Today, Dr. Kara O'Leary, a clinical psychologist at the VA in St. Louis stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast to discuss her journey from counseling the sexually abused in San Fransisco to working with veterans dealing with depression, PTSD, and sexual assault. After college, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, counseling sexual assault survivors, later working for Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. She returned to the East Coast to complete her master’s degree at Columbia University, and then her Ph.D. at Long Island University in Clinical Psychology.  Her work at the New York State Psychiatric Institute with Bradley S. Peterson, B. Timothy Walsh, Joanna Steinglass, and Rachel Marsh focused largely on brain and behavior research on impulse control disorders, especially substance use and eating disorders.  She continued to work in the field of eating disorders when she moved to St. Louis, working on Denise Wilfley’s Interpersonal Psychotherapy-based study with overweight families at Washington University.  She completed her clinical psychology internship and post-doctoral training at the St. Louis Veterans Administration Medical Center.  She is currently employed at the St. Louis Veterans Administration Mental Health Clinic where she works with Veterans recovering from non-combat trauma, anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders.  Her theoretical orientation is largely based on contemporary interpersonal and psychodynamic theory. Kara gives her parents due credit for her strong sense of justice, passion to help others and sees this as her calling. 

Next week, Josh Levine- President of Great Monday and Co-Founder of Culture Labx

Today, Mark Crowley (Speaker, Leadership Change Agent & Consultant; Author of "Lead From The Heart") stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast where he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and tells a honest story about his childhood that had a lot of low points and very few high ones. His harder then average childhood turned his pain into best practices for leading a team and eventually a book. When I asked Mark to come on the podcast he had just wrote an article on LinkedIn called, "Employee Engagement Isn't Getting Better and Gallup Shares the Surprising Reasons Why", where there has been 340K views, 7K likes, and 1K comments. Clearly it had an impact.  This was one of my favorite interviews and I want to thank Mark for his honesty and authenticity. 

As always, please leave a review on iTunes. It only takes a second, and it has an enormous impact on my ranking.

Next week, Dr. Kara O'Leary, psychologist at the V.A.

Today Jay Scott (Co-Executive Director of ALSF) stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast to talk about Alex Scott's (his daughter) journey with cancer, her resolve, her focus, and her endless compassion to help other children who have cancer. Jay describes Alex and the family's journey of dealing with cancer and keeping Alex's name alive after she lost her battle. If you have not heard the story of Alex, it is a pretty simple concept. She was a little girl with cancer who started a lemonade stand to help others with cancer. That 'little' fundraiser went from a $200 front yard event to a $25 million dollar foundation whose sole focus is ending childhood cancer. If you are not moved by this story, you may have a black heart. :) 

Welcome back and Happy New Year! Today, Dr. Dee Edington (Founder and Chairman of Edington Associates) stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast. He is the Founder and Professor of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center and was the Director of the Center until June 2011. Dee has written several books (see below) and has authored and presented over 800 articles and presentations in his brief career (over 35 years). Clearly he is a rookie on the speaking circuit as well. 

Now, Dee and his co-author Dr. Jennifer Pitts (recent guest on the the podcast) have recently released their latest book that they believe will disrupt the corporate wellness industry. The book is titled: 

As always, please leave a review on iTunes. 

Next week, Co-Executive Director of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, Jay Scott. To date, this was the most difficult and emotion, but yet the most fulfilling interview I have done. Please listen to the emotional story of one parents journey through losing a daughter to cancer to creating a $25 million dollar fundraising organization. Grab the Kleenex. 

Today on a special edition of the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast, me. The President of Arch, Brian Passon sits-down to interview me about my journey and more interestingly, what I have learned from interviewing 45 experts across the wellness industry. If you have listened to any of the podcast you know that I have moved a bit, have four kids, but what you learn about me is how I met my wife. Hint, not the usual way. 

Also, I talk about the quadruple bottomline that organizations should focus on, and the common theme that comes out across all the interviews. 

Have a happy New Year, and stay tuned for January 11th when Dee Edington comes by the show. 

Rajiv Kumar M.D., (CEO of ShapeUp), stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast to talk about his journey and his company ShapeUp. Rajiv is a fantastic interview with a light and witty tone, and a huge purpose to make people healthy. While working towards his M.D. at Brown, Rajiv realized that we are in a culture of reactive medicine, not proactive, so him and a classmate left school to start ShapeUp. He did go back because his parents would have disowned him if he didn't finish, and the rest in history.

If you want to skip straight to the discussion on ShapeUp fast-forward to 42:30 in the podcast (though I wouldn't recommend it). 

This is the last podcast for the season and the next podcast will be released on January 11th, featuring Dee Edington (if you know Dee, you are not going to want to miss this). 

To learn more about ShapeUp: www.shapeup.com

Have a great holiday season. 

On this episode of the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast I replay my first podcast from back in January. I interview one of the founders of intrinsic motivation, Dr. Richard Ryan. Dr. Ryan's basic interests are in human motivation, and how aspects of social contexts (e.g., schools, work, virtual environments, sport, clinical, and healthcare settings), affect people's persistence and quality of behavior and experience. He is particularly interested in how environments can support (or undermine) autonomous motivation, and the high quality of learning, performance and experience associated with it. He is also the co-founder of Immersyve Inc.,where he is the Chief Scientist. Immersyve focuses on how people can be empowered and optimally engaged in both molecular and digital worlds.

His work is highly cited in workplace wellness and wellness in general, so please enjoy this replay.

Click here for more information on self-determination theory and here for Immersyve

Next week will be the last podcast for the year. I will be picking it back up in the second week of January so be on the look out. 

Dr. Jennifer Pitts (Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer) drops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast to chat about her and Dee Edington's new book titled "Shared Values, Shared Results: Positive Organizational Health As A Win-Win."  that is coming out next month. Taking the framework of Dee's first book, Jennifer and Dee expand on it to come-up with three organizational themes that any organization can use. There is no getting around it, this book is robust at over 300 pages, but it is has a depth that anyone can go back and reread and learn somethign new. Personally, I see the book as a potential workplace wellness manual. 

You can learn more about Edington and Associates by going to: www.edingtonassociates.com 

Today Ryan Picarella (CEO of WELCOA) stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast. Ryan's rise to CEO is some what meteoric, but once he starts talking it is clear why the board of WELCOA selected him (Please pay Ryan a nickel if you think he has big shoes to fill) to lead the organization. Ryan and I talk about his path, what he learned working as a bartender, and how WELCOA will shape the future of workplace wellness. One of the great things about this interview for me was learning about all the things WELCOA is doing for the industry, but more importantly, what a great guy Ryan is.

To learn more about WELCOA go to: www.welcoa.org

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Bryan Noar, (VP of Marketing and General Manager at Self Help Works) stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast. Bryan is Zimbabwean, but has lived in the U.S. since the 80's.  Bryan's journey to the wellness industry is unique, interesting, and one worth listening to. You may have never heard of Self Help Works, but there is a good chance your wellness vender or insurance agency uses their services. 

To find out more, go to www.selfhelpworks.com

Next week, Ryan Picarella, CEO of WELCOA.