Behind the Stigma

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I speak with Nick Haisman-Smith, the Executive director, and one of the founders of  Social and Emotional Learning Institute. We discuss what SEL is,  it's importance for communities, including parents and teachers, and how SEL is important for aspects of our mental health, and the evidence behind it. We conclude with some of it's limitations...

Send us Fan Mail This week I speak to Psychiatrist Dr. Alex Curmi from the Maudsley Learning Podcast on how we diagnose mental health conditions. We talk about the pros and cons of the current diagnostic system and how we can utilize the pros. We also dive into his work as a psychiatrist, and his approach, discussing the difficulty of sectioning, and how he uses a multidisciplinary approach to hel...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's education series, we dive into developmental psychology, focusing on the work of Swiss genetic epistemologist Jean Piaget. We go into his theory of cognitive development, and the 4 main stages of child development: Sensorimotor (0-2 years) Preoperational (2-7 years) Concrete operational (7 - 11 years) Formal operational (12+ years).

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode I speak with Caroline S Asante, former award-winning BBC radio host and presenter, and host of the Happy Well Being Life Podcast. We speak about her journey highlighting aspects of imposter syndrome, ageism, the fear of comparison, and growth mindset. Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolinesasante/ Happy Well Being Life Podcast: https://open.spoti...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I am back with  Alina Vasilache, clinical psychologist on another popular demand for a Q&A session. Alina answers questions on coping mechanisms for anxiety, achieving goals, projection and more! You can now jump to the question of your interest, using our chapter markers. 

Send us Fan Mail This week, I speak with Professor David Yaden,  Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University school of Medicine, on the topic of self-transcendence and psychedelic-assisted therapy. We discuss what psychedelic-assisted therapy is, its importance for mental health conditions, and a focus on the set and setting of clinical trials. Professor Yaden defines the meaning of transcende...

Send us Fan Mail The Collaborative Library is  a platform to unlock science for everyone! It aims to link up people who do research and those who are interested in the outcomes. This week, I speak to the founders of The Collab Library. We discuss what the Collaborative Library is, who it is for,  and some of the really cool features on it amongst other things! You can now also view our 'Chapt...

Send us Fan Mail May the force be with you! This week,  me and Dr. Alex Curmi from the Maudsley Learning Podcast deep dive into the fascinating mind of Anakin Skywalker, and what drove and dictated his actions. We discuss his attachment style, fear of abandonment, the role of the Jedi council, and whether he was in love or obsessed with Padme.  Could have Anakin's turn to the dark side to bec...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I speak with Nisrine Maktabi, psychotherapist and relationship expert on the concept of the drama triangle. What is the drama triangle? and how does it work in a toxic relationship? We also discuss how the dynamic of a toxic relationship works, and what are some of the traits of  an individual who projects these traits.  This is the third series with N...

Send us Fan Mail In continuation of last month's theme of learning through conditioning, this month's education series is dedicated to social learning theory. Learn about the most popular psychologist of social learning theory and his infamous experiment in Stanford known as the Bobo doll experiment. 

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I speak to Dr. Raphael Milliere, a philosopher of cognitive science, on the differences between consciousness and self consciousness. Dr. Raphael starts off by defining these terms and their distinction, and his work on how consciousness can be present while experiencing the loss of self. We also talk about measuring consciousness, Google's advanc...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, Dr. Alex Curmi from the Maudsley learning podcast speaks to us about fantasy vs reality, and what role fantasy plays in our life.  Dr. Alex defines what fantasy means and whether these fantasies are holding us back in some ways. We also talk about the role of dreams and daydreaming. We then finish up our discussion on how you can become more reality or...

Send us Fan Mail How do we know what therapy is right for us? In this week's episode, clinical psychologist Alina Vasilache speaks to us about various forms of psychological therapies, and how they differ and are similar with one another.  Therapies mentioned in this episode: Cognitive behavioral therapy, Dialectal behavioral therapy, schema therapy, internal family systems and humanistic the...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really mean to be mindful? In this week's episode, I speak to  Dr.  Alexander Curmi, psychiatrist from Maudsley NHS foundation trust about mindfulness practice. We discuss what mindfulness means to him with reference to Buddhism,  how he applies it in everyday practice with examples,  and finally, how mindfulness has been adopted in the West as a therapy interven...

Send us Fan Mail This week's episode is on the  English Romanian adoptee study (ERA). The ERA study is the first study to examine the long-term effects of early severe childhood deprivation on development. It dates back to 1960’s Romania, after the fall of Nicolai Ceausescu, the communist leader at the time, and its research is still ongoing up to date. Today, 20 years later, I speak to Profe...

Send us Fan Mail Does  the name Ivan Pavlov ring a bell?  This month's education series is dedicated to the school of psychology known as behaviorism. We discuss its two main learning theories: classical and operant conditioning. 

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I am back with  Alina Vasilache, clinical psychologist on another Q&A session. Alina answers questions on burn-out, self-esteem, grief and what she has learnt in her journey as a psychologist.  You can now jump to the question of your interest, using time stamps!

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I speak to Adeel Ahmad, host of the Misophonia Podcast where people share their experiences living with Misophonia. We talk about his experience with Misophonia, why and how he started his podcast, and what he has learnt from his experiences with talking to people. Misophonia Podcast: https://misophoniapodcast.com/

Send us Fan Mail Not only is it time to abandon psychiatric diagnosis, but it is time to move beyond the medicalized perspective of ‘mental health’.  A new framework for understanding how we all cope with distress - the power threat meaning framework - can lead the way to a more honest and effective paradigm. In this week's episode, I speak to Dr. Ian Newey, part of the PTMF committee, about...

Send us Fan Mail What is emotion? In this week's education series episode, we will touch upon what emotion is, primary and secondary emotions, the 3 main theories of emotion, and what is emotional regulation. 

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I speak to Lee David, one of the authors of '10 Minutes to Better Mental Health' on how you can improve your well being with ten-minute tools and quick exercises using cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques. From dealing with anxiety to  building your confidence, and  creating healthy life habits and positive relationships -...

Send us Fan Mail What is trauma? In this episode, Alina Vasilache talks to us about how she works with patients with trauma, and her definition of it. We go into different therapy approaches, specifically EMDR therapy, what it is and how its used. We also talk about  how trauma shows up in the body and how important is it to work on trauma? cant we just move on? 

Send us Fan Mail We all get angry. It's a normal feeling. And often our anger can be justified right?  But sometimes we get angry over little things, or deal with our anger in ways which can have a negative impact on us.  In this episode, I speak with our clinical psychologist about the nature of anger, where it comes from and how to protect ourselves from people that make us angry. We also d...

Send us Fan Mail Perception is the sensory experience of the world.  It is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.  In this week's education series episode, we will touch upon perception through  vision, different theories of how perception works and a very interesting experiment called  the rubber hand illusion that gives us clue into the perceptual world. 

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I  speak to one of the leading psychiatrists in the UK, Dr. Derek Tracy about some of the challenges faced in pharmacotherapy, the role of clinicians and oneself on mental health,  the bio-psycho-social model,  and what are novel psychoactive substances. Website: https://maudsleylearning.com/dr-derek-k-tracy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Derektracy1