Psych Spiels & Silver Linings: Recent Episodes
Chris Mackey and Rowan Mackey
Rowan Mackey is joined by his father, clinical psychologist Chris Mackey as they discuss ways of applying strategies from general and positive psychology in order to best create the conditions for our mental health to flourish.
This podcast contains tips and strategies from over 40 years of experience as a psychologist, as well as an accessible discussion about these ideas and how they can benefit us all.
Chris and Rowan continue their series on the themes related to domestic violence. This week we are discussing anger and anger management. Anger is a part of life and we will never be able to fully escape being angry, but there are many things we can do to ensure that our anger doesn't become harmful to ourselves and those around us.
Chris and Rowan begin a three-part series on some of the themes related to domestic violence. In this first episode, we will be looking at how to manage conflict in a healthy way.
Chris and Rowan discuss how therapists can individualise therapy with their clients through a process that mirrors the process of evolution. We discuss how people can vary their approaches, sometimes in novel ways, to get the most out of therapy and maintain their wellbeing beyond any mental health challenges they have faced.
Chris and Rowan discuss the role of meaning and purpose in mental health and modern psychology. We talk about how positive psychology has reintegrated the importance of meaning and purpose into the field of psychology and how some of the latest research has backed up the importance of meaning for our mental well-being.We look at why meaning and purpose were de-emphasised by some of the earlier psychologists like Sigmund Freud and why they later re-emerged through the work of people like Martin Seligman and Michael Steger.
Chris and Rowan speak with Dr Ken Harris. Ken is an author, educator, keynote speaker, lecturer and chiropractor, as well as the lead author of the book Second Chances - From Surviving to Thriving, which included a chapter written by Chris. Ken has spent decades dedicated to the exploration, understanding and promotion of the mind, body, spirit connection.We speak with Ken about what he's learned as the lead author of Second Chances - From Surviving to Thriving, as well as tap into Ken's extensive knowledge and enthusiasm that he's gained from many years working in the field.
Chris and Rowan discuss the contribution of Victor Frankl to psychology. Frankl is the founder of logotherapy, a therapy approach that focuses on meaning. We discuss Frankl's life and the experiences that he had that led to his ideas, including spending time in 4 different concentration camps during the Second World War, and why Frankl's ideas are becoming more relevant today.
Chris and Rowan finish off the series on ancient Greek philosophy with a look at how stoicism developed out of Socrates' practices in ancient Athens. We look at the cynics and their influence on the stoics and their ideas ideas including the fundamental principle in modern psychology that we are not disturbed by things, but by our view of them.
Chris and Rowan look back at some of the philosophers from Ancient Greece and how their ideas relate to modern psychology. In this episode, the first part of a two-part series, we look at the ideas of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus and relate their ideas to modern psychology, which has translated many of these ancient ideas into a modern context.
Chris and Rowan discuss how stoic philosophy is related to modern psychology principles and how we can benefit from drawing upon stoic philosophy as we face different challenges in our lives. This is the first of several episodes on stoic philosophy and how it relates to modern psychology
Chris is away for the first podcast of the year and so Rowan will be taking you back through some of our previous episodes on stoic philosophy as an introduction for the next few episodes, which will also cover the topic of stoic philosophy. These snippets will look at how Tim Beck and Albert Ellis used stoic principles to inform their therapy approaches, which went on to become modern cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).The first two clips are from episode 52 of Psych Spiels, The ABC of CBT and the final clip, discussing one of Ellis's principles that is a distillation of stoic philosophy, is from episode 54, The Intolerance of Irrational Ideas.
For many of us, Christmas is a joyful time of the year when we catch up with family and friends, but for some people who've experienced childhood abuse or neglect, Christmas doesn't represent the merry, joyful time of the year that it does for many others. In this special Christmas podcast, Chris and Rowan discuss how people can navigate some of the difficulties associated with Christmas if they've experienced childhood trauma or abuse and may be seeing their family members or avoiding their families altogether.
This week, after Chris spoke to a number of his friends who are also psychologists, we discuss three things that can bolster well-being if they're included in a recipe for mental health. Those three things are: play, belonging and volunteering.
Chris and Rowan discuss the idea of learning how to sting. Stinging is when we go through a negative experience, and we let ourselves experience some of the negative emotions to motivate ourselves to ensure that it doesn't happen again. We discuss how we can leverage a negative experience and turn it into a more positive outcome in the future.
Chris and Rowan discuss the three different types of change and how we can bring about meaningful, long-lasting change in our lives. The three types of change are incremental change, where we might eliminate or introduce a behaviour bit by bit, pendulum change, where we may act differently for a period of time and later revert back to our original way of doing things, such as undertaking a fad diet, or paradigm change, which represents a more meaningful change in our underlying beliefs and cognition.
In a slightly different podcast this week, Chris and Rowan share a recording from a webinar that we did for the Art of the Minds festival in Geelong. The theme of the presentation was creative approaches to mental health support. As so much of psychology has traditionally been one-to-one therapy we look at some different ways of accessing mental health information, as well as how to discern between some of the less reliable info that's out there.
Chris and Rowan discuss the idea that we will each have our own unique recipe for mental health and we will each need to find an authentic and effective way of maintaining our mental well-being that works best for us. In this episode, we discuss how you can go about finding your own unique recipe for mental health, even when you're not feeling the best.
Chris and Rowan discuss the three coping alternatives for problem situations. If we come across a prolonged difficult situation, we are faced with three choices, to change it, to accept it or to leave. This seems like a simple notion on the surface, but it comes up in around 10% of therapy sessions. We discuss how we can apply these ideas as well as some of the complications that can come up when we face a difficult situation.
Chris and Rowan are joined by Dr Ozgur Yalcin to discuss some of the benefits and challenges of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Chris and Rowan discuss an idea put forward by Dr Kerry Howells, which is that you can't feel the emotions of resentment and gratitude at the same time.We talk about some of the issues that come up if we let our resentment grow and how we can cultivate more gratitude in order to taper our levels of resentment towards a situation over time.
Following on from the previous episode on treating trauma exposure therapy, Chris and Rowan discuss another therapy tool for treating trauma, EMDR.EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) can help create profound, transformative change for those who've experienced trauma and are still dealing with its impact. In this episode, we discuss how EMDR has helped many of Chris's clients better integrate their traumatic experiences to the point that around 50% of people would not change the trauma event in itself because of the profound post-traumatic growth that EMDR can help them attain.
Chris and Rowan discuss trauma memories and how they can be treated with exposure therapy. This is a two-part series on trauma, with the next episode being on EMDR, another treatment for trauma.In today's episode, we talk about the nature of trauma memories and how they're formed, their impact, and how we can treat trauma memories with a therapy technique called exposure.
Rowan is joined by Bianca Tassone to discuss the topic of neurodivergence and neurodiversity. Neurodivergence can include ADHD and autism, as well as a range of other conditions, and much has been learned about neurodivergence in recent years. We discuss what neurodivergence is and how our understanding of it is developing with the latest research.
Chris and Rowan discuss some insights that can be gained from exploring the different meanings of engineering terms such as "stress" and "strain" and applying them to psychology and our mental health.
Chris and Rowan are joined by Dr Juliet Trail, who has done extensive research on networks and how networks can optimally function. We discuss the different types of networks we may be involved in, plus what we can do to ensure that we're getting the most out of our networks and the relationships associated with them.
Chris and Rowan discuss how we can look at the schemas through a more positive lens, our character strengths. In recent episodes, we've looked at some of the more negative patterns that we can develop within our personality, but this week, we will look at a more optimistic way of thinking about our personality patterns.
In the final episode of our series on schemas and schema therapy, Chris and Rowan discuss unrelenting standards. Unrelenting standards or hypercriticalness is the final of the 18 schemas we will discuss and relates to rigid internal expectations for our behaviour and performance. Unrelenting standards are a significant contributor to depression and anxiety.
Chris and Rowan continue our series on schema therapy with the schemas relating to over-vigilance and other-directedness, which means being overly focused on the thoughts of others. These schemas include negativity/pessimism, emotional inhibition, punitiveness, approval seeking/recognition seeking, subjugation and self-sacrifice.
Chris and Rowan continue their series on schema therapy with the second episode, related to developing your sense of self and self-control. These schemes are from the family of schemas relating to impaired autonomy and performance, or your sense of self, and impaired limits, or your self-control.
Chris and Rowan discuss 5 of the 18 different schemas Jeff Young outlined when creating schema therapy. We discuss the schemas related to a lack of positive attachment during childhood that can make people feel disconnected and rejected in later life.
Chris and Rowan discuss a therapy technique called chair work that comes from Gestalt therapy and involves acting out different parts of ourselves. We discuss some of the principles behind chair work and the benefits of acknowledging and expressing different parts of ourselves.
For our 100th podcast episode, Chris and Rowan talk about a fundamental aspect of psychological therapy, helping someone to take the next step. It can seem simplistic on the surface, but the next step can often be difficult, uninteresting or uninspiring. In this episode, we discuss some ways of taking the next step, look at the benefits of mobilising ourselves in whatever way we can and talk about some situations where people have really benefitted from taking the next step.
Chris and Rowan share stories of people who've had encounters with the deceased and ask what meaning or benefit can come out of such experiences?Sometimes, when someone has an experience with the spirit of a loved one, they will hide it through fear of being intellectually weak or using magical thinking. However, many healthy people believe in encounters with a spirit or someone who's passed away and many of Chris's clients' wellbeing has improved greatly after they experienced some sort of spiritual encounter.
Chris and Rowan discuss how we can benefit our well-being by sharing our most meaningful experiences, even if they can't be explained rationally.Over many years, Chris has heard clients sharing their personal stories and seen how they've gained personal meaning from those experiences. This is despite, at times, wondering if they are psychotic due to the strange nature of these stories. In this episode, we discuss what we can get from acknowledging and sharing these experiences.
In a slightly different episode this week, Rowan and Chris discuss what you can get out of watching spectator sport that can benefit our mental health.
Chris and Rowan discuss the idea that 'what we monitor will change' and how this relates to therapy and performance. We look at how we can use different measurements in therapy to get a more objective sense of how therapy works. Plus, we look at how we can use these ideas to boost performance in other areas of our life.
Chris and Rowan discuss how we can make mental health more of a collective issue. It follows an experience Chris had hiking where someone broke their ankle and felt a burden to those assisting, even though this person clearly needed the help. We discuss how this relates to mental health and how we can get into the trap of not asking for help when we need support with our mental health. Plus, we look at some things we can do to set up more of a support structure around us so that we may not even need to ask for help as often.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of how to cultivate more synchronicity for ourselves. We discuss how to be more open to synchronicity, and Chris shares his ten steps for cultivating more synchronicity. Plus, we share some stories that highlight the benefits of experiencing more synchronicity.
Chris and Rowan speak with Lisa Buxbaum to discuss a range of topics related to spirituality and well-being.We talk about the idea behind Lisa's organisation Soaringwords, which helps sick children and other marginalised community members write their life stories. We discuss the contents of her book Soaring Into Strength: Love Transcends Pain, which is a practical guide for how Lisa has used synchronicity in her own life to enhance her well-being.Plus, Lisa and Chris talk about The Coincidence Project, an international organisation that promotes synchronicity as a tool for well-being. Tune in for all this and much more.Lisa Buxbaum is President-Elect of the International Positive Psychology Association’s (IPPA) Health & Wellbeing Division. Prior to her election, she developed an organisation, Soaringwords, a not-for-profit organization devoted to inspiring children, families, adults, seniors, and health care professionals to take active roles in self-healing – it has impacted over 500,000 people since the year 2000.Lisa is the author of the recently released book SOARING into Strength: Love Transcends Pain, and is an expert in positive psychology. Having completed a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) from The University of Pennsylvania (with Martin Seligman as one of her teachers), she also has an MBA in Marketing from Columbia University Graduate School of Business Her other qualifications include a certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a certificate from the American Institute for Mental Imagery.Lisa has presented at numerous scientific conferences including the International Positive Psychology Association has led professional development workshops at dozens of Fortune 500 companies and has been featured as an expert on numerous media platforms including ABC News, USA Today, Delta Sky Magazine and she was a columnist for Inc. Magazine.She also serves on the Board of the Coincidence Project, an international organisation that promotes synchronicity as a tool for well-being, with Chris.
Chris and Rowan discuss some of the traps that can develop in our relationships and what we can do to avoid them. We look at the work of John and Julie Gottman, who, in a study, were able to predict whether or not couples would divorce within 15 minutes with 90% accuracy. We talk about what they identified in a relationship that allowed them to predict divorce so accurately, plus what we can do to ensure we don't fall into these same traps.
Chris and Rowan talk about how to enrich and improve our intimate relationships. We discuss the work of John and Julie Gottman, who are world leaders in the field of relationship therapy. Much of today's episode also applies to our relationships beyond just our intimate partner as we discuss how to foster connection with those that we care about.
Chris and Rowan discuss how we can get the most out of the groups that we're a part of. This is in the context of group therapy, which is an often underlooked aspect of psychological therapy, as well as the other groups we're a part of like clubs or sports teams.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of applying positive psychology interventions in a group. It follows the release of a documentary that Chris is involved in called How to Thrive. The documentary follows the progress of seven people with significant mental health challenges participating in a positive psychology program during the pandemic. In this episode, we discuss how positive psychology can be applied in a group and what we can learn from the experiment that took place during the documentary.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of addressing personality patterns that have caused us difficulty over time. These patterns are often related to our core beliefs about ourselves. In this episode, we look at how to address some of these longer-term personality patterns like avoidance, perfectionism, lack of trust in relationships and entitlement.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of schema therapy. Schema therapy looks at the persistent thinking patterns that can cause underlying personality difficulties. These often relate to our experiences in childhood and contribute to patterns of thinking about ourselves and our relationships with others.They relate to theself-limiting beliefs we have about ourselves and the patterns of thinking that can stand in the way of expressing ourselves more fully.
Chris and Rowan look at some famous examples of people who've succeeded after perceiving to have failed at something. We explore the idea that the line between success and failure can be quite thin.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of failure and how we can look at our failures in the best possible light. When you look at some of the most "successful" people in life, it seems a large part of their success is how they've dealt with failure.Michael Jordan once said, "I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."We look at this idea and ask what the good things about failure are.
Chris and Rowan discuss dealing with a driving phobia, a common phobia related to anxiety and panic. We speak about the principles of a phobia and exposure therapy, which is related to the treatment of phobias. Most of what is spoken about in this episode can also be applied to other phobias and panic reactions.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of panic attacks and panic disorder. We talk about what panic attacks are, why they are caused and what we can do to help reduce their impact.
Chris and Rowan discuss how to get over some of the main barriers to exercise in the context of cold-water swimming, an activity that Chris has started recently. We speak about some ways of getting past the barriers to exercise and accessing the many benefits that it brings to exercise regularly.
Chris and Rowan look back at the history of physical exercise to see how the ideas around exercise developed over time. We look at how cultural attitudes and perceptions towards exercise changed in the past and how that has influenced our attitudes towards exercise today. In understanding this, we can hopefully learn more about our exercise habits, including some of the barriers that stand in the way of exercising more.
Chris and Rowan discuss a very handy therapy technique called bilateral stimulation. It can be used to manage stress, anxiety or pain and is an easy-to-use, accessible tool that is worth having up our sleeve as a strategy to reduce arousal. You can access the associated resources for this episode at www.psychspiels.com.au.
Chris and Rowan discuss the benefits of autobiographical writing, which can help us further develop our thoughts and process our emotions about events that have been important to us in our life. We talk about the importance of the stories that we tell ourselves and how important it is to the way that we frame those internal narratives.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of mentors and how having a mentor can benefit our mental health. This episode begins a short series of episodes that focus on the theme of what we can do for our mental health outside of therapy.
Chris and Rowan look at the topic of effective therapy and try and unpack exactly what makes effective therapy. What makes a therapist a good therapist and what responsibility does the client have in the relationship?
Chris and Rowan continue the topic of mentalisation and cover some of the top exercises from therapy that can help us improve our ability to mentalise and get along better with those around us.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of mentalisation, which relates to our understanding of our own and other people’s thoughts, feelings and intentions that underlie our reactions and behaviour. Mentalising involves a capacity to view ourselves from the perspective of others, appreciating and accepting that we can all see the world somewhat differently. Improving our capacity to mentalise can greatly enhance our relationships and improve our well-being.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of emotional intelligence in the context of children. It can be helpful to speak about emotional intelligence in the simplified terms we do with children. This episode is packed full of strategies for parents to help their children manage their emotions and adults who want to understand emotional intelligence better.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of emotional intelligence and how improving our emotional intelligence can improve many aspects of our life. Plus, we talk about some strategies for improving our emotional intelligence.
Chris and Rowan ask whether there is any psychological benefit from complaining. We look at how to find the balance between the positive benefits that come from expressing our grievances and the harm it can do to our mental health if we get stuck with negative thinking.
Chris and Rowan discuss the idea of a breakdown and how we can use this seemingly negative opportunity to grow.We look at metanoia, a Greek term that has been written about for thousands of years including by Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung who connected the ancient philosophical idea to modern psychology.Metanoia relates to the distress that can come from having our deeper beliefs challenged, but also the opportunity that can come from recognising a need for change.
Following on from last week's episode about the midlife crisis, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of a late midlife crisis, where these feelings can reemerge in our 50's. We also look at other life stages that can involve a sense of discomfort relating to a sense of time running out and what we can do if we confront these feelings.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of a midlife crisis. We look at what a midlife crisis is, why it happens, what we can do if we find ourselves experiencing these feelings and the positive side of dealing with a midlife crisis.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of timing and how it relates to change. Whether it be starting a new job, starting therapy, changing a habit or completing a project, some common patterns appear around the beginning, the middle and the end of something. If we can understand these patterns, we can better overcome the obstacles they present and will be more likely to achieve our goals.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of energy management and how good energy management affects our productivity and well-being. We talk about how to manage the natural peaks and troughs that come throughout the day and how we can best come up with our own recipe for energy management. Plus, we look at the daily routines of some famous people such as Mozart and Maya Angelou and see if they can give us some tips for what might work in our own routine.
Chris and Rowan are joined by clinical and forensic psychologist David Cherry to discuss how we can reduce our screen time and the screen time of our children. We also discuss some other ways to help build positive habits if we want to spend less time on screens and replace that time with more productive activities.
Chris and Rowan are joined by clinical and forensic psychologist David Cherry to discuss how we can introduce good habits into our routine. David gives lots of actionable tips and strategies for changing our behaviour, plus we look at how you can overcome a bad or unwanted habit.David Cherry is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist who has worked as a psychologist and trainer for over 40 years.He has a great deal of experience in working with adults who are troubled by issues relating to depression, anger and anxiety as well as working with children, adolescents and families.As a trainer, David has run over 4000 training events, ranging from brief presentations to small groups and public speaking to groups of up to 500 people.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of how we can maintain our focus and attention amongst the many distractions in modern life. These include digital media, social media, advertising and others that compete for our attention and want to distract us from our broader goals. This week, we speak about how this can lead to problems for our mental health and what we can do to gain some control back over some of the forces that compete for our attention.
PART 2 - in our second episode on creativity, Chris and Rowan discuss how we can be more creative. We talk about the process that the world's most creative people went through to become more creative and how we can all tap into that same process.
PART 1 - today's episode is the first in a two-part series on the topic of creativity. Today, we talk about how creativity benefits and encourages our well-being, as well as the elements that make up creativity. We look at the work of Hungarian American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who wrote the book Creativity and apply that information to benefit our mental health. Next week, we'll look at how we can be more creative and discuss the creative process of people who are recognised as having creative genius.
In a follow up to last week's episode, Chris and Rowan discuss the role of synchronicity in affirming and directing our life choices. Last week's podcast focussed on the rationality and psychology involved in making choices, but this week we discuss the more intuitive elements of making choices, of which synchronicity is an element.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of decision making and how recognising the way that we make decisions can help our well-being. It seems a bit paradoxical, but when we are presented with too many options, it can stand in the way of us making a choice and sticking to it. We look at some of the ways that we make decisions and why having too many choices can sometimes be a bad thing.
As a follow-up to last week's episode about flow, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic in the context of our relationships and friendships. Although many of the elements of flow are individual, we can tap into flow with those around us to enhance our relationships.
Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of Flow, drawing from the work of renowned psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi. The concept of flow can help us to optimise our well-being by identifying the activities that most engage us.
In preparation for talking about flow in the next podcast, Chris and Rowan discuss the benefits of completing the character strengths exercise. An awareness of your character strengths can significantly improve your well-being and enhance your problem-solving capabilities.We discuss the character strengths, particularly in the context of revisiting them, as we spoke about them right at the beginning of the pandemic.
In the first podcast for the new year, Chris and Rowan discuss some ways that we can best preserve our mental health as covid becomes more prevalent in the community. We talk about some ways of minimising and dealing with the uncertainty that we're all facing in the year ahead.
In our final podcast for the year, Chris and Rowan discuss Polyvagal Theory, which relates to the way we respond to threatening situations. We discuss the impacts of the freeze-submit, the fight-flight and the social engagement systems and how they are each called upon to address threat in different ways. We also talk about how things like trauma can disrupt our ability to balance these responses, as well as some things we can do to help restore that balance.
Chris and Rowan discuss the work of Albert Ellis, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. Ellis, along with Aaron (Tim) Beck, who we spoke about in a previous episode, created Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).In this episode, we discuss Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), particularly around the core fears and irrational beliefs that Ellis identified. We discuss the 10 primary irrational beliefs that Ellis identified and how recognising their impact can benefit our mental health.
Mark Grantis a clinical psychologist with over 30 years of experience in the treatment of stress, trauma, and pain. Mark’s main interest and experience is in the role of negative emotion (resulting from stress) as a cause and an effect of health problems.In addition to his clinical work, Mark has studied and written about the problem of stress and pain, and his ideas have also been cited in the New York Times. Mark is the author of the book “Change Your Brain Change Your Pain” and has published several articles on the subject, including in the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology.We are incredibly lucky to have Mark share his expertise on the podcast to discuss how to manage and overcome pain, the relationship between pain to trauma, the role of medication in pain relief and much more.
After the passing of Aaron (Tim) Beck, pioneer in the field of psychology, we decided to examine his legacy and explore some of the mechanics of cognitive behavioural therapy. We discuss what CBT is, the story behind its development and how we can all benefit from recognising Beck's work and influence.
Chris and Rowan discuss the importance of our social connections for our physical and mental health. We talk about some of the benefits that can come from social support and also some of the problems that can arise from loneliness and social isolation.
In celebration of 50 episodes of the podcast, Chris and Rowan look back at some of their favourite themes and topics that have come up on the podcast so far. Plus, we speak a bit about how we've best utilised the podcast material and how it's come up after we've recorded the episodes.
Chris and Rowan discuss a number of concepts from quantum physics and how they relate to psychology and our mental health. What quantum physics teaches us is that the world is not black and white and there are some spooky notions that present themselves in the quantum world. We discuss what this means for our ability to choose our own circumstances, even if we seem stuck in a situation.
Chris and Rowan are joined by grief and resilience expert Dr Lucy Hone. Lucy is an author, researcher, Co-director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience and presenter of one of the best Ted Talks on the internet.Lucy's best-selling book, Resilient Grieving, is seen as one of the pre-eminent books on grief and we are incredibly lucky to be joined by her today.
Chris and Rowan discuss a topic from Hindu philosophy, the three Gunas. We discuss the three Gunas of Tamas, Rajas and Sattva in the context of benefitting our mental health. We have found these ideas to be a good way of explaining many of the concepts that relate to Western Psychology.
Chris and Rowan talk about an important topic, self-compassion. We discuss some reasons why people may not be particularly self-compassionate and then talk about some strategies for boosting your own self-compassion and restoring more inner-balance.
Chris and Rowan discuss the idea of encouraging personal agency in a mental health context. How can we gain more personal agency in order to achieve heightened wellbeing? This podcast episode was motivated by a presentation from Martin Seligman, a pioneer in positive psychology.We talk about ideas that have been explored for thousands of years, right through to the Centre Court at the most recent Wimbledon final.
Chris and Rowan discuss dissociative identity disorder, which used to be known as multiple personality disorder. We dispel some of the myths around DID and talk about ways of treating such a complex psychological condition.
Chris and Rowan discuss some strategies for dealing with depersonalisation, derealisation, and other dissociative disorders. We discuss a number of cases of people developing dissociation and share some of their tips for managing their experiences.
We discuss the symptoms of depersonalisation and derealisation that can occur with panic attacks. These symptoms are often under-recognised as being associated with panic and can lead people to feel as if they are losing their mind.In this episode, we discuss why these symptoms are not inherently dangerous as well as some strategies for managing symptoms of depersonalisation and derealisation associated with panic.
As Melbourne has recently been in a fourth lockdown of the pandemic, we thought we'd cover some ways of coping through times of prolonged stress.We discuss the effects of prolonged stress, as well as some ways that you can assist with managing those effects.
Chris and Rowan build on the topic of placebo and talk about some of the stories related to the healing power of the mind. There are many stories of people miraculously healing themselves such as when they've been told they will never walk again. In this episode, we explore some of why that is, and also how we can harness these seemingly mystical capacities for ourselves.
Chris and Rowan discuss the placebo effect and how we can best use it to benefit our mental health. We also look at what the nocebo effect is and what the implications are for traditional treatments for mental health.
We discuss the psychological benefits of having spiritual beliefs. We discuss some of the research that has been done into the link between wellbeing and spiritual beliefs. This includes the work of Ken Pargament and others, whose research suggests that spiritual beliefs shouldn't be dismissed or minimised, particularly when they're providing clear benefits for mental health.
We speak about one of Chris's favourite topics, facing a spiritual crisis. In this episode, we discuss what a spiritual crisis is, and how other mystical experiences and trans-personal phenomena can be of immense benefit to our mental health. We also look at the difference between psychosis and satori, an irregular state of consciousness recognised by nearly all cultures across time.
Understanding our own individual response to stressful situations is one of the best things we can do for our mental health. In this episode, Chris and Rowan discuss the benefits of being able to recognise when your stress is building up and how you can find your own personal recipe for alleviating stress.
As with physical health, exercise is one of the best interventions that we have available for mental health. In this episode, Chris and Rowan discuss some of the benefits of exercise to our mental health and cognitive function as well as some ways of ensuring that you're able to follow through with an exercise routine.
In what is one of both Chris and Rowan's favourite topics, we discuss the hero's journey and its relevance in psychological therapy.We go through some of the different stages of the hero's journey and discuss how we can all relate to them in different ways.This episode is particularly relevant after the recent Royal Commission into Mental Health Services in Victoria and in this episode, we discuss an optimistic attitude to mental illness that addresses some of the Report's findings.
Perfectionism, or rigid expectations, is often linked with depression. Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of perfectionism as well as some strategies for managing perfectionistic tendencies.
How can you boost hope? What is the relevance of hope? How can you tell if someone has lost hope? This week, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of hope, both from the angle of restoring hope, but also the positive side of hope as a character strength.
In the first podcast for 2021, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of goal setting. Many people will have made new year's resolutions for 2021 and so we discuss some ways to help set goals that are most authentic to us and also some strategies for helping to fulfil those goals.
With waiting times for appointments with psychologists growing all across Australia, Chris and Rowan discuss some of the other options that are available when we cannot get in to see a psychologist or are waiting for an appointment. All of the resources and programs mentioned in today's podcast can be found on our podcast website at www.chrismackey.com.au/podcast.
Chris and Rowan discuss what it means to be a psychopath and how they most often show-up in our everyday life. It's estimated that as much as 1% of the population are psychopaths, so it seems that they are a lot more common than the most extreme criminal type of psychopath that we most often hear about. We look at some of the warning signs that someone might be a psychopath, as well as what we can do to best protect ourselves from harm.
This week, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of narcissism. Narcissism has come into focus recently with the behaviour of a particular World Leader.We look at how narcissistic personality tendencies develop and what we can do to manage those who have narcissistic tendencies.
As a follow-up to last week's episode about finding the right mental health professional, this week Chris and Rowan discuss approaching the subject with a family member or friend who may be in need of some support.
Chris and Rowan give their tips on finding the best mental health professional for your set of circumstances, as well as some ways that you're able to make the most of the therapy experience.
As a follow-up to last week's introduction to the topic of synchronicity, Chris and Rowan look deeper into the wellbeing benefits of acknowledging synchronicity. We look at some stories of uncanny coincidences and how they have benefitted those involved, as well as what can be lost by ignoring our intuition. We also look at how synchronicity relates to our modern understanding of science including positive psychology and quantum physics.In this episode, we explore some of the theory laid out in Chris's book, The Positive Psychology of Synchronicity: Enhance Your Mental Health with the Power of Coincidence.
Chris and Rowan discuss synchronicity and how it relates to our wellbeing, the topic of Chris's book. We share stories of meaningful coincidences and how they've helped people to form some sort of deeper understanding or meaning in their lives.
Chris and Rowan explore the second aspect of mindfulness to last week's podcast on arousal management, which is living in the present moment.We look at the idea of living in the present both from the aspect of experiencing our immediate surroundings, but also to not overwhelm ourselves by placing too much emphasis on painful memories or worries about the future.
Chris and Rowan give some strategies for arousal management. Arousal management is one of the fundamental skills that a psychologist will help someone to bolster as hyperarousal can cause problems related to panic, anger, stress or many other mental health related challenges. We also look at what some of the challenges we may face if we don't implement practices to reduce our arousal in these ways.
Chris and Rowan look at the topic of self-compassion in the context of still aiming to achieve our goals and being ambitious.With many unforeseeable events having taken place this year, it can be an opportunity to reassess whether our own recipe for achievement is still working optimally for us. In this episode, we look at some of the interplay between our different systems of behaviour. The drive, soothing and threat systems and ask how an understanding of the interplay between these systems help us perform at our best, even in times of greater stress.
After recording 20 episodes, Chris and Rowan look back at and expand on some of the recurring themes that have come out of the podcast so far.
On this week's episode, Chris and Rowan look at the part our genetics play in determining our mental health and how we can best use that knowledge to our advantage. In this episode, we look at some ways of boosting the more positive aspects of our genetic makeup and discuss how we can best manipulate the relationship between nature and nurture to our advantage.
In today's episode, Chris and Rowan respond to recent restrictions throughout Victoria and ask what we can do on the day's when we're feeling flat and just not as up to it.We look to techniques and strategies from both general and positive psychology that can help us in the face of our current situation, but can also help us in other times when we might face a setback or a lapse.
This week, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of worry. We explore the differences between productive and unproductive worry, find ways of recognising when our worry is unnecessary or excessive and discuss some strategies for distancing ourself from our thoughts.
This week, Chris and Rowan discuss how phobias develop and how they are treated. People can have phobias for a whole range of reasons, but in this episode we look at some of the similarities between different phobias, how to stop them developing after a traumatic event and how to treat them once someone does have a phobia
On this week's episode, Chris and Rowan take on the topic of motivation. We explore what factors compel us to act in certain ways and try to answer the question 'how can you get yourself to do something when it's hard to do?' With many of us facing the prospect of another lockdown, this episode is full of practical strategies to motivate us and get us going to ensure that we complete all the tasks that we set out to during this next period at home. These tips and strategies are also relevant to those who just want to make a change in a certain area of their life.
On this week's episode, Rowan and Chris look for some ways to prevent and treat burnout. Burnout is often thought of as being related to work stress, but in this episode, we explore the idea that burnout is when our demands outstrip our resources. This relates to more than work stress and is particularly relevant to those in caring roles through the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week, Chris and Rowan explore the topic of undoing addictions. Dealing with addictions involves more than just willpower. It also involves having practical strategies which can assist a person to gain a greater return from their efforts in reducing or eliminating addictive behaviour. This episode aims to provide information and outline strategies which can be helpful in dealing with addictive behaviours, as well as explore the source of many addictions and their relationship to other psychological difficulties.
On this week's episode, Rowan and Chris discuss the nature of obsessive-compulsive tendencies and obsessive-compulsive disorder.All of us are unique and have individual differences in personality functioning. Most patterns of personality can have positive and negative aspects. When people have obsessional personality characteristics they may commonly aim to draw on a sense of order, rules or standards to exercise a greater sense of control in various areas of their lives.In this episode, we explore some of the positive aspects of an obsessive personality, where it can get us into trouble, as well as ways of managing obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
This week, Chris and Rowan look at the topic of anger. Recognising that there are many situations that it's ok to be angry, we focus more on ways of controlling your anger and being able to use it as a tool to serve us, rather than get us into trouble.In these times, this following quote from Maya Angelou is as poignant as ever, however, we must use anger to our advantage and not let it rule our emotions."If you’re not angry, you’re either a stone or you’re too sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger, yes. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. You never stop talking it."
This week, Chris and Rowan look at the topic of avoidance and avoidant personality disorders. Avoidance is a problem that arises when one's fears or anxieties get in the way of them either doing, or not doing something, which impacts on their quality of life. Those with avoidant personality tendencies, can experience repeated periods of depression and anxiety, because their avoidance is hampering them from truly processing the root cause of their distress and stopping them from tackling the problem head on. In this episode, you'll learn not only how to identify avoidance in yourself and others, but also some practical tips and strategies for how to overcome avoidant tendencies.
On this week's episode, Chris and Rowan look at what dissociative disorders are, how they develop, as well as their link to hypnosis. We also look at ways of treating dissociative symptoms and how dissociative identity disorder developed out of what used to be known as multiple personality disorder.
On this week's episode, Chris and Rowan discuss the topic of trauma. We look at some of the more common and complex ways that trauma can present in our behaviours and ways of managing trauma reactions to diffuse their intensity. We discuss a number of specific therapy techniques for addressing trauma, as well as the link between trauma and a number of personality disorders, including dissociative identity disorder, which used to be known as multiple personality disorder. As always, we apply an optimistic framework to the topic to hopefully get across the idea that trauma is something that can not only be overcome, but can also provide us with an opportunity to learn and eventually prosper, despite what can often be such negative circumstances.
On this week's episode, Chris and Rowan look at ways of managing with depression using general psychological techniques as well as how to use strategies from positive psychology to ensure that you're able to keep yourself out of depression.We also share some of our personal experiences with depression, as well as what we've learnt from coming through those dark episodes.
On this week's episode, Chris and Rowan look at ways of managing anxiety in our current situation and how we can help those around us if they're suffering.In recent years, positive psychology has changed some of the ways we think about anxiety, so we explore ways to look at anxiety more optimistically, including ways of using the character strengths to be more proactive against feeling anxious and offering support to those around us.
On this episode, Rowan and Chris ask the question, if sport is likely to be one of the first things to return, how can we best take advantage of it? We look at the importance of sport and the relationship between sport, the character strengths and our wellbeing.
This week, Rowan and Chris discuss ways of curating a news diet that’s healthy for our state of mind. We discuss why too much negative news is bad for us, how we can use the character strengths to improve our news diet with different sources, including new media, and why it’s worth taking this opportunity to reflect upon and expand the places where we seek our news.
This week, Chris and Rowan discuss ways of using positive psychology to manage the added conflict and situations that we're all likely to face over the coming months. We discuss what conflict is and some of the main conflict styles that people tend to use, ways of using the character strengths to manage conflict with family and friends as we're all in closer proximity and finally, ways of managing anger when tensions do bubble over.
Rowan and Chris take on the topic of exercising under the current stay at home restrictions and social distancing. We look at why it's particularly important to exercise during this current time, how the character strengths can apply to exercise and also look at exactly how habits are formed to ensure that changes we do make over the coming months are long-lasting.
Rowan and Chris Mackey discuss what the podcast will be about, take a broad look at the character strengths and why they're useful and look at what opportunities the COVID-19 pandemic may present to us over the coming months.