Check out episode 11, where I discuss schema therapy with clinical psychologist Sarah Thompson. Sarah skilfully talks through the fascinating world of schema therapy, including its evolution, what schemas are, how we can understand what these are like when they are activated in us, the types of schemas you can typically see in men and women and Irish people in general and why schema therapy is so powerful. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to episode 11 of the “Therapy Explained” podcast. In this week's episode, I chat with Donna Breen of Donna Breen Counselling, a counselling and CBT service based in Tipperary.

Donna has over a decade of experience as a counsellor, having started in her early 20s. She explains what counselling in its essence is, the core components of counselling and how and who it can help.

Hope you enjoy it!

On episode 10 of the Therapy Explained podcast we discuss one of the frontiers of therapy, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Joining me is Shannon Carlin, the chief of training and supervision for MDMA-assisted therapy at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, otherwise known as MAPS. MAPS are currently completing the third and final phase of their clinical trials on MDMA assisted therapy for PTSD and hope that it will become a legal treatment in 2023.

Shannon explains the link between the criminalisation of MDMA and the founding of its research in therapy, what MDMA-assisted therapy is, how it differs from standard therapy, the current evidence supporting it’s use and when we can expect it to become available to the public.

Welcome to episode nine of the Therapy Explained podcast. This week I’m exploring Somatic Experiencing with David Lillie, a somatic experiencing practitioner. As David explains, somatic experiencing has its roots in the observation of how animals in the wild process and recover from stress and trauma. We discuss what a typical session is like, who may not be suitable for somatic experiencing, out-of-body experiences and why somatic experiencing might be a better approach to treating trauma than EMDR.

Please remember to spread the word about this podcast, and if you haven’t done so already, subscribe and rate it.

Welcome to episode eight of the Therapy Explained podcast. I am your host James Lloyd and in this week’s episode, I speak with Michael Keane, a behavioural neuroscientist. Michael is the founder of the Actualise Clinic, a Dublin based mental health service specialising in neurofeedback.

During our talk, Michael explains how neurofeedback is a learning-based treatment that trains the brain to function more efficiently. Although neurofeedback’s evidence base is largely in the treatment of ADHD, it can be a powerful tool for other mental health problems as well as for performance enhancement, such as the Connacht rugby team who Michael has worked with extensively.

Welcome to episode 7 of the Therapy Explained podcast. This week I am joined by Dr Christine Dunkley, where we speak about Dialectical Behaviour Therapy or DBT for short.

Christine is from Yorkshire, England and has worked in the NHS for over 30 years, initially as a medical social worker and then a psychotherapist. She is a consultant trainer in DBT, specialising in mindfulness and emotions. She has published multiple books, including her most recent one, “ Regulating Emotion the DBT Way: A Therapist's Guide to Opposite Action.”

Christine is a very passionate therapist and goes into great detail to explain the origins of DBT, its different components and what each of these looks like.

Please remember to subscribe and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from.

I’m joined by Alex Monk, a London based art therapist. We discuss the roots of Art Therapy, the advantages of art therapy over conventional psychotherapy, common misconceptions regarding art therapy, how it helps traverse the line between the conscious and subconscious and more.

Whether you are someone who is considering art therapy as a form of therapy, as a career or you are an established art therapist I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Episode five sees me joined by EFT practitioner and trainer Grainne O Neill. EFT stands for emotional freedom technique which is more commonly known as tapping. EFT is a technique where you tap on a specific set of acupuncture points around the body to release stress and anxiety.

We spoke about Grainne’s path to becoming an EFT practitioner, how it helped her with chronic fatigue, how it can help get to the root of a problem quickly and lead to permanent change.

I really enjoyed this talk and I hope you do too. Don’t forget to subscribe, review and share

In this instalment of the Therapy Explained podcast, I speak with Marie Tierney, an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist based in Galway.

IFS is a fascinating approach to psychotherapy that views our personality as having multiple subpersonalities that interact with each other as well as our true Self.

We spoke about the theoretical foundations of IFS, the categories our parts can fall into and how our Self can help heal parts that may have taken on difficult experiences from a young age that continue to burden us in the present.

If you find yourself getting caught between two minds or even as if a part of you takes control when you’d rather not go down that road then I think you’ll find think discussion particularly relevant. As ever, please like subscribe and share to help spread the word.

Learn more about marie here - https://marietierney.ie/

This week I am joined by Monika Gos, a clinical and counselling psychologist and an international Brainspotting Trainer.

We talk about Brainspotting, a precise deep brain intervention that has evolved out of EMDR and can be used to treat trauma as well as enhance performance and creativity. 

We covered a lot of ground including how it was discovered in 2003 while treating an Olympic figure skater, the association between eye position and how you feel and what a session looks like.

If you are interested in adding Brainspotting as a tool to your practice, Brainspotting Ireland is holding online training from the 18th-20th of June. Visit brainspottingireland.com for more details.

If you get a second, please don’t forget to subscribe, review and share wherever you get your podcasts.

Music 'Doing It Stealthy' by Oloff (https://spoti.fi/3gqPOiS)