology: Reflective Journal and Resilience & Reinvention in a Chaotic World.
Questions
Stay connected
Hear what's happening
Courses, gatherings, new writing, and ways to bring Optimal Psychology into your work.
General questions: info@optimalpsychologyinstitute.org