A Fine Time for Healing

The tough conversations we haven’t had form the boundaries of our world.

Drawing on his work in corporations and prisons, today's special guest David Wood helps us identify our hidden Tough Conversations, and find the courage to transform them into the gold that lies just on the other side of those scary interactions. 

David believes that the tough conversations we avoid are ourdoorways to confidence, success, and love. They become the defining moments which shape our world. He coaches high performing entrepreneurs, executives and teams - and now prison inmates - to create amazing results and deep connection. One tough conversation at a time.

Alongside his clients’ successes, David is no stranger to overcoming challenges himself, having survived a full collapse of his paraglider and a fractured spine, witnessing the death of his sister at age seven, severe anxiety and depression, and a national Gong Show!

After life as a consulting actuary to Fortune 100 Companies, David built the world’s largest coaching business, becoming #1 on Google for “life coaching.” He believes the tough conversations we avoid are our doorways to confidence, success, and even love – in both work and life. David coaches high performing entrepreneurs, executives and teams - and even prison inmates - to amazing results AND connection. One conversation at a time.

David Wood is the author of “Get Paid For Who You Are,” with foreword by Jack Canfield. He was nominated to the Transformational Leadership Council alongside such thought leaders as Don Miguel Ruiz, John Gray, and Marianne Williamson.

Today's special guest L. A. Villafane survived domestic abuse, but part of her was never the same: The trauma she suffered triggered dissociative identity disorder.

Villafane didn’t confront her disorder until she created another persona—this time on the page. In The Other Gloria, Villafane depicts her own struggle in a fictionalized tale in which an abuse survivor with dissociative identity disorder must confront her past in order to save herself and her daughters.

“People always think of drastically split and murderous personalities. This is not another Sybil story,” Villafane says. “The way I have depicted dissociative disorder in the book is the way I experience it. Like Gloria, I have lost most of the memories of my daughters growing up, and I regret that more than anything. The experiences I describe in the book are exactly how I experience episodes. I rarely ‘check out’ anymore, although I don’t think I’ll ever really stop completely.”

While Gloria’s struggle is unique, an element of Villafane’s real-life survivor story will resonate with many people: Overcoming manipulation, gaslighting and domestic violence.

Americans facing the myriad distractions of modern life might be tempted to make light of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as an explanation for our frantic, fragmented focus – as a nation and as individuals. But adult ADHD is a serious condition that, left untreated, can derail careers, destroy relationships, damage self-esteem, and even kill people.

Too often, we don’t recognize it and thus can’t treat it effectively. Today's special guest, Dr. John Kruse, has set out to change that with his provocative new book, “Recognizing Adult ADHD: What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”

His ultimate goal, he says, is to “deepen our understanding of, and empathy for, those individuals with the complex and potentially disabling condition of adult ADHD. “Millions have it, millions more are affected by the individuals with ADHD in their lives, and our whole society is becoming more ADHD-like,” he says. “So we all need to become more prepared by understanding what ADHD is and how to cope with its intrusion into our lives.”

With a doctorate degree in basic neuroscience and an active psychiatric practice, Dr. Kruse throws cold water on the “Goldwater rule” which prohibits psychiatrists from giving professional opinions about public figures without personally conducting an examination. The president, he says, embodies a condition that affects millions of Americans, yet is poorly understood and often undiagnosed.

“I have been a psychiatrist for 25 years, treating people with both medications and psychotherapy, with a focus on adults with ADHD,” he says. “Even decades after psychiatry and society realized that adults can have ADHD, I still see patients, month after month, who have suffered for years without an accurate diagnosis of their ADHD.”

Today's special guest, Keith Leon S. is a very fortunate man. His life has been saved eight times by angels and he's been able to turn around so many hard-ships that his story is pure inspiration for all who have heard it. His is a true rags to riches story.

Do you believe angels really exist? Keith says they do and he wants to share how and why they can help you fulfill your purpose.

We live in a turbulent world, with fear and despair as major forces driving our current culture. His book Walking with My Angels is timely in its message of good news: we truly can find peace within. By connecting with our own inner guidance (our guardian angels), we can overcome challenges, find authentic happiness, and establish the path toward personal fulfillment.

A challenging upbringing rife with poverty, bullying, substance abuse, and poor grades is a tough scenario for anyone to overcome. Connected to his angels from an early age, Leon S. learned how to harness and accept the messages he received from his angels to his benefit. It wasn't easy, as oftentimes this "gift" felt like more of a curse and sent him into bouts of uncertainty. But, eventually, encounters with an earthbound angel presented him with a choice: to live or die.

Leon S. is on a mission to bring joy and hope into the lives of everyone he meets, and every who reads this book. He has been writing books, speaking, publishing other people's books, and making a difference in the lives of others for over 15 years. A multiple bestselling author, well-known speaker and talented musician, Keith has spoken at events that included Jack Canfield, Neale Donald Walsh, Barbara DeAngelis, John Gray, Michael Beckwith, and Marianne Williamson. He has made music with Stevie Wonder, Ben Vereen, and Nancy Wilson.

Are you battling perfectionism? Did you know that perfectionism is a hidden epidemic in our culture?

Today's special guest Dr. Margaret Robinson Rutherford, a psychologist in private practice for over 25 years, explains, "Perfectionism is a critical aspect of depression that gets far too little attention these days. It is common knowledge that we live in a social media-driven society, where everyone is trying to just post the "highlight" reel of their lives as opposed to the messy truth. This emphasis on perfection, especially in the social media world, is leading to an uptick in depression and anxiety. The emotional battles which ensue are also known to result in suicide and for many of the people afflicted, there seems to be no "reason"—they seemed happy, engaged in life, successful, well-liked."

Many people deny and repress emotional pain, but research is showing an increased pressure to have the perfect life—especially to feel significant pressure to meet the perceived constant high expectations of others (what’s termed socially-prescribed perfectionism and is the deadliest and most dangerous type of perfectionism)—is having devastating consequences.

In Dr. Rutherford's new book Perfectly Hidden Depression: How to Break Free from the Perfectionism that Masks Your Depression. she offers a comprehensive healing pathway out of this secret hell. She uses her life experiences, along with the stories of others who’ve identified with this overlooked presentation of depression, to gently but assertively move the reader toward a life no longer governed by inflexible beliefs but lived with increased freedom and true joy. She reveals the syndrome of perfectly hidden depression (a term that she created), what causes it, how it differs from classic depression, and what you can do about it.

Today's special guest, Dr.Christopher Kerr has cared for thousands of patients who, in the face of death, experience end-of-life dreams and visions that are unlike any other. Described as "more real than real," these end-of-life experiences resurrect past relationships, meaningful events and themes of love and forgiveness, restore life's meaning and mark the transition from distress to comfort and acceptance. 

Drawing on interviews with over 1,400 patients and more than a decade of quantified data for an evidence-based and peer-reviewed published study, Dr. Kerr reveals that pre-death dreams and visions are extraordinary occurrences that humanize the dying process. He shares how his patients' stories point to death as not solely about the end of life, but as the final chapter of humanity's transcendence. 

Dr. Kerr’s book, Death Is But a Dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life's End  also illuminates the benefits of these phenomena for the bereaved, who find solace in seeing their loved ones pass with a sense of calm closure. Beautifully written, with astonishing real-life characters and stories, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of medicine's and humanity's greatest mystery.

Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, is the CEO and chief medical officer at Hospice Buffalo. Born and raised in Toronto, Kerr earned his MD as well as a PhD in neurobiology and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester. His research has received international attention and has been featured in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and the BBC. He lives on a horse farm in the small town of East Aurora, New York.

As a narcissistic abuse survivor and expert I know how frustrating, helpless, and confusing this disorder can be to deal with. As an experienced counselor I know that issues dealing with this problem are always arising. The second Friday of every month my internet radio show, A Fine Time for Healing, will be entirely devoted to taking to your calls and answering your questions about NPD. The advice is FREE! The show airs at 11 a.m. EST and runs for 45 minutes. The number you will call to connect with the show and speak to me is 424-220-1801. This time will not be a convenient one for everyone so there is another way for you to get your questions answered. Just email me ahead of time and I will read your questions on air and answer them. I assure you that your identity will be kept anonymous. All shows will be recorded and archived after broadcasting. They can be listened to at your convenience by clicking on the link I will provide you when you email me. Please send your emails to [email protected] with “Radio Show Question” in the subject heading

As you know, good people are ideal targets for abusive, manipulative people. They will prey on the sensibilities of nice people to gain control while the nice person excuses the bad behavior and thinks the manipulator can change. Guess what? They won't.

For emotional predators, life is a strategy game to dominate and control, and you are either a player to be defeated or a game piece to be used. Before you know what’s happening, they’ll ruin your life without empathy or remorse –and traditional approaches will make things worse.

Today's special guest Steven Wolhandler, JD, MA, LPC specializes in helping clients deal with seriously difficult people. He has been learning about abusers and manipulators – emotional predators – professionally since 1984, first as an attorney, then as a psychotherapist, mediator, arbitrator, and family court custody evaluator and neutral between parents, and in the last decade as a consultant and author. He has helped hundreds of people learn the true nature of the problem of toxic people, why traditional approaches and normal reactions make things worse, and practical effective ways to neutralize them.

Steven is the author of Protecting Yourself from Emotional Predators: Neutralize the Users, Abusers and Manipulators Hidden Among Us. The book offers a comprehensive approach to both correctly understanding and strategically protecting yourself from manipulative and abusive people. Wolhandler explains, “The many types of these disturbed and disturbing people have been called narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths, borderlines, hysterics, character-disturbed, malignant personalities, toxic personalities or covert-aggressive manipulators, but all of them are more accurately called Emotional Predators because they all prey on the emotions of decent people."

There is a special kind of person who seeks the more authentic experience, the genuine moment, the sweet fresh air escape from all the noise –a return to what’s real and what matters most. Often that person feels both called to a purpose and frustrated by the world around them, right on the edge of giving up. That same person may also feel brief flashes of immense power or sustained surges of energy, punctuated by drawn-out periods stalled in the doldrums.This life experience is much more common than most people want to admit,but there’s positive energy available in fear, distress, anger, or sadness,once we start to uncover it.

With access to that energy, could you change things for good? If you were able to leverage your emotions, not just for intelligence, but for fuel, what could you accomplish?

Today's special guest Bill Protzmann is here today to address those fundamental, heart-felt questions; to inspire, delight, and demonstrate the power of music as a tool for self-care.

The mission of the company he founded, Music Care is to remind people of their built-in ability to use emotions for good and offer proven, practical tools for our access to music as a behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual self-care modality.

He is a living example of how music can be life-saving and life-affirming. In addition to running a Meetup group for people who, like himself, often think about suicide, he has taught the principles of music asself-care to people ranging from at-risk Veterans to corporate executives, and was recognized for this work in 2014 by the National Council for Behavioral Health with an Award of Excellence, the behavioral health equivalent of winning an Oscar.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the mystical arts, especially palmistry, which is practiced worldwide. References to palmistry can be found in media outlets, movies, and mainstream music.

Today's special guest Helene Saucedo is a hand analyst who provides private readings out of her vintage camper and travels the country with her craft, lecturing and reading at shops and at events. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Helene has created a do-it-yourself palmistry kit called Handful of Stars: A Palmistry Guidebook and Hand-Printing Kit. Packages in a deluxe keepsake box, Handful of Stars is a beautifully illustrated, easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to the ancient art of palmistry with a novel twist. This one-of-a-kind palm reading kit offers instruction along with tools for creating handprints, including preprinted perforated sheets designed especially for the book, a nontoxic ink pad, an ink roller, and a gel pen. With these tools, readers will be able to create their palm print and record notations regarding significan markings on a single sheet of paper.The book follows the exact methodology Helene uses with her private clients.

http://www.handfulofstarsreading.com