Stronger Minds

This is the audio recording of the February 2020 book club. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/strongerminds . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this session of the Thinking Space Book Club the featured book is Lost Connections by Johann Hari and in the discussion I give an overview of the biopsychosocial model of depression, The Serotonin Hypothesis, the difference between the colloquial ego and the analytical ego, how trauma can become lodged in the body and outline my manifesto for improving GP assessments. Support this show http://s...

This week’s clinic question comes in the form of a podcast because I had a lot to say. In my reply I discuss the difference between acceptance and tolerance, the necessary additional features of true acceptance and round off with some thinking exercises for you to try. I hope this is helpful for some of you. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/strongerminds . Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

This episode is the long-awaited Q&A with specialist performance and eating disorder dietitian Renee McGregor. Renee is the UK’s leading expert in Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport and is on the European Taskforce for Orthorexia. She has managed the nutrition for athletes at the the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics and the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and she is currently working with the Scott...

Food and Mood - The October book was Brain Changer by Prof. Felice. Jacka. Felice was kind enough to give some of her time at the end of a very successful ISNPR conference and joins me for a live Q&A where she answered some audience questions.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/strongerminds . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Timeless advice on the art of living well (Penguin) On the Shortness of Life is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that people waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives people enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot...

This episode is in response to some recent news headlines describing some of the nutrients important for brain health that people could potentially be missing on a diet low in animal foods. I had quite a few questions come in about this and thought it would be good to do a Q&A episode to try to address some of your concerns. I was very grateful to be joined for this episode by Sophie Medlin. S...

90 Seconds to a Life you Love by Joan I. Rosenberg “ Sadness, shame, helplessness, anger, embarrassment, disappointment, frustration, and  vulnerability. In 30 years as a practicing psychologist, Dr. Joan Rosenberg has found that what most often blocks people from success and feeling capable in life is the inability to experience, move through, and handle these 8...

This episode is a little different as it is the audio recording of the latest book club session. For those who don’t know I have an online book club called Thinking Space where we look at the psychological themes of a range of books. This month’s book was Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller. The synopsis says: Attached guides readers in determining what attachment style they and their mate (...

Anger is one of the most misunderstood and disparaged emotions. It is seen as a sign of immaturity or a lack of control, with people often confusing the emotional experience of anger with the physical act of violence. However, they are not the same thing. More than that, anger can be a driving force for tremendous good. In this episode I explain the psychological function of anger, how to recognis...

This is the second follow-up to the Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder episode. In this episode I talk to mental health blogger Bryan. Bryan started tweeting and vlogging about BPD after he noticed that it was rare to see men talking about the diagnosis. In this conversation he sheds light on some aspects of the invalidating environment characteristic of the later development of BPD and...

This is a follow-up to the Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder episode. In this episode I talk to Rosie from Talking About BPD Rosie is a blogger, writer and artist. Her blog, Talking About BPD, shares the details of her life with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Rosie hopes that through sharing her thoughts, feelings & ideas, she can help change perceptions of t...

In this episode I want to talk about a mental health disorder that I think is poorly understood and can leave sufferers mischaracterised as deliberately manipulative or attention seeking. This misrepresentation of the illness drives hostility and stigma and can make people experiencing these symptoms reluctant to come forward and ask for help they are entitled to. I will be talking about Borderlin...

My guest is Professor Felice Jacka. Felice is a Psychiatric Epidemiologist working in the new field of Nutritional Psychiatry, which she helped to establish. Her PhD was the first to examine the impact of overall dietary intake (as opposed to individual foods or supplements) on mental health risk and she lead the SMILES trial, a ground-breaking randomised controlled trial using dietary improv...

This is just a quick to give you the heads up on some changes that you may have noticed around here.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/strongerminds . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heather is a scientist, educator, and author. She earned her PhD in Biology from the University of Michigan, where she earned the university’s top honor for her dissertation. On top of that she has a B.A. in Anthropology, which is the study of human societies and behaviour. She has researched the evolution of social systems across a range of organisms, including humans, and her book, Ant...

In this episode I Break Bread with Molly Smith and Juno Mac. Juno and Molly are sex workers and activists who campaign for the safety and labour rights of sex workers. They are the authors of Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers Rights. I was keen to speak to Molly and Juno because I think, maybe now more than ever, there is a need to have thoughtful conversations about difficult or co...

This topic is one that 95% of you said that you struggled with so hopefully you’ll get something useful out of it. I'm talking about self-sabotage, what it is and a few of the reasons that it comes about including anxiety and low self-esteem, fear of disappointment and loss, and passive aggression. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/strongerminds . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

In this episode I am Breaking Bread with MiMi Aye. MiMi is British-born to Burmese parents, and has spent her whole life soaking up Burmese food, language, and culture through endless trips to see family and friends in Burma aka Myanmar. She is a passionate advocate for Burmese cuisine, the founder of supper club and online community, Burmese Food and Beyond, and author of NOODLE! 100 Great Recipe...

This episode follows the podcast on Self, False Self and People Pleasing. I received so many comments and questions after that episode went out that I thought it would be helpful to do a separate episode where I could answer your questions and go in to more depth on some aspects of the theory. So thank you to everyone who submitted your questions and if you haven’t listened to the previous episode...

This is a special episode featuring a panel discussion on the state of diversity, racism and cultural representation in the food industry. The catalyst for this discussion was a series of incidents that took place in July 2018. Members of London’s South East Asian and food communities criticised a series of racist videos and social media posts from White British chef, Shaun Beagley. After initial...

For this episode I want to talk to you about something that I think is incredibly common but that you might not be entirely familiar with. I want to talk to you about a psychological concept called the False Self and how it relates to the more well-known phenomenon of People Pleasing. I'll introduce the concept of the self and how it develops, the conditions that lead to the development and relian...

In this episode I am Breaking Bread with Caribbean cook, author and presenter Shivi Ramoutar. For this episode I joined Shivi at her home which gave me the opportunity to twist her arm and get her to share some of her wonderful classical piano playing, which you can hear at the top of the episode. And on the theme of music we discuss how, as a black musician starting her music career, she was pige...

In this episode, I am Breaking Bread with Ryan Riley. Ryan is a food writer and stylist and the founder of Life Kitchen, a charity he launched in memory of his mother, Krista, who died of cancer. About 50% of people who undertake chemotherapy experience changes in taste that can take away the pleasure in eating. Life Kitchen designs recipes and runs cookery classes to help guests enjoy food again....

In this episode I am breaking bread with Anna Pancaldi. Anna is a singer-songwriter from glorious Essex who is being tipped as a rising star in the music world. Though still very early in her career she has toured in Europe and the US, and starred in a campaign for Levis, for which she also wrote the song. I first met Anna at the launch of a charity recipe book that I had written a recipe for and...