Psych Up Live

In this episode, Dr. Therese Huston draws upon her new book, Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower, and her experience speaking to academic audiences and businesses like Microsoft and Amazon to teach us how to give feedback, even negative feedback, in a way that turns it into a productive conversation. She considers why 80% of managers feel they are saying the right things; but less than 20% of employees feel appreciated. She asks why men are evaluated on work skills while women are often judged on their personality. Dr. Huston identifies and exemplifies the three types of feedback as Appreciation, Coaching and Evaluation and asks us to discern what an employee wants and needs. She discusses how and why to use praise and urges us to side with the employee rather than the problem. She reminds us that if people feel threatened their brains go into lockdown. Inherent in her message of what makes feedback powerful is the principle -" Listen as if your job depends on it."

The Racial Inequities of the Coronavirus are clear. Three times as many Black and Latino Americans have become infected with the Corona Virus compared to their White Neighbors. Many Black Americans have fears and reluctance to be vaccinated. In this show, Dr. Suzanne Phillips is joined by Dr. Zanthia Wiley, Infectious Diseases Specialist and Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship at Emory University Hospital Midtown, and Dr. Wiley's Aunt, Denese Rankin. Together they share a Covid Story of hospitalizations, close calls and Dr. Wiley's return to Alabama to inform and reassure her family and their community of the safety and urgent need for getting the Covid Vaccine. Dr. Zanthia Wiley will draw upon her expertise to address the understandable fears in Black Communities and will answer questions that everyone has raised when considering the Covid Vaccine. Her message to be vaccinated is clarifying, urgent and life-saving.

In the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the world is grieving. Families are suffering the traumatic loss of loved ones. Medical professionals grieve for patients they felt responsible to heal. First Responders, caregivers, teachers, adults and children carry the grief of a world of people lost suddenly to an unknown virus. In this episode, Dr. Joanne Cacciatore’s personal and professional understanding of how to “bear the unbearable,” of how to open a space to process, integrate and deeply honor our grief, is a gift. Drawing upon her unique and powerful book, Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief, her own experience of loss and decades of supporting individuals, families and communities, she invites a new meaning and experience of grief. She invites you to recognize grief as a natural process that unfolds in your own way and in your own time, restoring and illuminating your love and humanity. We need this show.

Three marriage experts, Robyn D’Angelo, Heather Sequin and John Harrison join host Suzanne Phillips to share valuable couple strategies. Psychologist Robyn D’Angelo talks about her “ Mastering the Messiness of Couplehood Together Series” and considers how someone would handle an “ anxious partner.” Marriage Therapist Heather Seguin shares her expertise in how to respond to a sex-addicted partner. She defines sex addiction and the type of help needed to heal and repair a marriage. John Harrison, clinical counselor, considers the couple transition from romantic partners to co-parents without losing their bond.

In this episode, Dr. Michael Anestis, clinical psychologist, and award winning researcher discusses his powerful book, Guns and Suicide: An American Epidemic. Dr. Anestis is not advocating for or against gun ownership. What he is advocating for is prevention of firearm suicides. Funded by the Department of Defense through a program known as the Military Suicide Research Consortium, Michael Anestis collected and will share findings like the fact that each year the majority of gun deaths in the US are suicide deaths – more than homicide, mass shootings or terrorism. He will address the lethality of a gun when there is suicidal thinking and consider myths and theories of suicide including the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITS) and the Three Step Theory. Central to his goal, Dr. Anestis will define the use of “means safety” for suicide prevention and the importance of taking a public health approach to firearm suicide prevention.

Among other things, the pandemic has taken jobs, economic stability, business ventures and the hope of new employment for many. In this episode we address this dilemma. Our Guest, Dr. Joel Evans, a Distinguished Professor of Business Emeritus at Hofstra University, and an expert on career planning and development provides a path to career planning during a pandemic. He offers specific strategies, skills, perspective and preparation for finding employment whether you are a new graduate, a seasoned worker without a job or a person in need of a career switch. Dr. Evans discusses the virtual interview, online resources for networking and skill building, free online job webinars, tools for going forward after losing a job and requirements for jobs in certain fields. Regardless of your experience, job category or education, you will take away valuable information. Listen in and call in.

Whether you are newly married, a middle aged couple, the identified In-Laws or the bewildered Out-Laws of an expanded family, you need to hear this show. In it, psychologist and author Dr.

An eighteen year old is charged with the lethal stabbing of a 17 year old boy, who he believed was dating an x-girlfriend. The typical age range for a gang member is 12–24 years old. Starting with Columbine High School in 1999, the US has seen more than 230 elementary and HS school shootings. In this show, Joseph Kolb, Executive Director for the Southwest Gang Information Center and Instructor in the Criminal Justice Program at Western New Mexico University addresses the causative factors, warning signs and potential solutions for teen violence. Drawing upon his book, Teen Violence in America: How Do We Save Our Children? he invites us to understand the external realities and underlining factors of school shootings, bullying, violent media, and social media exposure. As a parent, educator, and former law officer, he offers strategies for building teen resilience, fostering empowerment, enhancing social awareness, reducing fear, boredom and overcoming obstacles.

Whether you are newly married, a middle aged couple, the identified In-Laws or the bewildered Out-Laws of an expanded family, you need to hear this show. In it, psychologist and author Dr. Geoffrey Greif draws upon his new and acclaimed book written with Dr. Michael Woolley, " In-law Relationships: Mothers, Daughters, Fathers, and Sons." Dr. Greif shares research using interviews and surveys with a total of 1,500 people to illuminate why some in-laws connect and others clash and even crash. He considers the impact of interfaith, interracial, gay and lesbian couples on in-law relationships. He examines the validity of the negative cultural stereotype of mothers-in-law and reports what mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law say. He considers what happens that is different in the relationships between male in-laws and overall offers important strategies for improving any in-law relationship.

When we consider the definition of shame we often compare it to Guilt. Commonly, it is thought that we feel guilt for something we have done that is unacceptable; but with shame, we feel that we are unacceptable. In this episode Dr. Joe Burgo expands the formal definition of Toxic Shame discussed by John Bradshaw as the result of unspeakable child abuse or the oppressive force of social shame addressed by Brene’ Brown. Drawing upon his new book, Shame: Free Yourself, Find Joy and Build True Self-Esteem, Dr. Burgo invites us to consider shame as an entire family of emotions like the pain of unrequited love, the embarrassment of exclusion, the exposure of getting sick at the party or the shame of a disappointed expectation like the college entry rejection or the canceled engagement. Essentially, Dr. Burgo invites us not to be ashamed of shame as it is an aspect of many human feelings. Rather than deny it, Dr. Burgo demonstrates how to use it to build Shame Resilience and Self-Esteem.