STA​NDOUT AWARD 

The Saybrook Standout Award highlights students conducting outstanding research, community service, or work in their respective career fields.   Saybrook Standout Recipients will be highlighted at Saybrook Board of Trustees meetings. The recipient will have 10-15 minutes to present their accomplishment(s) to the Board and facilitate Q&A. The recipient will also be presented with an award and will be featured on the Saybrook Community Site and all university social media platforms. ​​

Nomination Process 

Each department chair will nominate student(s) who stand out in the department.  The nomination will include a detailed summary of the student’s achievement(s), specifically focusing on how the student’s work embodies Saybrook’s mission and vision and how they positively contribute to the body of knowledge, community, or career field.  

Saybrook standout award recipients​

​The Saybrook Standout Committee is pleased to announce Chris Bradshaw​. 
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Chris Bradshaw, PhD, LPC, is a psychologist, psychotherapist, and writer living in Tucson, Arizona. He recently opened a private practice, Fully Human Psychology, LLC, which is grounded in Existential-Humanistic psychotherapy (EH) and Somatic Experiencing (SE).  He successfully defended his dissertation at Saybrook University in August of 2024.  His dissertation utilized a mixed-methods approach to explore the client experience of "therapeutic presence." Chris completed the EH Psychology concentration at Saybrook and was awarded the Rollo May scholarship. He trains experientially for ongoing professional (and personal) development with the Existential-Humanistic Institute (EHI), and Somatic Experiencing International (SEI).  He assists in teaching at EHI.  
Chris writes a regular blog for Psychology Today titled "The Existential Station: Fuel for Presence, Meaning, Awe, Transcendence." He has co-written a chapter on "therapeutic presence" for a book being published in 2025 by the American Psychological Association (APA) titled "The Evidence-Based Foundations of Existential-Humanistic Therapy."  This book emphasizes the research supporting EH and also addresses multi-cultural considerations within the application of EH therapy.  Chris is also co-editing a book on the development of existential therapy cross-culturally being published in 2025 by University Professors Press. Chris has facilitated several video-recorded online panel "discussion events" with Saybrook faculty and other professionals in the field on a range of topics from the loneliness epidemic to men's mental health to "existential integrative" psychotherapy. These can be viewed on his YouTube channel: PsychBradshaw. In 2025, along with recent graduate from the Saybrook University Mind-Body Medicine program Sophie Archibald, PhD, LCSW, Chris will launch a podcast titled "Fully Human Psychology." This podcast will interview psychologists, Saybrook faculty, and various mental health field workers, on the subject of what it means to be and to become fully human, what challenges we face in this becoming, and how we navigate this world together, among other topics. ​Chris enjoys living in Tucson, one of the great underrated cities for food, dancing, comedy, and an abundance of cacti and hiking.​


Congratulations, Chris!


The Saybrook Standout Committee is also pleased to announce Gwendolyn Sipes​ ​. 
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Gwendolyn Sipes, LMHCA, lives and works on Whidbey Island in Washington state. From an early age, Gwen has been interested in how awareness of death can influence behavior, and she has used her education at Saybrook University to inform this curiosity with research. She is currently in the data collection stage of her dissertation, a narrative inquiry exploring oncologists’ perceptions of their relationship with their own mortality. This topic was inspired by EH literature and Terror Management Theory, personal experiences, and her work with cancer patients while interning at a large outpatient cancer clinic. Outside of her dissertation work, Gwen provides psychotherapy services to individuals and groups in her under-served community. She specializes in grief and other existential concerns, as well as depression and anxiety. She is also an active member with the South Whidbey CARES Coalition, a community-based prevention coalition whose purpose is to prevent substance use and promote mental health and well-being among adolescents and teenagers. When not working, Gwen is an active single mom of a middle school kid. She also loves to spend time in the abundance of natural beauty that is Whidbey Island where you may find her at the beach, kayaking, or in the woods. On rainier days, she is most content when making art, preferring to play with a variety of materials and mediums such as sewing, painting, assemblage and collage.​


Congratulations, Gwendolyn!​