In this episode, Lauren Thiel talks about financial well being through a social justice and neurodiverse-inclusive lens. Lauren Thiel is founder of boutique accounting firm, The Real Thiel. A Chartered Accountant and Tax Agent, with a passion for the arts, Lauren is on a mission to educate, empower and motivate creative small business owners.

What’s covered in this episode:

- Lauren’s journey from the sparkles and spins of ballet to becoming an accountant for creatives and a student of psychology with social justice motives in supporting individuals in navigating financial trauma and the like

- How neurodiversity influences individual’s financial struggles and strengths, and how Lauren has found a way to cater to this

- How ‘time blindness’ and difficult emotions like shame and disgust can get in the way of doing tasks associated with finances

- What financial wellness is and consideration around how budgets do and do not work

- The steps to taking yourself out on a date and why rewards along the way work

- Where a date with an accountant is the perfect move, and options for individuals in serious financial toil

Head to www.drkaitlin.com for show notes, free resources and courses that support you a heartfelt life alongside peak performance. 

"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

This episode is a mini-coaching session to start you on your gratitude journey. The practice of gratitude has a host of psychological and physical health benefits, yet isn’t too demanding of time and energy. Have a listen and get started developing a practice of gratitude that works for you.

What’s covered in this episode:

Gratitude Journaling

• Consideration of gratitude and journaling practices

"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Welcome to a mini coaching session on how you can cultivate ritual in your life. Essentially, intention matters. We’ll also chat about setting up an altar, and how that can be impactful for you in your routine of ritual.

What’s covered in this episode:

- Habit takes less energy than doing something and a sense of it being done in ritual brings sacredness can bring present moment awareness and aliveness to your activity

- An example of how you can build ritual into your morning

- How an alter can be used like a transient object is used in therapy (i.e., extending the emotional connection)

- The meaning of the five elements on the altar and what they psychologically symbolize (grab this free downloadable PDF to help you set up your elemental alter)

"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Curious about how habits are created? Are you looking to develop more self-compassion in your habit-cultivation journey? How to build habits in a neurodiversity-friendly way? 

My guest Dr Hayden Finch, is a licensed clinical psychologist, behaviour change expert, and dessert enthusiast. Hayden beautifully shares their wisdom around habit building, self-compassion, and neurodiversity with us in this episode. 

You may find this interview an important resource in your own journey of navigating your different seasons and self-experimentation. 

What’s covered in this episode:

• High-achievers often know the habits they “should” have, yet struggle to implement

Head to www.drkaitlin.com for show notes, free resources and courses that support you a heartfelt life alongside peak performance. 

"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

What does Pride mean to you? Gender and sexuality? Do you understand them as fluid? Are you actively working towards cultivating communities of liberation?

My guest Chris Sheridan (Grant), The Queer Therapist, is a non-binary trans Psychotherapist; Sex and Relationship Therapist; and Diversity Equality, and Inclusion Consultant. They beautifully share their wisdom around gender, sexuality and relationship diversity with us in this episode. 

You may find this interview an important resource in your own journey of navigating shame and stigma to acceptance. It is also a brilliant resource for those who want to show up as allies.

What’s covered in this episode:

• Introduction to Chris and their journey navigating the mental exhaustion and emotional labour of their workplace as a trans person – even with all the skills they had as a trained therapist!

• What brave spaces are, and how they are important alongside safe spaces

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