Ben Yalom brings psychotherapy and creative practice together, offering sharp insights on values, purpose, and meaningful work.
5.00 of 5
Top rated!5 of 5
“This workshop deepened my realization of the truth of our shared humanity. I also appreciate the safe and creative space created by you and all of us. It was truly inspiring and transformative.”
Chloe X
Ben Yalom is a psychotherapist, theater maker, and writer whose work explores how people can live and work in deeper alignment with their values. Known for his ability to connect psychological insight with creative practice, Ben speaks to audiences seeking meaning, direction, and renewed imagination in their professional and personal lives. His background in experimental theater and psychotherapy gives him a distinctive voice—one that combines emotional depth, intellectual rigor, and practical relevance. Whether addressing leaders, creatives, or reflective professionals, Ben Yalom creates space for insight, curiosity, and lasting change.
Ben Yalom works at the intersection of psychotherapy, creativity, and lived experience. As a psychotherapist and coach, his focus is on helping individuals and groups understand their core values and bring them into alignment with how they live, work, and make decisions. His talks speak directly to audiences navigating complexity, change, and the quiet question of whether their lives truly reflect what they care about.
Ben’s approach is grounded, thoughtful, and human. He does not offer quick fixes, but rather clear frameworks and reflections that invite deeper understanding. By drawing on both psychological insight and creative thinking, Ben Yalom helps audiences reconnect with purpose and discover new ways forward.
For over two decades, Ben Yalom was the visionary force behind foolsFURY, an influential experimental theater group that helped transform San Francisco’s performing arts scene between 1998 and 2020. Under his creative leadership, foolsFURY became known for bold experimentation, emotional honesty, and original theatrical language.
This long experience in theater deeply informs Ben’s speaking. He understands creativity not as a vague concept, but as a discipline one that requires courage, collaboration, and a willingness to step into uncertainty. On stage as a speaker, Ben brings the same presence and attentiveness that defined his theater work, creating talks that feel alive, responsive, and engaging.
Ben Yalom has taught foolsFURY’s techniques in theater creation at numerous universities in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. His teaching experience has given him a strong ability to translate complex ideas into clear, usable insights for diverse audiences.
In his speaking engagements, Ben draws on these years of teaching to guide audiences through creative ways of thinking about work, relationships, and identity. He shows how theatrical thinking attention, improvisation, and awareness can enrich professional life and personal growth alike.
As a psychotherapist and coach, Ben Yalom works with people who want their lives to make sense from the inside out. His therapy and coaching focus on understanding values, clarifying inner conflicts, and unlocking creative approaches to work and life. These themes form the core of his talks.
Audiences booking Ben Yalom for their event gain access to a speaker who understands both the emotional and practical dimensions of change. He speaks with empathy, precision, and respect for the complexity of human experience. His sessions often leave participants with a stronger sense of clarity and a renewed connection to what truly matters.
Ben Yalom is also a writer and a longtime collaborator with his father, the renowned psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom. Together, they recently wrote Hour of the Heart, an international bestseller that reflects their shared commitment to depth, honesty, and the therapeutic encounter.
This collaborative writing has further shaped Ben’s voice as a speaker. He brings literary sensitivity, psychological insight, and lived experience together, creating talks that feel both intimate and expansive. His ability to weave story, reflection, and professional insight makes his presentations memorable and impactful.
5 of 5
“This workshop deepened my realization of the truth of our shared humanity. I also appreciate the safe and creative space created by you and all of us. It was truly inspiring and transformative.”
Chloe X
5 of 5
“This process soothed much of my anxiety, helped me settle down to enjoy life, and even shifted some habits. I’ve started moving more in line with my heart, without forcing or rushing.”
Kelin B
5 of 5
“I feel I can direct my own life. I really love the expressive power of theater. I’ve come to better understand my body and trust the signals it gives me.”
Lixue J.
5 of 5
“After the workshop I am identifying my challenge as a more tangible problem I am encountering in life. Having a more concrete target to work against gives me some optimism that there is a way out.”
Michael D.
Keynote by Ben Yalom:
Your Body Knows Your Story is a powerful journey of self-discovery, reflection, and empowerment, that combines profound physical experiences rooted in contemporary theater and dance, with formidable insights from Existential and Narrative therapy.
The program is led by theater maker and therapist, Ben Yalom. Participants will be led on a journey, both individual and collaborative, that will help them clarify their own values and ethics, better understand what is meaningful to them, and what they have been up against in learning to flourish. The experience is both enjoyable and satisfying, as well as intensely moving for many.
Keynote by Ben Yalom:
This is a program based in the deep wisdom of artists and creators, interwoven with techniques and knowledge from the traditions of Existential and Narrative therapy. Life is a constant encounter with the unknown. Despite our best planning, we cannot be certain how things will turn out, nor what the results of our actions will be. For millennia artists and other creators – designers, inventors, visionaries, etc. – have developed brilliant strategies for working with uncertainty, strategies which can be powerfully useful in the lives of everyone grappling with what if means to be human.
Instructor Ben Yalom has distilled lessons from his decades of celebrated work in avant-garde theater, and combined this with experience and curiosity as a psychotherapist. He focuses on five central themes, and related artistic practices that can be directly applied to our daily living:
These practices are then related to individuals’ personal values, ethics, and meanings for life, meanings which therapeutic techniques can help uncover and refine.
