Our Co-Founder: Dr. Michael Wesley Summerlin is a board certified clinical psychologist in the states of California and Nevada. Dr. Summerlin provides consulting services for organizational leaders in various industries.
Academia: In 2015, Dr. Summerlin was honored to accept a faculty appointment to teach Organizational Behavior and Leadership at the USC Marshall School of Business.
In January, 2020, Dr.Summerlin began teaching Leading With Mindfulness and Compassion at the USC Marshall School of Business.
​
In 2022, Dr.Summerlin designed and began teaching Compassion-Based Organizational Practices at the USC Marshall School of Business.
​
Current Research: EK Psych is collaborating with the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute. Our project entails developing a test instrument that can accurately assess our patient's and client's modes of neuroception (a sense of safety, danger, or life threat) prior to treatment. The project is headed by internationally renowned researcher Dr. Stephen Porges, and inspired by his Polyvagal Theory.
In 2019, Dr. Summerlin received an appointment as a Research Associate with the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at the Kinsey Institute through Indiana University and is currently collecting data on how trauma influences the autonomic nervous system for the purpose of developing novel treatments on reversing its effects.
​
Dr. Summerlin's dissertation research focused on relational trauma in early childhood and its influence on the regulatory function of the autonomic nervous system and corresponding personality structures (Research Panel: Allan Schore, Ph.D, UCLA, Avedis Panajian, Ph.D, Pacifica, Christine Lewis, Ph.D, Pacifica).
​
"We have found that a primary barrier to therapeutic change for an individual who has experienced relational trauma in early childhood presents as a significant decrease in the range of associative memory while interacting with others." - M.W. Summerlin, Ph.D (Dual Origins of Personality)
​
Emotive Knowledge Psychology (EKP) is underpinned by four theories: John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, Allan Schore’s Regulation Theory, Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, and Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology.
Behind The Name: We consider “Emotive Knowledge” as the basic understanding that emotive energy drives, develops, and maintains our mental patterns, and our overall personality structure. Emotive knowledge is essentially about understanding the power supply on which our cognitive functions and physiologically structured arrangements sit, and by which they are infused.
Dr. Allan Schore, considered by many in the field to be the leading authority on neuropsychoanalysis, said, “With deeper and more pervasive connections throughout the body, the right hemisphere of our brain, in a sense upholds the left hemisphere.”
The neuroanatomy of this energy management system chiefly consists of the autonomic nervous system (ANS, and right-brain dual cortical-circuits, i.e., Lateral Tegmental Circuit and Ventral Tegmental Circuit) hypothalamus (head ganglion of the ANS), and vagus nerve, anchoring a system implicated in evaluative functions that are regulating our overall process of energy management.
By and large, if an individual has mostly existed under the stress of threatened survival during their first two years of life, the energy and subsequent cognitive related structures and functions will be set up for a hyper-aroused survival-first approach to living, with limited executive functions (planning and accounting for contextual interplay, e.g., seamlessly recognizing the adjustments needed when changing from calculating time to calculating money, using a calendar, sense of orientation/direction) brought on line long after the individual has evaluated conditions to be consistent, and relatively safe. The structures maintain their potential for plasticity, though due to their lifelong critical role, they’re slower to change through maturation and/or in treatment.
The word “Psychology” in EKP denotes practicing psychology within the theoretical principles of Emotive Knowledge Psychology. EKP treatment plans and interventions are informed by a thorough assessment of the developmental psychobiological history of our patients and clients. By determining the probable point of development in which significant relational injury occurred, and understanding how the injury would have affected the developmental trajectory of our client/patient, we practice in concert with the established starting point for reaching medical specificity in our interventions for a broad range of mental diagnoses. This is what most often differentiates EKP’s approach to psychotherapy from other current treatment models.
​
Our shared history with Space and Aviation Pioneers: On November 4, 2017, the 70th anniversary of the only flight of the H-4 Hercules was celebrated at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum with Howard Hughes’ paternal cousin Michael Wesley Summerlin and Brian Palmer Evans, son of Hughes radio technology pioneer Dave Evans, taking their positions in the recreation of a photo that was previously taken of Hughes, Dave Evans and Joe Petrali on board the H-4 Hercules.
​
​
​
Emotive Knowledge Psychology (EKP): As EKP educators, consultants, and clinicians, we consider the following motto as foundational to effectively providing our services:
Relating with others through sincere interest and in a caring way has been shown to improve quality of life, while mindfully maintaining and managing the energy to do so is a bridge we often cross in that direction. - M.W. Summerlin, Ph.D (Dual Origins of Personality)
​
​
​