The MindStew Podcast

Today we speak with Dr. Maria Kangas, Associate Professor of Macquarie University's Centre for Emotional Health.

Maria is a registered psychologist with dual endorsements from the Psychology Board of Australia in Clinical and Counselling Psychology. Dr. Kangas is also Director of the Clinical Psychology program at Macquarie University. Her research has focussed on coping strategies and emotional regulation relating to stress/PTSD, anxiety and mood disturbances in trauma and medical (e.g., cancer) populations, across the lifespan.

Today we speak with Dr. Stephen Bright, a clinically-trained psychologist, ethnopharmacologist and Senior Lecturer of Addiction at Edith Cowan University.

Stephen has over 15 years experience in Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) research, harm reduction and mental health. He is a Member of the AOD Media Watch Reference Group, an organisation that highlights poor examples of journalism regarding AOD-related issues. He is also a founding member and vice-president of PRISM, a not-for-profit organisation supporting research into harm reduction, evidence-based drug policy and the medical application of psychoactive drugs including psychedelics.

My guest today is Bernardo Kastrup, a philosopher of consciousness with a background in computer engineering.

Dr. Kastrup has written 7 books, numerous academic papers and many popular articles, including a slew of the most read articles on Scientific American. Dr. Kastrup makes a case for a universe in consciousness claiming that it both explains more and is more parsimonious which means its simpler, and simpler is better. In making these claims, Dr. Kastrup draws on neuroscience, quantum physics, psychology and philosophy – which made for a fascinating conversation that was both as deep as possible, yet directly relevant to us as mental health professionals and meaning making humans.

Today we speak with Dr. Nigel Strauss, a psychiatrist with over 40 years experience and Adjunct Professor at Deakin University.

Nigel's career has focused on medico-legal psychiatry, in particular Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  He is Director of Occupational Psychiatry Pty. Ltd. which integrates psychiatry into the workplace.

Prompted by the extraordinary results of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD (which was recently granted breakthrough therapy designation by the US FDA), Nigel became interested in the therapeutic potential of MDMA and other psychedelics, a stigmatised but therapeutically promising class of drugs.

Nigel now advocates for psychedelic-research in Australia and has published a number of papers on the subject.

Today we speak with John Malouff, Associate Professor at the University of New England's School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences.

John has followed his broad interests across the field of psychology, but have centred on designing and measuring psychological interventions. He has undertaken research on phobias and methods of coping with stressors, problematic anger and depression and on the other end of the spectrum emotional intelligence, empathy, wellbeing and therapeutically induced change. In line with this experience, John teaches at third-year subject on Behaviour Modification at the University of New England.

John is passionate about ensuring that psychology has real benefits for people and promoting the growth of the next generation of psychologists. His enthusiasm is infectious and he shares his advice for psychology students preparing to enter the workforce.