The Honest Psychologist

The docs are caught off guard by a social media post that completely nailed human psychology. The Instagram post says that it reflects a prompt to ChatGPT asking for “5 things everyone must understand about their own psychology or they risk failing at life.” The AI gave some really good responses, so we discuss. Topics include the ubiquity of suffering (a favorite!), identity, avoidance and contro...

In today’s episode, Whitney expands on her thoughts about how we use therapy in the current era. Are we going to therapy instead of finding meaning in other areas of life? Is this actually a problem or just a new iteration of what therapy can be? Are we expecting therapy to do what it wasn’t designed for, or is it good to “have a space each week” for personal exploration? We reference Arthur Brook...

We are beyond excited to have as our first podcast guest, Dr. Stephanie Nelson, a clinical neuropsychologist and pediatric neuropsychologist who knows a lot about a lot of things. She is the current president of the American Board of Pediatric Neuropsychology, she does assessments and evaluations, and she helps the rest of us be better psychologists through consultation. Autism has been in the new...

In today’s episode, we discover that both of the docs are generally pro-bubble bath but anti- making bubble baths the essence of self-care. We discuss how flattening self-care into stereotypical spa activities is not what we need when we’re burned out. How can we do self-care that isn’t about scheduling additional activities on top of our packed schedules? Is it about addition or subtraction? Whit...

Whitney’s a little irked at the start of this episode at what seems to be a trend in the mental health field: clinicians working backward from diagnosis to symptoms, rather starting with the stuff that’s relevant and significant and working forward towards a good understanding of it. Then the docs take up the question of whether you, or your child or loved one, should revisit a past psych evaluati...

In this episode, Whitney updates Paige on her research into the literature on how emotions influence our thinking and decision-making, including some surprising findings about why emotions are actually ESSENTIAL for making good choices. We slightly digress on topics including burnout, coping with PTSD triggers, emotion regulation, and others. Plus some random life updates. Mentioned in this episod...

In this episode, we ask ourselves about the overlap between AI and mental health. We discuss professional reactions to AI in the mental health field, the different places AI might be intersecting with the work that we do, is AI therapy a thing, and the topic of staying humble about what we offer as therapists. Our low-key fears of robot armies and social isolation, inspired by sci-fi movies like E...

In this episode we start with the question “should your therapist always agree with you?” This might seem like a straightforward no, but there is some nuance to it. What is validation? Is it different from agreement? Can we handle being challenged by our therapists, even if we know it’s good for us? We discuss points of view from both the professional side and as clients ourselves. Mentioned in th...

In this episode we discuss this article by Paul Tough in The New York Times Magazine (sorry if it’s paywalled for you - we do recommend getting your hands on a copy if this discussion interests you because it's important to see what was actually written, not what everyone says was in there!). This article has created quite a reaction in the online world and amongst people with ADHD and clinicians...

Hey everyone! In this episode we talk about all the things that give us crappy attention besides ADHD. We discuss burnout, anxiety, depression, menopause, and other factors that make us (that’s right, “us” as in the professional psychologists attempting to host this podcast…[with mixed results…]) bad at functioning. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or...

Thanks for finding us here at The Honest Psychologist podcast! In this episode, we talk about when doctors are candid with their patients, whether we practice meditation, what mindfulness is actually good for, and whether anger is always covering up another emotion. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestpsychpod....

In this, our first full length episode, (where we were still trying to figure out how to be podcasters!) we discuss an article in the Atlantic about pain and happiness . We talk about how we approach these topics as therapists and how a therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can help us get out of the cycle of chasing happiness and avoiding discomfort. This is a public episode. If you'd...

This is a short first episode where we talk about who we are, why we started this project, and what we’re hoping to cover in future episodes. Thanks for joining us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit honestpsychpod.substack.com/subscribe