Psych Up Live

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nearly 20 people per minute in the U.S. are physically abused by an intimate partner. Our guest, Betty Hafner is one of those who suffered. A teacher, counselor, and author, Betty will draw upon her beautiful but terrifying book, Not Exactly Love: A Memoir. She will give us the insider’s view of the dark and complex trap of Domestic Violence. You will hear about bruises on her wedding day, necessary denial, frozen fear, cycles of love and abuse, the reason people can’t leave, the shame and excuses, the split off professional life, the isolation, the echoes of historical roots, self-doubt, police, therapy and incremental steps of self-protection, self-esteem and a way out. Betty Hafner’s memoir reads with the power and suspense of fiction; but it is painfully true. Whether you are male or female, have suffered from domestic or intimate partner violence or tried to help someone who has, you will want to hear this show.

This episode is special because it is part of a double show. In this show, Host Suzanne Phillips welcomes Sandra Reich, “Host of Straight Talk with Sandra Reich on Voice America” as her guest on Psych Up Live to discuss issues related to Sandra’s bestselling book, Once upon a Time-How Cinderella Grew Up and Became a Happy Empowered Woman, co-authored with Matte Gomez. Later that evening, Dr. Suzanne Phillips appears as the guest on Sandra Reich’s show to continue the conversation with a twist, 'Why do Married Men and Women Have Affairs?' Listen in as these hosts raise the possibilities, realities and challenges women have as they become empowered. How do they manage? How do they relate to the princes in their lives when they need to be loved but not rescued?

An estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. Americans spend $33 billion each year on weight loss products. With all of this effort and money expended, why are so many people unable to lose weight? In this episode, Dr. Christopher Calapai, a New York City Osteopathic Physician board certified in family and anti-aging medicine answers that question and many more. Asserting that people are on diet information overload, Dr. Calapai offers listeners expert answers about what is myth and what is sound weight loss advice. He addresses questions like: Can you eat whatever you want if you workout? What is the best way to kick start a diet? Are cleansers the best first step? Does it matter what time you eat? To keep your sugar topped off, should you eat a lot of little meals? Is it really possible to keep weight off once you lose it? This will be an interesting and informative show.

In this show, Dr. Greif invites listeners to learn about men and male friendships from the hundreds of men and women he has interviewed. His findings dispel the myth that men don’t need or want friends or that they need wives or girlfriends to find them friends. Dr. Greif will describe some consistent patterns that reflect the types of relationships men have across their lifespan and address the questions men themselves have asked and answered about friendship: Do I have have enough close friends? How do you juggle friends with marriage and kids? What is the meaning of friendship? Do I just let go of friends when things stop working out? Dr.Greif will make clear the interesting differences in the way men and women have friendships. This is a show both men and women will find very interesting.

The idea for this episode comes from the work of Robyn D’Angelo who is the creator of the recent series “How to Love your Partner-- Mastering the Messiness of Couplehood Together.” In that series, Robyn filmed interviews with herself and 22 love experts on everything from the misunderstood partner to the angry partner. Host Suzanne Phillips was one of those experts. In this Psych Up Live episode, Robyn and two of her experts, Heather Sequin and John Harrison join host Suzanne Phillips to share valuable couple strategies.Robyn begins by sharing the most important couple strategy offered by many of her experts and draws upon her own specialty to discuss effective responses for dealing with the “ anxious partner.” Heather Sequin addresses the question of 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 considers how couples transition from romantic partners to co-parents without losing their bond.

In this episode Dr. Craig Haen and Dr. Seth Aronson, psychologists, child and adolescent experts and Fellows of the American Group Psychotherapy Association draw upon their clinical experience and their new edited book, The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy to offer an understanding of the power of groups for helping and healing children and adolescents. They address the developmental needs that groups offer any child and the curative factors of different therapeutic group models for children and adolescents, whether victims of trauma, adolescents struggling with LGBT issues, or youth with varying common diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorders, depression, and anxiety. Parents, professionals and anyone who loves children will be moved and informed by this insider glimpse of contemporary group techniques that offer children and adolescents another chance of belonging, safe attachment, tools for socializing, self-regulation and a sense of hope

In this episode, Olga Khazan award winning writer for The Atlantic, draws upon her powerful article in the September 2017 Issue, "The Queen Bee in the Corner Office" to discuss why women bully each other in the workplace. Recognizing that this complex issue is as easily dismissed as unreal as it is cast as inevitable, she interviews women across disciplines from law offices to consulting firms to academia. She reports on Pew and Gallop surveys and examines a number of studies including one of 60,000 managers. What she consistently finds is that although there is evidence of positive mentoring and support of women by women bosses, there is a persistent theme of women undermining, sabotaging and mistreating other women in the workplace. Turning to psychologists and researchers, she uncovers a number of dynamics that may prompt this behavior as " tokenism" "favoritism threat" "system justification" and most importantly the way in which culture and context shape behavior.

In this episode, bestselling author and speaker Bruce Van Horn shares the ingredients of his important new book, Worry No More! 4 Steps To Stop Worrying And Start Living. With wisdom and humor this “recovered worrier” draws upon the best practices of experts and integrates them with what he has practiced on a daily basis in his own life. Crystalizing a way out of “ Worry” in 4 interesting and effective steps, he invites you to join him in living life instead of worrying about it.

In this episode, Abby Rodman psychotherapist and author draws upon her own experience with divorce, her clinical experience and the responses of hundreds of women to a survey on divorce, to share what we rarely hear when we learn someone is getting a divorce or has been divorced. Abby Rodman shares the insider story. She shares the fears, blame, hardship, parental worry and ultimate growth that is possible whether a divorce comes after two years or twenty, and whether it comes by choice, betrayal or mutual despair. As described in her book, Without This Ring, Abby Rodman does not advocate for divorce: but when there is no choice, she advocates for women to know they are not alone, to believe in themselves and to identify the feelings and dynamics that can be addressed with help on many levels. She will not be speaking about finding someone new. She will be speaking about the power of first finding you. Both women and men will benefit from this show.

In 2015, Rachel Hills, the author of The Sex Myth was a guest on Psych Up Live. Her book has been translated into a devised play opening August 2017 in NY. Central to Rachel Hills' book was her realization that she was measuring herself by the cultural expectation that we must be sexy, sexually active and skilled in bed to be an adequate human being. With research across 10 countries, she finds this is a myth. The world is not hooking up and she is neither alone nor a loser. In fact, many are trapped by culturally imposed definitions of sexuality. " The Sex Myth-a Devised Play" expands this with the collective stories of a cast who dare to step beyond the myths. Listen in to a behind-the-scenes interview with director, Hanne Larsen and three cast members-Jennie Runk, an American model, Non Kuramoto, an Asian actor, comedian, feminist and Jari Jones, a black trans multi-faceted artist. Each shares the personal experience of this co-created performance on their definitions of self.