Think Act Be Podcast

My guest this week is clinical psychologist and author Dr. Mitch Abblett. We focused our discussion on Mitch’s recent book called Prizeworthy: How to Meaningfully Connect, Build Character, and Unlock the Potential of Every Child (affiliate link). In this episode you’ll find out exactly what prizing is, what it feels like to be prized, and why it's the cornerstone of everything Mitch does as a ther...

My guest this week is Dr. Daniel Kinderlehrer. Dan is a physician and author of the recent book, Recovery From Lyme Disease: The Integrative Medicine Guide to Diagnosing and Treating Tick-Borne Illness . This was a great discussion about a topic that’s important for a lot of people. Dan is extremely knowledgeable and has a great deal of experience treating Lyme Disease. Some of his experience is p...

My guest this week is Martin Lee, the primary author of the recent book  The Essential Guide to CBD   (affiliate link), which offers a solid introduction to the many possible benefits of CBD. Martin and I explored how it is that a single substance can have such wide-ranging effects, and got into specific conditions like anxiety, depression, and sleep. If you're new to CBD, or interested to learn m...

My guest this week is Shelley Buck, co-author of the recent book Leave Your Light On about her son, Ryder Buck. (Shelley’s co-authors include Kathy Curtis and Ryder.) This is a conversation about love, parenting, holding on, letting go, finding faith, and what happens when we die, among other things. I think you’ll get a lot out of our discussion. Get full access to Think Act Be with Seth Gillihan...

​I had a great conversation in this episode with Dr. Jonathan Schaefer. Jon is a clinical psychologist and an expert in psychiatric epidemiology, which addresses questions about how common psychiatric diagnoses are. As you’ll hear, it’s far more common to experience a mental health issue than was previously thought. The main takeaway seems to be not that mental illness is becoming more common, alt...

My guest this week is Dr. Patricia Zurita Ona, a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. We discussed her new workbook entitled  Living Beyond OCD Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy   (affiliate link), and what ACT adds to traditional CBT for OCD. We covered some really interesting territory about changing thoughts vs. making peace with them. We also d...

My guest this week is paramedic and podcast host Eoin Walker. I really loved this conversation. Eoin has an incredible amount of wisdom to share from both his professional and his personal experience, especially around managing stress and taking care of ourselves. We talked about ways to care for our bodies, minds, and spirits, especially through times of high stress, like many of us are experienc...

My guest this week is Dr. Richard Shane, developer of the Sleep Easy Method for getting better sleep. If you or someone you care about struggles with sleeping soundly, this conversation is for you. Richard and I talked about why many of the common approaches to treating sleep aren’t very helpful, and exactly why his approach works. You can follow along as he guides you through an easy way to start...

My guests this week are Pat and Tammy McLeod. They shared about their family’s experience of loss and healing, which they describe in their book Hit Hard: One Family's Journey of Letting Go of What Was—and Learning to Live Well with What Is (affiliate link). You’ll hear them describe in this episode the traumatic brain injury that nearly killed their son when he was sixteen years old, and dramatic...

I’m very pleased this week to have Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman back on the podcast. Scott was my guest about a year ago, and a lot has happened since then. We talked in this episode about the profound changes that Scott has experienced during that time, and the fact that a mindful awakening isn’t simply a blissful experience. Opening our eyes and being fully present can also be painful. And Scott has...

My guests this week are Aaron and Jocelyn Freeman, who specialize in helping busy couples communicate better with each other. We talked about their recent book, The Argument Hangover (affiliate link), including what an argument hangover is and how we can avoid them, or at least move through them more quickly. Other topics we explored included how to deal with our partner’s triggers, and our own, a...

My guests this week are Dr. David Yusko and Dara Lovitz. We talked about the book they wrote together called Gag Reflections (affiliate link), which describes Dara’s history of emetophobia—an intense fear of vomit—and her treatment with David. We discussed things like the difference between ordinary fear or dislike of something, and an actual phobia; why avoidance is the real problem, even though...

My guest this week is Bunmi Laditan, author of a new book called Dear God: Honest Prayers to a God Who Listens . I really loved talking with Bunmi. She has a sincerity and an authenticity that are impossible to miss. We explored her moments of darkness and doubt, the difficulty we might have in relating to the concept of “God” as a male figure, whether God appreciates our irreverence, and the natu...

My guest this week is Dr. Michael Stephen. He’s the author of a new book called Breath Taking: The Power, Fragility, and Future of Our Extraordinary Lungs (affiliate link). Michael and I talked about some really important ideas related to the lungs, including life itself, of course, and COVID, mind-body breathwork, the communal nature of our atmosphere, the extraordinary human feats our lungs make...

My guests this week are Dr. Ted Brodkin and Ashley Pallathra, authors of the recent book Missing Each Other (affiliate link), which is about finding social attunement. I really enjoyed this discussion, where we explored the benefits of greater connection during our interactions with others, and how we can cultivate that connection. Get full access to Think Act Be with Seth Gillihan at thinkactbe.s...

My guest this week is my brother, Malachi Gillihan. He’s currently doing graduate work in east-west psychology, studying the intersection of trauma and spirituality. So we talked a lot about that connection (which builds on my conversation with Jonah Paquette in last week’s episode). We also got into issues like Steve Porges’s polyvagal theory, the harsh self-judgments we often make after trauma,...

I’m very pleased this week to have Dr. Jonah Paquette back on the podcast for a second time. Jonah is the author of an excellent book called Awestruck (affiliate link), which we talked a lot about in our first conversation. This time we focused on a couple of main topics. The first was trauma, and especially posttraumatic growth. We explored the question of whether there is any contradiction betwe...

I have two important and enjoyable conversations to share with you this week. Both are about finding greater unity and harmony in our political conversations, even when we hold very different views. Tim Payton and Douglass Teschner are both to the right of me on the political spectrum, but we share a lot of similar values, and a deep concern about the corrosive division in our country. I really ap...

My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden, who’s been on the podcast twice before (check out episode 21 and epidose 87 ). I always enjoy talking with Joel, who has such a wealth of knowledge about treating anxiety and depression. We thought together again about the most effective way to approach these conditions, especially the question of how much we try to change our emotions versus making peace wit...

My guest this week is Dr. Jason Ong, who specializes in the treatment of sleep disorders. I’ve wanted to have Jason on the podcast for a while now because he’s done some really pioneering work in applying mindfulness to the treatment of insomnia. If you struggle with getting sound sleep sometimes, which so many of us do, Jason has a lot to say about the most effective ways to get better sleep. Get...

My guest this week is my friend and fellow psychologist Dr. Mitch Greene, who was on the podcast way back on episode 28. I love talking with Mitch, and this conversation was no exception. We focused on the mental health challenges we’re facing related to COVID and the shutdowns, including for the many athletes that Mitch works with in his sport psychology practice. I’m guessing you’ll find a lot y...

My guest this week is Mark Gregory Karris. We discussed his recent book, Religious Refugees , which describes the process so many of us will go through of losing our faith, and needing to reconstruct it in a new way. Mark is intimately familiar with this process having gone through it himself, and he guides other religious refugees as they wrestle with issues of faith. Mark and I had a lot of over...

I have a different kind of discussion for you this week. My guests are my brother, Timothy Gillihan, and my mom, Carolyn Gillihan. I invited them on to talk about their political differences, which came up recently in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. I want to do what I can to promote civil dialogue, and this conversation is one step in that direction. For full disclosure in where...

My guest this week is Blake D. Bauer, author of the bestselling book, You Were Not Born to Suffer . I was really struck as I read this book by how similar many of Blake’s ideas are to the way that I see human nature. His main focus is on loving ourselves deeply, and what that means in practical terms. We also explored how denying our needs can lead to physical and emotional distress, and why we ne...

My guest this week is Jared Byas, author of the new book, Love Matters More: How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us From Loving Like Jesus . This was a great conversation, as Jared and I found a many points of connection. The book focuses on matters of faith, but the principles apply to anything we can have strong beliefs and opinions about, including of course, politics. We talked specifically about h...