The Adult Chair Podcast with Michelle Chalfant

Decisions, decisions. We are all faced with dozens of choices every day — some that we make without a second thought and others that can leave us wrestling with all our options or get us completely stuck.   When we are in the Adolescent Chair (the seat of the ego), decisions can feel intimidating or impossible, not only because we're worried about making the "right" choice, but also because it com...

Each week on this show, I aim to bring you ideas, expertise and tools to make psychology simple and to introduce you to new healing possibilities. But my goal has never been just to share knowledge. My goal is transformation...to make it easy for you to do your work and become who you were meant to be using this model!   I love bringing you stories of others who have been able to take what they've...

To start 2021, we are talking all about simple, hands-on tools and practices that you can incorporate into your life to help you get into your Adult Chair — now and all year long. Today, we're talking about one of my favorites: Chinese medicine.   Chinese medicine is a beautiful, holistic view of healthcare that helps us find balance on the emotional, physical and spiritual level. It incorporates...

Every day, our minds are taking in thousands of sights and sounds that can either bring us stress or calm….sometimes without us even knowing it! But what if we could intentionally use tools like sound and music to bring relaxation, presence and calm into our lives?   In this episode, I'm chatting with the fascinating Cheryl B. Engelhardt, a New York-based composer who creates beautiful music desig...

We're all human and we all make mistakes. Unfortunately, sometimes those mistakes hurt people we love and can even create distance or damage in our most important relationships.   When a relationship is suffering, there's nothing we want more than to heal and restore it, but many of us don't know where to begin. We might have our own feelings of guilt and shame to overcome or believe the other per...

"Help! I think I've ruined my kids' lives!"   I can't tell you how many times I've heard this from clients, listeners and even my own inner critic. No one gets a trial run at parenting, which leads to a lot of self-doubt among parents. We're all learning as we go, and it's easy to wonder if we're doing it right or if we should just go ahead and start a therapy fund for our kids to work through the...

Who is ready to get rid of the anxiety of 2020 and move into a more empowered 2021? I know I am! Anxiety is something all of us have felt during this crazy and difficult year. Maybe for you it's a familiar feeling that has been turned up to full blast or maybe you're finding yourself battling with anxiety for the first time in your life. It can feel consuming and hard to break out of.   But you ha...

What if you had far more say over your life than you realized? What if you could create the reality you want...just by changing your perspective?   As we learn more about energy and consciousness, one thing is becoming clear: our biggest limitations are the ones we put on ourselves, and with awareness, so many possibilities open up to us!   In this episode, I interview the fascinating Dr. Dain Hee...

It can be really tough to talk about guilt. No one wants to focus on a mistake they've made, and it can be especially hard to own and admit when we've done something wrong if we're wracked with shame and beating up on ourselves.   But guilt can be a very healthy emotion when it comes from The Adult Chair — when it's a path to healing rather than self-shaming. In this episode, I walk through the wa...

I believe you can find peace no matter where you are in life, and I believe that because I have lived it! I spent the first part of my life living with anxiety and depression every day, and now I wake up most days in a state of peace...one that I would have never thought possible during my days of anxiety.   And while there isn't a magic pill to find peace, the good news is that we have a choice a...

Food is such a beautiful part of life. It's a way of connecting with others and bringing enjoyment to your life. Unfortunately, we live in a world that makes it difficult to have a healthy relationship with food. We are met with the pressure to look a certain way, a lack of education about how to truly nourish our bodies and mixed messages that encourage both excess and deprivation — neither of wh...

The holidays are almost upon us...and if holidays didn't already come with stressful situations, now we get to navigate the holidays in 2020! A contentious election with families split across political lines, delicately balancing celebrations with COVID-19 concerns and the general stress of this year have the potential to add chaos to an already busy time of year. But with The Adult Chair, you hav...

While our go-to image of mental health might be a couch in a therapist's office, the world is slowly changing (and I'm SO glad it is!). Don't get me wrong...I'm not anti-therapy (I'm a therapist myself), but I think it's only part of the equation. I believe we need more. I believe true healing must be holistic, looking at our experiences from every angle and using methods that heal body, mind and...

Emotions are my love language, and I'm all about learning to really feel our emotions...every single one of them. But some emotions are easier for us to feel than others, and there's one that I find most people struggle with: anger.  Anger often scares us because it's intense, and when it's unmanaged, it can lead people to do some pretty hurtful things. But anger isn't a bad thing (in fact we need...

"Codependency." You finally have a word to describe why you've been feeling so overwhelmed and drained your whole life. And while I'm not the biggest fan of labels, sometimes having a term to describe your experience can be the thing that makes all the pieces fall into place and the light bulb go off. But having a "label" is only the first step. That's why one of the biggest questions I get asked,...

We all know a bad relationship can wreak havoc on our lives, from our self-esteem to our goals and dreams. But most of us don't know that the effects of a bad relationship can linger long after the breakup. Yes, relationship PTSD is a real thing! PTSD (or post-traumatic stress disorder) is not just reserved for the traumas of war or the "big" obvious traumas. Anyone can suffer from PTSD, and if yo...

It's hard to find words for the times we are living in today. Interesting, scary, stressful, angry, strange...it feels like one minute we can have it together and the next be hijacked by anxiety. There is so much coming at us, so much to navigate and so much to sort through as we try to figure out what is true and what is not. It's A LOT for any body and brain. Though our minds are easily distract...

From the outside — and to herself — Tonya looked like she had it all together...until one day, all the "spinning plates" fell and she collapsed. That moment led Tonya to a therapist's office where she was diagnosed with depression and anxiety that had been simmering under the surface unnoticed for years. She found herself battling suicidal thoughts with stress manifesting in her body in many diffe...

Do you ever catch yourself setting a goal…and then doing the exact opposite? Maybe it's deciding to get in shape…and then reaching for the chocolate cake. Maybe it's getting into a healthy relationship…and then cheating on your partner. We can be our own worst enemy sometimes, sabotaging ourselves and our goals. But like anything else, self-sabotage is just a part of us… and it's actually an easy...

Buckle your seat belts, because our guest today is today is about to take you on a trip deep into the human mind — and help you understand how to naturally treat everything from depression to ADHD. I first heard about Dr. David Rabin when my husband gave me an Apollo Neuro, a wearable sensory device that Dr. Rabin invented to naturally calm the nervous system. After digging more into his work, I k...

In 1974 when Sharon Salzberg discovered meditation, there were no meditation apps, mainstream teachers, corporate retreats or scientific studies backing the practice like we have today. Largely considered a Buddhist practice, meditation was relegated to Eastern thought and spiritual gurus. But for Sharon, who grew up in the hustle and bustle of New York City and went through a number of traumatic...

We're all human and we all make mistakes. Unfortunately, sometimes those mistakes hurt people we love and can even create distance or damage in our most important relationships. When a relationship is suffering, there's nothing we want more than to heal and restore it, but many of us don't know where to begin. We might have our own feelings of guilt and shame to overcome or believe the other perso...

"Help! I think I've ruined my kids' lives!" I can't tell you how many times I've heard this from clients, listeners and even my own inner critic. No one gets a trial run at parenting, which leads to a lot of self-doubt among parents. We're all learning as we go, and it's easy to wonder if we're doing it right or if we should just go ahead and start a therapy fund for our kids to work through the i...

Before studying the Law of Attraction, Christy "had it all" but still felt really unhappy and unfulfilled. As she began seeking, she discovered meditation and eventually the Law of Attraction, both of which led her to recognize how her inner dialog was creating unhappiness in her life. As she worked to shift her own life, she began to realize the power of her thoughts in creating her reality and t...

The Adult Chair is a powerful model for healing our wounds and becoming more empowered in our lives...but it has the power to change more than just ourselves. When we have the tools to navigate life's challenges and respond differently to life, it can change everything around us! In today's episode, I'm interviewing my friend April, who is sharing how The Adult Chair model helped her walk through...