Live Well Be Well with Sarah Ann Macklin | Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition

This week I’m joined by Frank Anderson, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, psychotherapist and one of the leading voices in trauma treatment, for a conversation that goes far beyond traditional therapy.

What we explore together:

• Why trauma treatment was never meant to be a single method, and what 11 years of psychoanalysis taught him about its limits

• The viral “does trauma live in the brain or the body” debate, and what his close friend Bessel van der Kolk actually meant by The Body Keeps the Score

• Why attraction is often about unhealed wounding, not love, and how it shaped his own first marriage

• What it actually looks like to heal trauma through the body, not just by talking about it

• Why he believes we’re entering “the era of the body,” and what that means for AI and disconnection

Love, Sarah Ann 💛

My book, Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.

👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

Frank Anderson:

🔗 Website: https://www.frankandersonmd.com

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frank_andersonmd/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:40 Why “trauma” is such a loaded word to open with

02:08 Generational reactions to trauma: boomer denial vs. Gen Z over-identification

03:59 Changing the whole paradigm on trauma

05:07 Why therapy alone doesn’t work for trauma

05:25 11 years of psychoanalysis and The Integrated Path to Healing Trauma

08:34 “Trauma is a violation of agency”

09:34 Regaining self-trust and reconnecting to your intuition

10:30 His first marriage and recreating his parents’ dynamic

12:37 Sponsor break: Polsen Health

14:47 People pleasing as a survival strategy, not a trauma response

18:03 The origin of his own people-pleasing: his father, Harvard and “To Be Loved”

22:02 The Bessel van der Kolk “Body Keeps the Score” debate

23:14 Working with celebrity clients in LA, and being attacked for something he didn’t do

27:18 Setting the record straight: it’s not brain OR body, it’s both

29:57 “Nobody’s trauma is the same, it’s like your fingerprint”

32:02 The pushback on his next book’s proposed title

33:52 What resilience actually is, and his own “baby in a crib” trauma

39:54 Blending science and spirituality

42:55 How trauma shows up as physical illness (asthma, migraines, back pain)

45:11 The choking sensation and learning to speak his truth

47:58 Preverbal trauma and healing through the body

50:45 Journaling, the Sarno method, and a client physically releasing repressed rage

56:17 Why trauma memories are stored differently (Ruth Lanius)

57:34 Why Frank won’t do a session without movement

58:14 Healing chronic pain through surfing and ecstatic dance

59:54 Why therapy’s 50-minutes-a-week format fights neuroplasticity

1:00:38 Healing a jellyfish-sting trauma through surfing after the Palisades fire

1:03:11 Trauma blocks love, and love blocks trauma

1:04:28 Why we’re attracted to people with the same wound

1:08:16 “Love is my husband”: 27 years together

1:16:27 Healthy love, nervous systems, and the difference between an emotion and a reaction

1:23:18 Internal Family Systems and the difference between self and soul

1:29:15 Why trauma resists a single definition

1:33:16 Holding uncertainty in the healing process

1:38:28 AI, disconnection, and “the era of the body”

1:45:27 Why Frank moved to Hollywood

1:46:19 Frank’s closing thesis: healing is possible

1:47:44 What does Live Well Be Well mean to you?

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Matt Haig, bestselling author and mental health advocate.

Matt talks about being diagnosed with ADHD in his mid-40s, why he hates the word “diagnosis,” and the years of feeling like “a weirdo” before he understood why.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Silva Neves, an accredited psychosexual and relationship therapist.

Silva explains why most fantasies, kinks and fetishes are far more normal than we assume, and how it’s actually shame, not the kink itself, that quietly shuts down honest sexual communication in long-term relationships.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

This week I'm joined by Dr Karan Rajan, NHS surgeon turned bestselling author and Chief of Science at Throne Science, for a conversation about optimisation culture: wearables, peptides, Bryan Johnson, and why more data isn't always better data.

What we explore together:

•His own health scare at 28, when a routine blood test uncovered fatty liver disease from a low-fibre diet

•Why "the illusion of health" might be the real cost of the wearable and wellness boom

•Bryan Johnson, colonoscopies, and why the most measured man in history still missed the basics

•The peptides debate: survivorship bias, zero human trial data, and what to actually ask before you try one

•A hospice nurse's deathbed regrets, and what they reveal about how we're really spending our time

•Creatine's kidney false alarm, and the simple blood test that solved it

•The "fever dream" that became Throne Science, and the mission to catch colon cancer early

Love, Sarah Ann 💛

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.

👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.

👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let's be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

Dr Karan Rajan:

🔗 Throne Science: https://www.thronescience.com

📷 Instagram/TikTok/YouTube: @DrKaranRajan

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:05 Welcome + what's interesting Karan right now

02:19 His own health scare at 28: fatty liver, high cholesterol, low fibre

04:10 Wearables, optimisation culture and "orthosomnia"

05:56 Bryan Johnson: most measured human in history, still skipped his colonoscopy

14:51 Rick Rubin, Wilderness festival

16:12 "Illusion of health": wearables, data and fragility wrapped in a wellness aesthetic

19:09 The hospice nurse's deathbed regrets

20:23 The red cup trick, and why coffee helps you poop

24:22 Sugar substitutes and the cognitive-decline headline, unpacked

38:21 Wireless headphones and the cysts claim, debunked

42:54 Creatine and cognitive health

43:35 The kidney false alarm, and the test that solved it

49:47 Peptides: what they actually are

53:09 Survivorship bias and the total lack of human trial data

59:54 The Enhanced Games and performance enhancers

1:03:51 His own burnout and productivity

1:09:35 Why success and balance aren't compatible in this season of life

1:15:31 The Throne Science origin story

1:19:22 Sarah's own polyposis syndrome reveal

1:23:19 Closing: links and sign-off

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Dr Mark Horowitz, lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, the UK NHS’s official guidance on safely stopping psychiatric medication.

This is a moment from the episode that stuck with me: Dr Horowitz explains the liquid tapering method for coming off antidepressants, the non-linear dose-response curve behind that “jumping off a cliff” feeling, and what a genuinely safe, gradual reduction can actually look like.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.

👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.

👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Arthur Brooks, Harvard happiness researcher and #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Why does actually reaching your goals so rarely make you feel as good as you expected?

Arthur breaks down the arrival fallacy and the real neuroscience behind that dopamine crash, and what it means for how you should be chasing success in the first place.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.

👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.

👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

ADHD diagnoses have risen 200% in the last five years. Sarah Warley, founder of BeBright and The Key Clinic, says that’s not overdiagnosis. It’s ancient biology trying to cope with a modern environment it was never built for.

She joins Sarah Ann to unpack what’s actually changed, and why the answer isn’t as simple as real or not real.

Full episode out now: search ‘Live Well Be Well’ on YouTube & Spotify.

Your brain isn't broken. It might just be swimming upstream.

This week I'm joined by Sarah Warley, Founder of BeBright and The Key Clinic, for a deep dive into ADHD, autism, and the "post-diagnostic gap," because after years of watching families get handed a label with no map for what comes next, she built the clinic to answer the question nobody else was asking: what's actually driving the symptoms?

What we explore together:

•Why understanding what's actually driving your symptoms matters more than the diagnosis itself

•The neurodiversity clusters: ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and why almost no one fits neatly into just one

•Why labels can be both a relief and a trap, and how to know which one you're in

•Retained primitive reflexes from infancy that quietly shape adult anxiety, focus and coordination

•Why the "Great ADHD Myth" documentary got the debate dangerously wrong

•What neurodivergent burnout actually looks like, and why it hits the highest achievers hardest

Love, Sarah Ann 💛

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.

👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.

👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.

https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let's be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/

📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah

🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin

📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

Sarah Warley:

🔗 The Key Clinic: https://www.thekeyclinic.co.uk/who-we-help

🔗 BeBright: https://bebright.ai/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:19 Swimming upstream: symptoms vs. biological drivers

01:56 The neurodiversity clusters and how they overlap

04:45 Labels: helpful or limiting?

07:57 The origin story: a friend’s daughter and the gluten-dairy transformation

15:19 Is ADHD overdiagnosed? The Great ADHD Myth documentary controversy

20:08 Why parents see themselves in their child’s diagnosis

20:39 Oestrogen, dopamine and perimenopause-triggered diagnoses

24:37 The symptoms to actually look out for

26:38 Retained primitive reflexes explained

29:14 Why the reflexes don’t develop

30:39 The Moro reflex and the woman who hadn’t left her house in 5 years

35:48 What a diagnosis really is: epigenetics and neuroplasticity

39:54 Nutrition, biochemistry and the Walsh Institute

42:48 The five biotypes of depression

45:07 The zinc-copper imbalance: 70-80% of ADHD cases, per the Walsh Institute

47:56 Arthur’s story: from breakdown to a first at Oxford

54:10 What neurodivergent burnout actually looks like

55:56 Sarah’s own ADHD diagnosis: the Bloomberg interview

58:07 Medication: Sarah Warley’s honest take

01:01:31 Why the Key Clinic is multidisciplinary

01:03:19 21st century scurvy: light, senses and mitochondria

01:06:17 Hypersensitive hearing and the hearing curve

01:07:58 Doctor Bérard’s suicidal-depression discovery

01:13:23 Music, rhythm and neurodivergence

01:20:23 How to actually find what you love

01:21:37 Turn your hobby into your job

01:23:44 ADHD as an evolutionary advantage

01:24:15 Why creativity is being cut from schools, and why that’s a mistake

01:27:05 Becoming your own parent

01:28:37 Fun span, not just lifespan

01:29:21 “It’s not you, it’s a lousy cut”

01:30:38 Closing thought: a neuro-extraordinary mind, not neurodivergent

01:32:38 A message for worried parents

01:33:34 What does Live Well Be Well mean to you?

This week's Live Well Be Well Moment with Patric Gagne, author and self-identified sociopath.

We delve into Patric's childhood, when she first realised she was different from everyone around her, what school and friendships looked like, and how she learned to mask — and why understanding this changes everything about how we think about sociopathy in young people.

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:
NOWATCH: The compassionate health tracker Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today. 👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://nowatch.com/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm
👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

More from me: The Great British Veg Out How to support your gut by eating more, not less https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/p/t…
Reset Your Health If your body feels off after stress, travel, or burnout, this is where to start! https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/s/r...
Free 5-recipe PDF for busy weeks https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahma...
Join thousands reading The Compassionate Cure → https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let's be friends! 📷 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin 📹 Subscribe https://youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah?si=UbuuWvMjAcTkELPN 📱 TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast?_r=1&_t=ZN-96iOW29jTRm

This week's Live Well Be Well Moment with Patric Gagne, author and self-identified sociopath.

We delve into one of the most fascinating questions of the episode — what does love actually look like for a sociopath? What does Patric feel for her husband, how do relationships work differently for her, and what happened when she found herself in an unhealthy dynamic she kept returning to?

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:
NOWATCH: The compassionate health tracker Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today. 👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://nowatch.com/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm
👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

More from me: The Great British Veg Out How to support your gut by eating more, not less https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/p/t…
Reset Your Health If your body feels off after stress, travel, or burnout, this is where to start! https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/s/r...
Free 5-recipe PDF for busy weeks https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahma...
Join thousands reading The Compassionate Cure → https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let's be friends! 📷 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin 📹 Subscribe https://youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah?si=UbuuWvMjAcTkELPN 📱 TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast?_r=1&_t=ZN-96iOW29jTRm