Two Shrinks Pod Dr Hunter Mulcare & Amy Donaldson

We have decided to call time on Two Shrinks Pod as our personal and professional lives have prevented us from being able to regularly produce the show. As we both care about the quality of the work we put out, we decided that if we couldn’t produce something we were proud of then it was time to end the pod.























































































































Thank you to all of the tens of thousands of listeners who had let us into your ears and minds, and for sharing our nerdy sense of humour. Thanks to our collaborators and interview guests.
It has been an amazing journey to go on with all of you.
We will keep our episodes and website up indefinitely.
If you want to contact us, we will keep monitoring our email twoshrinkspod@gmail.com and our twitter @twoshrinkspod until the end of May 2023.
Irvin Yalom said “life is a spark between two identical voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death”.
Listeners, thanks for making our spark burn that just that bit brighter. We hope yours burned brighter too for having listened to us.
Amy and Hunter.

If you’re a student struggling to cope with exams or a parent supporting one, this episode is for you. Just in time for the year 12 exams, we’ve prepared a crash course on how to cope with anxiety in the lead up, on the morning of and during an exam. Listen for practical tips, how to know when to take a break and ways you can calm down once your in your exam.























































































































In this episode we cover how to cope:During study periods
The night before/morning of an exam
During the exam
Afterwards if you have another exam

This episode of Two Shrinks Pod was sponsored by Calabash.Visit https://calabash.courses/twoshrinkspod to access a free talk

Head over to the School of Movies Podcast to listen to Amy and Hunter talk about the comedy mob film Analyze This starring Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. We talk about anxiety attacks, toxic masculinity, doing therapy at gun point and the ethical issues of receiving gifts from your mobster client.


School of Movies Analyze This : https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-jbcwc-12d7d2b
School of Movies is a British podcast hosted by Alex and Sharon Shaw who dissect and discuss modern cinema, there is no movie podcast like it and it is well worth a listen.
2SP has previously been on their show discussing Inside Out: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-44rqh-b61ed2
Zombieland: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-66pz9-c3c60f
and Mary and Max: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-mqs5i-eb20ef
Sharon was also a guest on 2SP in last year’s instalment of Shrinks on Film : https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/71-psychs-on-film-3-shrinks-with-a-vengeance/id1236774684?i=1000526171601

This episode we’ve put together a crash course on phobias. We know phobias are on the VCE psychology exam and we have covered the main topics and theories covered in the course. The episode is pitched at Australian year 12 psychology students (and for their parents wanting to understand what this psychology garbage is).
We don’t assume any prior psychology knowledge so this means that it is good episode for anyone who want to understand about psychological theory and treatment. Understanding phobias and their treatment brings together a lot of core psychological concepts. Listen in for easy to understand definitions, examples and how it all fits together to understand the case of Ron Weasley’s arachnophobia.























































































































We can’t promise we have talked about everything on the exam but it should be a good way to brush up pre exam. Looking for something specific?01:20 Definitions13:50 Prevalence16:20 The 4 P’s & the biopsychosocial model: A case study of Ron Weasley25:00 Classical conditioning37:00 Operant conditioning48:00 GABA dysfunction51:10 Stress response system55:45 Cognitive biases1:01:30 Triggers1:04:00 Transtheoretical model of change1:09:00 TreatmentIf you liked the episode please rate/review us or tell someone about the show.
You can access your free Calabash talk at https://calabash.courses/twoshrinkspod

For episode 81 we’re taking a comprehensive, research driven look at abortion: what it’s like making the decision, how it impacts people psychologically and what happens if you can’t have one when you want to? Join us for a discussion of what the research actually says, in all it’s complexity, about how women respond after an abortion.To skip forward to a particular topic:
05:30 Decision making
19:35 Psychological impacts of having a voluntary abortion
40:25 Impacts on sexual functioning
44:45 Psychological impacts of having an abortion for medical reasons
49:12 Outcomes for women who want an abortion but are denied one























































































































This week’s episode was brought to you by Calabash. Access your free talk at:https://calabash.courses/psych-company/




































Research (in order of discussion):
Introduction:
APA Taskforce on Mental Health and Abortion (2008) https://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/abortion/mental-health.pdf 
Abortion definition (2019) https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/nine-out-of-10-abortions-done-before-12-weeks-in-many-high-income-countries/  
Australian abortion rates (2021) https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and 
Decision making:
Bracken & Kasl (1975) Delay in seeking induced abortion: a review and theoretical analysishttps://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9378(75)90929-1 
Miller (1992) An empirical study of psychological antecedents and consequences of induced abortionhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1992.tb00898.x 
Allanson (2007) Abortion decision and ambivalence: Insights via an abortion decision balance sheethttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13284200701675767 
Pereira, Pires & Canavarro (2019) Decision-making trajectories leading to termination of an unplanned pregnancy: specificities among adolescent and adult women https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2019.1566596 
Leithner et al (2021) Three or less? Decision making for or against selective reduction and psychological outcome in forty women with a triplet pregnancyhttps://doi.org/10.1080/0167482X.2020.1750005 
Psychological responses following a voluntary abortion:
Steinberg et al (2016) Psychosocial factors and pre-abortion psychological health: the significance of stigma https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.12.007 
Horvath & Schreiber (2017) Unintended pregnancy, induced abortion, and mental healthhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-017-0832-4 
Rocca et al (2013) Women’s emotions one week after receiving or being denied an abortion in the United States https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24020773/
O’Donnell, O’Carroll and Toole (2018) Internalized stigma and stigma-related isolation predict women’s psychological distress and physical health symptoms post-abortion https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0361684317748937 
Foster et al (2015) A comparison of depression and anxiety symptom trajectories between women who had an abortion and women denied onehttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25628123/
Toffol et al (2016) Anxiety and quality of life after first-trimester termination of pregnancy: a prospective study https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.12959 
Van Ditzhuijzen et al (2018) Long-term incidence and recurrence of common mental disorders after abortion. A Dutch prospective cohort studyhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.04.001 
Biggs et al (2017) Women’s mental health and well-being 5 years after receiving or being denied an abortion: a prospective, longitudinal cohort studyhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go

This episode we’re covering our professional gripes with a thin veil of science and talking about work research. Join us for a light-hearted, research based whinge about frictionless spaces for nomadic workers (or hotdesking), how meetings interrupt us, documentation makes us burnt out and just how judgemental we all are about email signatures. To wrap up, Hunter proves a point about windfarms to a random farmer he met on a plane and Amy waxes lyrical about comfort food.
























































































































Work Research:
The demands and resources arising from shared office spaces
Settlers, vagrants and mutual indifference: unintended consequences of hot-desking
Meetings and more meetings: the relationship between meeting load and the daily well-being of employees
The impact of time spent on the electronic health record after work and of clerical work on burnout among clinical faculty
How Impactful Is Presentation in Email? The Effect of Avatars and Signatures
TWCA:
The Pattern of Complaints about Australian Wind Farms Does Not Match the Establishment and Distribution of Turbines: Support for the Psychogenic, ‘Communicated Disease’ Hypothesis
Exploring comfort food preferences across age and gender