Your emotions do not have to control you. You can learn to control them, instead!

So often, we can find ourselves suffering from emotional states that we cannot explain. We have reactions that don't make logical sense, and some of these can be terrible. These strong emotions can feel mysterious or even threatening, but they don't have to be. There is a way to gain greater control and power over your emotions, and it starts by learning to recognize the connection between Thought and Emotion, and then working to discover the thoughts you are holding onto that are producing the emotions you feel. It takes work, but it is work that can be done. In this episode we talk a little about these ideas, and even start to do some of the work.

Today I am joined by Dr. Amy Dreier, a veteran therapist and trauma expert, to talk about her own personal journey into the field, and some of the unexpected turns her career has taken over the past decade or two. We talk about some candid realities of therapy, some of the pitfalls and strengths of the field, and what we hope for the future of our profession. It is a candid and fun conversation between two former colleagues and friends, with a lot of insight into the realities of being a therapist.

Happiness is many things and found in many ways, but there are some things that predictably fail to bring us happiness, even though we seem obsessed with them. In this episode I talk with my good friend Jake Warnick about some proven psychological pathways to happiness, as well as some of the strategies that just don't work, no matter how popular or accepted they are. We talk about how to balance ambition and drive with contentment and satisfaction, and about how many of us aren't even sure if we are pursuing happiness or success, because we often confuse those two, when they are very different things indeed.

Mental illness has long suffered under a heavy stigma, causing people to hide or deny any diagnoses they might have had. In recent years that stigma has started to lift, which is a wonderful thing, but it has also produced a strange rebound phenomenon in some circles, to the point that diagnoses are being discussed as though they are desirable, or at the very least validating and comforting. In this episode I talk about this phenomenon and the potential dangers I see arising from it.

There is an actual cure for depression and anxiety. Not a treatment or a band-aid temporary fix, but an actual cure. Proven time and time again by people from vastly different backgrounds. In this episode I talk about that cure, and even lay down a challenge for listeners to try for themselves.

If you feel like you are up to the challenge, my email address is [email protected].

The video I talk about is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPPFqsECz0. If you are a therapist yourself, I strongly recommend putting this one into your tool box.

The research I talk about is not hard to find, but below are some of the links I recommend starting with.

https://sites.google.com/view/sources-dissatisfaction/

https://www.amenclinics.com/peer-review/

For this episode I invited one of my oldest and dearest friends to join me for a discussion about friendship - how to make a friendship work, especially over time and distance, and what special blends of work and luck are required to make a connection that will truly last through the years. Jake and I have been friends for 30 years and counting, long enough to know that not all friendships can endure, but the ones that can are truly special.

In this episode I talk a little about what I saw and experienced on Veteran's Day, and some of my thoughts on what it means to serve in the Armed Forces, both in today's fighting generation, as well as those that came before, and share some ideas on how to honor the service of our military in a more meaningful and personal way.

In this episode we talk about the value and power of validating the lived experiences of others, the problems we cause when we fail to, and the therapeutic rationale for taking a learner's stance over an expert stance. It's an episode about understanding, validating, and seeing others, both as therapists and simply as people.

It is so easy to lose sight of the impact we can have on the little things around us, and in that lack of awareness, it is easy to accidentally do unintended harm. In this episode we explore that phenomenon, talk about how to increase our awareness of our impact, and how to be more intentional and mindful in our interactions with others. Along the way we talk about puppies, special dirt and the uber-rich. Thanks for joining us!

Veterans can be tough to talk with, especially for civilians! In this episode we talk about some of the reasons for that, and some things you can try to get through what might seem like coldness or aloofness, but what really is almost always both more complicated and also much more relatable.