The Intense Mind with Imi Lo

Gordon Smith is a therapist, coach, and creative instructor who has spent over 26 years working with gifted and neurodivergent adolescents and adults. Gordon came to centre giftedness in his practice after pulling out seven years of client notes and realising the people he had done his best work with all had one thing in common: they were intensely, unusually bright. That discovery sent him into h...

https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2026/05/26/grief/ This is one of my favourite conversations I have recorded for The Intense Mind. As I was researching mortality and grief myself, I came across Professor Cholbi's Grief: A Philosophical Guide as a reader. I loved the book so much that I annotated it heavily. To go from reading the book to sitting with the author feels surreal, in a rea...

In this episode I sit down with Joey Remenyi, a vestibular audiologist, neuroplasticity therapist, and author of Sensing Ground and Rock Steady. Joey trained clinically at one of Australia's top vestibular clinics before building her own practice helping people with chronic and persistent sensory symptoms using neuroplasticity and somatic approaches. We talk about what is actually happening i...

For the full essay, please go to: https://eggshelltherapy.com/guilt/ Persistent guilt is what many intellectually and emotionally intense adults carry without knowing what to call it. It is the feeling of being haunted by a moral failure you cannot quite identify, of replaying conversations and decisions long after they should have settled, of being judged by a voice inside you. This essay traces...

Full text: https://eggshelltherapy.com/high-functioning-depression/ (Recorded with human voice) We can think of the mechanism of high functioning depression this way: At some point in your life, perhaps because the mental burden on you had become overwhelming, your psyche created an internal split to cope. In high functioning depression, what develops is a division between your "high function...

https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2026/04/22/bodyshadow/ I recently had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Jungian analyst Erica Lorentz to discuss her profound new work, Body is Shadow: Jung’s Method of Embodied Healing. Many intellectually gifted and highly sensitive individuals often live very much “in our heads.” This conversation was a vital reminder of what happens when we brid...

Time Stamps and more: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2026/03/29/nadja/ Many of the people I work with are highly intelligent, analytically sharp, and deeply uncomfortable with the idea of play. The word itself can feel faintly embarrassing, associated with self-indulgence. Doing something with no measurable output, no goal, no justification, tends to produce anxiety more than relief. Nad...

  In this episode, I speak with integrative psychotherapist Joseph Pawson to explore the territory of his forthcoming book, Dependency and Denial, which examines what happens when our need for others gets exiled from awareness, and what it costs us to keep it there. We talk about why dependency is not the pathological clinginess most people associate with the word, but something far more universal...

Full Transcript: https://eggshelltherapy.com/irritation/ You send articles they never read. You explain things they forget by tomorrow. You correct them even when you know it will start an argument. And you cannot stop, no matter how many times it backfires. This piece is about why. Read by voice artist Theresa. Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/ Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.com Sister Cha...

Full Text: https://eggshelltherapy.com/existential-depression/ Sometimes, you have a lingering, niggling sense that says you are capable of more than your life currently reflects. Perhaps you wake up with a quiet, persistent hum that whispers you are in the wrong city, the wrong company, the wrong room. You function well on the surface, meeting obligations and appearing competent, but underneath t...

Full text:  https://eggshelltherapy.com/toxic-relationship/ If you have been in a toxic relationship—whether with a partner, a friend, or a parent—with someone who repeatedly hurts you, gaslights you, or manipulates you, you may be familiar with the feeling of being stuck in a loop: betrayal, apology, forgiveness, then betrayal again. They repeatedly violate your trust in ways that leave you quest...

Full text:   https://eggshelltherapy.com/gifted-trauma/ On the Gifted Trauma of Feeling Humiliated Today's article is on the gifted trauma of feeling chronically humiliated, even when no one is trying to humiliate you. You know the feeling in your body before your mind can name it. The heat rising when someone begins explaining something you already know. The sickening sensation in your stoma...

SHOW NOTES: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/12/05/why-we-still-feel-lonely-with-philosopher-lars-svendsen/   We can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone. We can have friends, a partner, a full social calendar, and still feel like something is missing. I spoke with philosopher Dr. Lars Svendsen about loneliness. His work so brilliantly weaves together philosophy, ps...

SHOW NOTES: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/10/27/deathanxiety/ I sat down with philosopher Tom Cochrane to explore death anxiety, happiness, and how we cope when existential dread surfaces.  We began with the classic philosophical arguments against fearing death.  For Tom, ultimate comfort does not require a cosmic designer. It comes from recognizing the world's intrinsic value...

Full text: https://eggshelltherapy.com/ai-therapist/ Today’s letter is about the elephant in the room for all of us these past few years: the use of the AI therapist, coach, mentor, partner, friend, confidant, and sounding board. You may be someone who has resisted it with full strength, or embraced it with excitement, or maybe both. Whatever your stance, maybe it is time we talk about what happen...

Show Notes: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/10/18/jessica-baum/ Jessica, author of Anxiously Attached, returns to discuss her new book, Safe, which expands beyond her first work to cover all four attachment patterns: secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized. Drawing on interpersonal neurobiology, she explores how early attachment wounds live in the body as implicit memory and cann...

Link to the full text: https://www.pecanphilosophy.com/writing/fear-of-being-unproductive Read with a human voice!  Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/ Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.com Sister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformations Newsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRz Disclaimers: https://www.eggshellther...

https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/09/24/drlilie/ Today, we are fortunate to have Dr. Lilie Chouliaraki with us. She is a Professor in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and has spent her career examining how the media discusses human suffering and our own vulnerability. We are going to explore her work on how approaches to helping people have evolved over time....

Show notes: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/09/17/sarabeth-2/ In this episode, we explore the shift from simply "fitting in" at work to cultivating true belonging. Dr. Sarabeth Berk Bickerton, author of Seen, Known, Valued, shares insights on redefining career success—from external markers like titles and pay to a more personal journey of meaning, values, and impact. We dis...

Full text: https://www.pecanphilosophy.com/writing/mindtraps "Others Have It Worse, So I Shouldn't Complain.”   Self-sabotaging stories that keep you stuck are rarely obvious villains. They come masked as common sense, as truism, as gratitude or kindness, as protection against future pain. We carry them like sacred truths, hardly seeing how what is designed to self-sabotage is actually l...

This is a reshare of my interview with Jess Leondiou, originally featured on Make Your Mind podcast. I am grateful to Jess for graciously allowing me to repost our conversation from earlier this year. About Make Your Mind Podcast How do our minds really work? How different are we from one another? What is the science behind our interactions, and how do we fit into the larger collective of consciou...

Full text: https://www.pecanphilosophy.com/writing/terror Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/ Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.com Sister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformations Newsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRz Disclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers    Trigger Warning: This episode may c...

Full text: https://www.imiloimilo.com/writing/unfinished Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/ Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.com Sister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformations Newsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRz Disclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers    Trigger Warning: This episode may co...

SHOW NOTES: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/08/26/dreams/ In this conversation, explore the significance of dreams in our lives, how they can serve as a window into our unconscious, and their potential to guide us through emotional healing. Dr. Ellis will share insights into the neuroscience of dreaming, the role of Jungian symbolism, and how dreams can help us process emotions, trau...

Show notes: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2025/08/19/chriswells/ Today, we have Chris Wells, who is a writer, podcaster, and researcher, with a focus on inner experiences of gifted, complex, and intense people. We discuss: How Positive Disintegration Theory by Dabrowski highlighting the idea that inner conflict and suffering are signs of growth, not illness. Chris discusses the complexi...