Wisdom for Wellbeing: Mind-Body Psychology and Somatic Skills for Healing and Growth

In this episode, I give an overview of the topics that were covered in this season that can help support you live a vital life in alignment with you and your goals. This season, there are topics that can help support you navigate your personal experiences with neurobiological traits and states, parenting, awareness, and lifestyles. 

In this episode, I dive into how the Default Mode Network (DMN) relates to present moment awareness and happiness and contentment. I discuss the evolutionary science of the DMN and why it is so important. I also talk about how to slow down and circumnavigate unhelpful thoughts and how present moment awareness can be trained through mindfulness and meditation practices. 

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

On this episode, I discuss an exploration of spiritual wellness and how it fits in with evidence-based frameworks. A secular type of spirituality can be practised through daily rituals or routines like preparing our morning coffee or drinking a cup of tea. 

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com 

In this episode, Jessica Dore discusses how tarot cards can be used as a psychological tool in creating meaning and finding connections in our lives. 

Jessica is a writer interested in meaning-making through symbol and image, with a special focus on Pamela Colman Smith’s art in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. Her first book, Tarot for Change: Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance and Growth (Penguin Life, 2021) is a set of reflections on the Tarot that draws from the fields of contemporary psychology and behavioral science, among others. It was called “generous, practical and gently radical” by The New York Times Book Review.

Jessica's weekly newsletter, Offerings, braids together ideas from a range of fields including but not limited to psychology, philosophy, mythology, folk tales, religion, spirituality and social work with the images, characters and symbols from Smith’s art in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot.

Though Jessica hold a masters degree in social work and is licensed as a social worker in Pennsylvania, she does not consider herself a therapist. Prior to social work school, she worked several years in clinical psychology, self-help and behavioral science book publishing, where she spent time with the founders and developers of acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT. What she learned during that time informed much of what went into her book, Tarot for Change, and other writing.

These days, she continues to study things that interest her: old stories—especially Mediterranean and western European—behavioral psychology, process and liberation theologies, poetry, ecology, growing vegetables, learning to ride a horse as an adult, and ceramics.

She was born and raised on the north shore of Massachusetts and currently lives and work outside of Philadelphia on land that was cared for by the Lenape people for more than 10,000 years prior to European settlement.

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

Dr Anika Rouf talks about how diet culture can be damaging to our overall health, self-worth and self-respect and can create restrictive cycles that can hold us back from living out our values and what's most important to us. She goes on to talk about how we can be more kind and compassionate to ourselves and live out a non-diet approach. 

Dr Anika Rouf is an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and is a Media Spokesperson for Dietitians Australia (DA). She has completed her PhD from the University of Sydney. Her PhD investigated the use of social media to improve eating habits of young adults and incorporated the addition of behaviour change techniques. She has published in some of the top tier nutrition journals including Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, Nutrients, Appetite, JMIR mHealth and uHealth and Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.

She is passionate about advocating a non-diet approach and helping busy women with finding balance. She also has a particular interest in communicating nutrition using digital platforms and has written pieces for several magazines. Some of her notable work includes being featured on SBS Food, Men’s Muscle and Health, 9 Coach, Channel 7 and Body and Soul. She currently teaches across two universities in Sydney and runs a virtual practice ‘Appetite By Anika’ which is focused on women’s health and disordered eating. 

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

In this episode, Dr Renae Thomas talks about the healing effects of plant-based foods and other healthful lifestyle practices. Dr. Renae Thomas is a board-certified Family Medicine, General Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and Lifestyle Medicine Physician. She completed medical school in Australia at Monash University. Her residency in Family and Preventive Medicine, and Master’s of Public Health in population medicine were completed at Loma Linda University in California. She has also completed an internship at True North Health Center, and yoga teacher training in India. Dr. Thomas served four years on the ACLM Trainee board, with two years as president. She is a published co-author on vegetarianism and cancer, and author of an ACLM and WIC-collaborated guide to healthy eating for less than $4 per day, as well as numerous online, print, and audio content collaborations. Dr. Thomas’ research has been in clinical lifestyle medicine, and lifestyle medicine curricula in medical education. She has presented at numerous conferences on evidence-based and clinically-relevant nutrition and health, both in the USA and internationally. Dr. Thomas’ professional content largely focuses on evidence-based nutritional and lifestyle medicine for both physicians and patients. As a doctor, she strives to be a compassionate and understanding support system to her patients, helping to uncover the root cause of illness, and working with them to achieve their greatest health and happiness.

Shownotes: www.drkailtin.com 

In this episode, I talk about the differences between compassion and empathy and how it is particularly important to cultivate compassion to protect against empathetic fatigue during these difficult times we're experiencing as a collective to support each other while also taking care of our mental health. 

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com  

In this episode, Gina Zimmerman shares her experiences with postnatal depression so openly and transparently.

Gina has been teaching yoga and meditation for 20 years. She started practicing while living in New York in her early twenties, and life pivoted almost immediately toward practice: she left for an ashram in Argentina and then returned to complete her first teacher training. She has studied and practiced ever since.

Gina upholds an authentic teaching style that is supported by significant depth of knowledge and poetic articulation. She teaches a rigorous alignment-specific class, while also weaving in breath and other subtle body practices. Her teaching is greatly influenced by her meditation practice, and she is recognized for her capacity to assist students in entering deep states of meditation and rest.

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

This episode is particularly fitting Valentine's Day week as Bethany Saltman talks about how the science of attachment can bring us closer to ourselves and those we love. Bethany is an author, editor and researcher, and her work can be seen in magazines like the New Yorker, New York Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Parents, and many others. Bethany's first book, Strange Situation: A Mother’s Journey Into the Science of Attachment. It’s inspired by the birth of her daughter in 2006, who she loved dearly, but feared she was failing. Why? Because she was still her, and not the kind of mother she’d hoped to become. She spent ten years teaching herself the science of attachment, travelling to labs, trainings, and archives, trying to discover what kind of mother she really was, and if she was good enough for her. What she learned changed everything about how she thought of herself, her childhood, and the nature of love. She is incredibly proud that, among other incredible reviews and accolades, New Scientist called Strange Situation One of the Best Science Books of 2020. She is also a bestselling book coach, helping writers envision and execute their books—from pitch, to platform, to proposal, to publication, to PR. Bethany received a B.A. from Antioch College, where she was one of the architects of the nation’s first Affirmative Consent Policy. She went on to receive her M.F.A in poetry from Brooklyn College, where she studied with Allen Ginsberg and published her work in many national journals. She is honored that Antioch awarded her their 2020 Rebecca Rice Award for Achievement in Profession.

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com 

Diana Hill, Ph.D. is a modern psychologist, mom, and co-author of ACT Daily Journal: Get unstuck and live fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She is the founder and host of the new podcast show Your LIfe in Process and a co-founder of the Psychologists Off the Clock podcast, blogs for Psychology Today and offers regular teachings in compassion and ACT for clinicians and the general public. Through her online teachings, executive coaching, and private therapy practice Diana encourages clients to let go of unhealthy striving and build psychological flexibility so that they can live more meaningful and fulfilling lives. Diana practices what she preaches in her daily life as a mom of two, homesteader, and yoga teacher. Go to drdianahill.com or her channels on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (@drdianahill) to get tools to build psychological flexibility into your daily life.

Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com