Bear Psychology Podcast

In this episode Dr. Anna Baranowsky spoke with Psychologist, Dr. Robert T. Muller, a well-known clinical psychologist, author and professor. Together Dr. Baranowsky and Dr. Muller will discuss the therapist-client relationship and the tools available to therapists when helping their clients to feel safe and unpack their story.

For Dr. Muller's recently published book, you can find it on Amazon: "Trauma and the Struggle to Open Up". For Dr. Muller's podcasts and interviews you can visit his Youtube Channel. For Dr. Muller's blog on Psychology Today please click the following link: 'Talking About Trauma'.

For further reading on the importance for clients to make connections and build their social support, you can see Sebastian Junger's book on Amazon entitled "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging".

To find more information on the impact of childhood emotional abuse and historical trauma, you can visit Dr. Jonice Webb's website.

This radio show was aired on Realityradio101.com on Thursday, November 29th, 2018.

In the first episode of Dr. Anna Baranowsky's radio show she explains how individuals can become isolated when they experience trauma, and the importance of reaching out to the community as a crucial part of recovery. The example highlighted is the "van attack" in Toronto, Ontario that occurred on April 23rd, 2018, and the community outpour of love and support in North York following that event.

'Traumatic isolation' can undermine our well-being, leading to loneliness, confusion, depression and anxiety. A crucial part of recovery is gentleness with yourself as there is no one quick-fix. Recovery is often a product of every day practices in turning down the volume of stress. Whether that involves exercising, yoga, meditation, - you name it - consistency is key! You also have to be reasonable and allow yourself the time to recover. It is a natural, evolutionary defense mechanism for the body to create a heightened response to incidents and it takes time to settle down. One of the most important buffers to this isolation is going out into the community and finding ways to connect.

The Trauma Practice for Healthy Communities is a dedicated team that helps trauma survivors and their families find a safe place to land with facilitated group help support and resources. For more information about their programs you can visit traumapractice.org

Sebastian Junger's book, 'Tribe', discusses how during periods of great trauma people can feel the most connected, but after the trauma subsides people can find great difficulty coming together, a challenge faced by returning veterans in modern society. Follow this link for more information or to purchase the book.

Read the full blog https://traumapractice.org/toronto-van-attack/

This radio show was aired on Realityradio101.com on Thursday, May 31st, 2018.

Understanding habits is the key to breaking or building them. We can set goals and be aware of the need for change, but how do you go about making that change? This episode discusses how habits are formed in the body and brain, and how to channel the power of habits for good.

Emotions form an incredibly important tool at our disposal as long as we sit with them and experience what is happening within ourselves. Keep in mind that lecturing and shaming yourself won't help you change behaviour. Once a habit is formed, it happens without a lot of thought. You need to explore new behaviours and repeat them deliberately. Embrace the possibility of growth and put in the work!

Charles Duhigg has dedicated his work to studying and empowering people to harness their habits. He wrote a book "The Power of Habit" that you can learn about here or purchase here. He also has many resources on his website that you can explore here.

Bad habits that you hold over long periods of time are the basis of addictions. Gary Zukav discusses how addictions exist to mask and cover pain, and how they form one of the strongest parts of your personality. To learn more about addictions and how to create authentic power to grow spiritually and overcome them, you can visit his website here.

Another helpful resource is this TED talk by Judson Brewer entitled 'a Simple Way to Break a Bad Habit'. In this video Judson breaks down the anatomy of a habit as a trigger, behaviour and reward. He suggests that you need to be aware of what you know cognitively about the bad behaviour so that you can focus on why it is bad for you. After that you can begin to replace bad behaviours with good ones. To view the full video, click here.

This radio show was aired on Realityradio101.com on Thursday, September 27, 2018.

In this episode Dr. Baranowsky engages with guest speakers Dr. Daniel Fisher and Shontelle Prokipcak, proponents of the E-CPR approach to building real, human connections, strong communities, and a broader life.

Emotional-CPR

Emotional CPR ("E-CPR") stands for Connection, emPowering, and Revilatizing. It is a meaningful new approach for dealing with crisis and emotional struggles that was developed by Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Fisher. Using this approach people can learn how to connect with individuals and help them work through their trauma. Dr. Fisher's approach comes from the belief that 'everyday emotions are tiny revelations' and when listeners are present for those revelations it allows them to build emotional connections and support each other. For more information on the use of this method or Dr. Fisher's work, please visit www.emotional-CPR.org

Dr. Fisher also wrote a book entitled 'Heartbeats of Hope: The Empowerment Way to Recover' in which he discusses his personal journey and the profound impact that E-CPR has had on his practice. You can find it on Amazon here.

The second guest speaker on this episode is Shontelle Prokipcak of MHASO a clinician who brought the training to the Ottawa region in October 2018. She works with Mental Health & Addiction Services of Ottawa (MHASO). For more information on her practice, you can follow this link.

Watch the E-CPR video for more details.

In the many relationships that you navigate in life, do you find that one is significantly tougher to manage? This could be because a partner, spouse, friend, or co-worker has a personality disorder. There could be times where you are uncertain as to whether their moral compass truly points North. The focus of this episode is a few personality disorders, namely narcissism and anti-social personality disorder (i.e. sociopathy).

Narcissists

A narcissist is someone who has a pervasive pattern of thriving on/stirring up conflict, showing no empathy and neglecting to validate the experiences or feelings of others. Narcissists can be emotionally explosive, exploitive and abusive when they don't get the attention that they crave.

The first guest speaker is Ingrid from Show Boundaries, who explains the 'Observe rather than Absorb' approach to navigating a relationship with a narcissist. This method involves learning about the methods and techniques a narcissist will employ by observing them and my paying attention to what is happening inside of your body. In terms of dealing with them in the moment Ingrid explains the 'Crack in the CD' method.

Dr. Karyl McBride wrote a book about this that includes a checklist of how to tell if your partner is a Narcissist. You can purchase her book here. For more information about Dr. McBride's work, you can visit her website here.

To view the checklist you can read Dr. McBride's article in Psychology Today here.

Anti-social Personality Disorder:

Along with narcissism there are pervasive signs from an individual's childhood that display in those with anti-social personality disorder. Those who have anti-social personality disorder have a failure to conform to social norms and legal behaviour, they are impulsive and lack the ability to plan ahead, and they display a real lack of remorse for their actions.

Psychopaths vs. Sociopaths

Psychopaths and sociopaths lack empathy, do not care about social rules/behaviours, and have no remorse/guilt for their actions. While sociopaths make up 4% of the general population, psychopaths only make up 1% of the population. Psychopaths are often well-educated and have a career, and their behaviour is controlled and manipulative. This greatly differs from sociopaths who are often uneducated and unable to keep a steady job, who are spontaneous rage-a-holics

Join Dr Baranowsky on the last thursday of the month on Reality Radio 101 @ 1.00pm Website: www.realityradio101.com Email: [email protected]

The focus of this episode which aired on June 28th, 2018 is on the stress experienced by First Responders and the tools that one can use to bolster your resilience to that stress. This episode has two guest speakers, Gary and Andrew. Gary is a retired paramedic who shares insights on how he increased his resilience to the inevitable on-the-job stress he experienced.

The second guest speaker is Andrew Scollick who is the Director of PDA International, a Psychometric Behavioural Assessment and Consulting firm. This firm applies the DiSC behavioural profile theory in the workplace to understand individuals' underlying behaviours, reactions to stress and risk tolerance. Andrew works with police services and other first response teams, as understanding our tendencies can help us bolster our weaknesses. For more information about PDA International and the DiSC model, visit Andrew's website here.

For more information on Dr. Stephanie Conn, first responder turned psychologist, you can watch Dr. Baranowsky's interview with her here. She discusses 'strengthening your personal armour' and how police and emergency personnel can develop and increase their resilience.

The Road to Mental Readiness is a mental health continuum model that can be useful for First Responder Teams and mental health professionals to understand what is happening to you when you are impacted by stress. You can find more information on this colour chart here.

In this episode Dr. Anna Baranowsky discusses the issue of bullying and harassment in the workplace. On a weekly basis 40% of Canadian workers experience bullying - it can happen in any workplace, even yours! Seemingly regular procedures become major dilemmas and erupting events that can leave individuals feeling alienated and in danger, leading to high degrees of stress. The toxic environment that it creates can have a serious impact on your mental and physical health as it propagates severe feelings of anxiety, depression and possibly even suicidal thoughts.

Just remember if you have a bully at your workplace and you are being targeted - you are not alone.

This episode discusses a clip of Jeff Salkin's interview with Cynthia Kay Stevens about bullying in the workplace. Follow the link to view the full video here.

A clip of Dr. Gary Namie also appears in this episode in which he outlines the four main types of workplace bullying tactics. For more information you can see his resource kit here.

This episode features Dr. Hannah Scott, (University of Ontario, Institute of Technology) a PhD researcher in the field of workplace bullying. She uses the Workplace Power Control Wheel as a basis for training workers and employees about the common strategies employed by bullies. For more information on her work you can see her interview with Dr. Baranowsky here.

The final clip of this episode displays Marissa Peer's strategies of how to get out of bullying. For more information on her work, please look here.

For Bullying Resources visit: https://bit.ly/2toq5hr

Radio show was aired on Realityradio101.com on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 1 pm EDT