Potential Psychology

Have you imagined what it's like to be a judge presiding over a court? To maintain calm in the court room, absorb and synthesise complex information, listen to sometimes deeply difficult stories and make decisions that affect the lives of others- and at times our society - in critical ways?

These are just some of the tasks facing our judicial officers - our judges and magistrates. They are tasks that can have a significant impact on their stress and well being.

My guest for this episode of the Potential Psychology Podcast is Carly Schrever. Carly is the Judicial Wellbeing Advisor for the Judicial College of Victoria, a current PhD Candidate and researcher at the University of Melbourne, a lawyer, a psychologist and mum to three year old twin boys. She's a busy woman.

Carly had worked with the Courts for sometime as a Judicial Educator when she commenced her Masters of Clinical Psychology. She had a conversation with the then Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria - Michael Rozenes - who had identified the need for robust research into judicial stress and wellbeing. He encouraged Carly to take up the challenge and this became her PhD project, which then led to her Judicial Wellbeing Advisor role and the opportunity to work with judges in Victoria, around Australia, and overseas. Carly is passionate about facilitating meaningful and enriching conversations with our judges and magistrates about judicial stress and ways in which we can work towards possible interventions and solutions.

In this insightful conversation Carly and I explore:

•The Court system in Australia - all the things you didn't know about how it works.
•The finding's of Carly's research. How stressed are our judiciary? And why?
•Why the mental health and well being of our judges and magistrates is important to our community
•Keeping a lid on your emotions at work - the task and the impact.
•Secondary Traumatic Stress. What is it and how does it affect judicial officers, lawyers and other professionals?
•Work-related satisfaction and how a sense of meaning in our work buffers us against stress and burnout.

A word of caution
Carly and I touch on content in this episode that some listeners may find distressing. If traumatic content is difficult for you right now, perhaps sit this one out.

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

What do you know about therapy?

Did the producers of The Sopranos get it right?

And are we all a little bit mad?

The answer is 'yes' according to my guests today, both highly experienced Sydney-based psychotherapists and clinical psychologists.

Professor Gillian Straker and Dr Jacqui Winship join me to talk about their new book, 'The Talking Cure: Normal people, their hidden struggles and the life-changing power of therapy' in which they introduce us first to relational psychotherapy through its depiction in The Sopranos, and then to their clients, fictional amalgams of real-life cases. They explain the relationship between the therapist and the patient as the essence of successful therapy and reveal how the art of talking and listening helps us to understand deep-seated issues that profoundly influence who we are in the world.

In this fascinating conversation we explore:

•Psychotherapy - What is it? And how does it differ from other forms of therapy or counselling?
•Why being human is to be a little bit mad - and why that's okay.
•How common childhood experiences can lead to struggles later in life.
•Our role as parents. Should we be worried about 'screwing up' our kids later in life?
•The role of diagnosis in mental health. Are we medicalising normal humanness? And what does this mean for happiness and wellbeing?

This episode will leave you intrigued by the possibilities of the little understood but transformative process of psychotherapy and how we relate to each other.

For a full transcript, guest profile, expert tips and the resources mentioned in this episode, visit potential.com.au/podcast or join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

NEWS
We're taking a break from regular programming for a special mini episode celebrating the winners at the 2019 Australian Podcast Awards!

Australians were on tenterhooks on Saturday 18 May 2019 as we awaited news of the winners and losers. Yes we had a Federal Election but more importantly, it was the 2019 Australian Podcast Awards.

Mr Potential Psychology and I headed north to Sydney to join in the festivities and fun, mingle with audio royalty and learn a little more about what's great on the Australian podcast scene.

Listen in to discover my pick of the winners, who I'm listening to right now to live, learn, laugh and flourish, and whether the Potential Psychology Podcast walked away with a gong.

For more details visit potential.com.au/podcast or join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

Music and our moods are intrinsically linked. We seek sad songs when we're blue, upbeat vibes to work out, maybe classical for a bit of zen.

But how does this work? What happens in your brain when you listen to music? And how can you use music strategically to boost your mood and your performance?

My guest today is Dr Sandra Garrido. Sandra is a pianist, a violinist, an author, a mum and researcher. She started studying law but found that she didn't really like arguing with people for a living, so she returned to University to study music and psychology and this has been the foundation of her career ever since.

At present Sandra is an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Fellow at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University, exploring mood regulation using music and how we might use music to improve the quality of life in people with mild dementia.

In our podcast chat, Sandra and I explore:

•Why music is important to humans
•The role music plays in our physiological, cognitive, social and emotional experience
•How music can positively effect our wellbeing
•Why the music of our teens years sticks with us throughout life, and
•Why we're drawn to sad songs when we're down - and how this can help and hinder us.

Tune in to learn why music moves us.

For more detail including a full transcript of the interview, visit potential.com.au/podcast.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

With an increasing number of children in the western world diagnosed with life threatening food allergies, the parents of these kids can find themselves overwhelmed, and anxious, with their well being and mental health under threat.

My guest for this conversation knows this from lived experience. When her third child, Caleb, was just four months old he was diagnosed with multiple food allergies. At that moment Callie Mackenzie and her family were plunged into a world in which nothing felt safe.

Callie was overwhelmed by the responsibility of feeding her family in the face of multiple allergies. The thought of leaving Caleb in someone else's care, starting preschool or school seemed unimaginable and much of the joy was drained from food and the life surrounding it.

In this episode Callie, a trained medical doctor, shares some of what she has learned in the three years since.

We discuss:

•Current understanding within the medical community of the causes of food allergies
•The social isolation that comes with a child's food allergies
•The impact of a parent's personality on dealing with allergies and the restrictions they bring
•The impact of food allergies on a child and parent's mental health
•The strategies that Callie has developed to reduce the overwhelm, enhance her wellbeing and bring pleasure back to food and eating.
•Callie's online resource, Kid Proof Food, and how she helps parents to stay well in the face of a child's food allergies.

I was drawn to Callie as a guest for the podcast through her blog post, The Art of Wellbeing as an Allergy Parent. She speaks our language of positive mental health and wellbeing and in this episode she shares insights that I know will help all of us, allergy parent or not.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

Our doctors help to keep us well, but who looks after the doctors when they're struggling with stress, exhaustion and overwhelm?

My guest today is Dr Rebekah Hoffman, a GP (General Practitioner) in regional NSW, a University lecturer and a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong. As a junior doctor Rebekah began to struggle with the effects of long hours, limited sleep and a heavy workload. Following a holiday during which she realised that she was no longer the person she wanted to be, she changed the trajectory of her career and began to research the effects of stress and burnout on her fellow junior doctors.

In this conversation Rebekah explains:

•The challenging nature of work as an early career doctor - the hours, the workload and the expectations
•The social and technological changes that make medicine today a vastly more complex field than it once was
•The psychology of a junior doctor - the expectations of self that both drive and sometimes thwart those who pursue the profession
•Her research into stress and burnout in junior doctors and the three factors that contribute to it

Rebekah and I also explore:

•Her tips for self care and preventing burnout - tips that apply to all of us
•The important role of mentors in medicine and allied professions
•The media-driven changes that are shaping the profession for future generations.

This is a must-listen conversation for early career doctors, medical students and those who teach, care, work with and support them.

Find out more at potential.com.au/podcast

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

Welcome back to the Potential Psychology Podcast.

My guest today once specialised in psycho-oncology, the human side of cancer. In 2010 at the age of 37 she received the terrifying news that she had not one but two primary breast cancers. This became a frightening opportunity to practice what she preaches. The practitioner became the patient.

Dr Jodie Fleming has recounted her story in a touching memoir, 'A Hole in My Genes' published in February 2019.

In this episode we talk about:

•Her book (it made me cry - and laugh!)
•Death anxiety and survivor guilt
•What she has learnt about living with a cancer diagnosis as a psychologist, a survivor, a partner, a daughter, a granddaughter, a sibling and a friend
•How to reframe even life's toughest moments and thrive through cancer
•Jodie's tips for supporting someone through cancer

Rarely have I met someone so positive, so resilient and so open as Jodie. This is a wonderful conversation and an opportunity for us all to learn about an experience that touches so many.

Join me to hear Jodie's story and let her words help you to fulfil your potential.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

We're back for Season 5 and we have some exiting news! The Potential Psychology Podcast is up for an award. I'll give you the low down in this episode.

My guest for the first episode of this season is Associate Professor Brock Bastian from the University of Melbourne and we're asking the question, 'Are we getting resilience wrong?'

Resilience is a hot topic right now, with programs designed to build resilience featuring on the training schedules of our schools and workplaces. But what do we really know about resilience from a scientific perspective? Can we build it? And how?

In this episode Brock and I explore:

•What we do and don't know about resilience from a scientific perspective
•Why we often get resilience wrong
•Why we need risk and vulnerability to develop our resilience - and our kids' resilience!
•Resilience as a dynamic and developable process, and
•How to build a challenge mindset.


About my guest
Brock Bastian is a researcher, a practitioner, and and the author of The Other Side of Happiness: Embracing a More Fearless Approach to Living. His research focuses on issues related to ethics and wellbeing and his passion is connecting the more abstract ideas that he works with in his research to the everyday problems and issues that people and organisations face.

In his practice as a psychologist Brock sees private clients dealing with a range of mental health and wellbeing issues, and in his role as a consultant to organisations he assists with issues related to ethics, wellbeing, and organisational culture.

This is a fascinating, helpful and thought-provoking conversation to kick off Season 5 of the Potential Psychology Podcast!

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

Welcome to our special event celebratory podcast episode!

We are celebrating because today, March 20, is the UN's International Day of Happiness and tomorrow, March 21, is the Potential Psychology Podcast's 1st birthday! We've been sharing the science of wellbeing on the air for one whole year.

Throughout our first year we've explored well being, performance, goals, parenting, health, sleep, sport. resilience, yoga, work, strengths, hope and more.

Our amazing guests have educated and inspired us in so many topics relating to happiness but do you know what I've realised? I've realised that in 12 months and 39 episodes we've never asked the question, 'What is happiness? And how do we get more of it?

This are the questions we answer in today's episode. What's more, I've got our listeners and past guests involved!

Listen to our audience's and guests' messages about what makes them happy as they help me to answer the questions:

•What does the science say about happiness? What is it? What isn't it? And how do you find more of it?


•What are the 10 simple, free ways to find more happiness, every day?

You'll also hear what makes the Potential Team happy and discover that calm, contentment and happiness is within your control, just by taking simple action.

Listen in and join the celebration!

You can find out more in our Episode and Show Notes or in the world of social at Facebook or Instagram

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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/potentialpsychology/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com

How does where you work affect how you feel and behave? And is there a better way to build workspaces so that we can thrive and flourish at work?

These are the questions that my guest and I explore in this episode of the Potential Psychology Podcast.

Dr Jacqueline Vischer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Montreal, an environmental psychologist, author, consultant and expert in how the space we work in affects the way we think, feel and behave.

Jacqueline's consulting agency Buildings-In-Use advises companies and government agencies on planning, designing, implementing and managing new and innovative workspaces. She also teaches and researches on the social and behavioral impacts of workspace innovation.
In this conversation we discuss:

•Environmental psychology and how our built environment affects how we think, feel and behave.
•Why we tolerate outside noise at work but can't stand our desk neighbour's phone conversations.
•The human need for personal space at work
•Technology, Activity Based Working and dealing with change at work.
•Why workplaces should be built around knowledge not tasks
•The future of workplaces, designing for disability and coworking.

This is such an exciting and relatively new field of psychology and a topic that will shape our experience of work for future generations.

You can find out more and download Jacqueline's tips for creating a flourishing workspace here.

Thanks for listening!

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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/potentialpsychology/message

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialpsychology.substack.com