Anxiety Book Club Josh Malina

Did you know that you have a nerve that runs from your brain stem to nearly all of your organs, that helps you shift from fight to flight, to freeze? Well, my guest this month, Dr. Stephen Porges, originator of the Polyvagal Theory, certainly does. Together we discuss the importance of this nerve in your mental health, or ill-health, and how autonomic nerve system regulation undergirds much of the way we feel. 
 
https://a.co/d/fXjacXM

In Episode 51, I speak with Anson Whitmer, co-founder of the men’s mental health app, Mental. We talk about Anson’s graduate research, depression in men, mental health culture, how the mental health app can provide a comfortable space for men, the multitude of things that effect mental health, what bonding looks like in men, the usefulness of cold water, Anson’s personal interest in mental health, rates of suicide in men, the future of AI coaching, the AI infrastructure of Mental’s coaching models, and more.
 
https://www.getmental.com/

In this episode of the podcast, I chat with Oren Jay Sofer about his brand new book, Your Heart Was Made For This. Oren is a teacher of buddhist mindfulness and author of the previously featured Say What You Mean, which appeared on the podcast as Episode 23. In this episode, we discuss:
Oren’s motivation for writing the book
The external expression of the dharma
The benefits and skill of renunciation
How equanimity is not about managing expectations, but instead about being more fully with reality, i.e. enthusiasm is not in conflict with equanimity 
The merits of marrying equanimity with beginners mind
How formal practice creates opportunities in the present moment
The value of ritual according to the buddha 
Judaism and relationship to the sacred
 
https://www.orenjaysofer.com/
https://a.co/d/drecH1G

In this episode, I am joined by therapist, author, and professor Mary Pipher to discuss her memoir, A Life in Light: Meditations on Impermanence. We discuss her early childhood, participation in activism during the Vietnam War, her tenure as a therapist, her relationship with nature, light and grace, her focus on her family and, more recently, on non-attachment.
https://a.co/d/gpozZHG

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Martha Sweezy, IFS therapist, author and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. We discuss her book, Internal Family Systems Therapy for Shame and Guilt. These topics are covered:
The multiplicity hypothesis of IFS
The difference between some Buddhist traditions and IFS
The ontology of IFS 
The shame cycle 
Soothing parts
Shaming parts
Outward shaming parts
“Scouting” managerial parts 
The kinds of burdens of parts
How children are self-referential 
Karlen Lyons-Ruth’s research
The usefulness (or not) of shame

In this episode, I talk with trauma specialist Dr. Frank Anderson about his book Transcending Trauma: Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems. We discuss:
- What is complex post traumatic stress disorder?
- How widespread some kind of trauma or overwhelming experience is
- The usefulness of empathy vs compassion, especially in clinical settings
- The importance and non-importance of distance between client and clinician
- The difference between IFS and other modalities with regard to the clinician’s mental capacities, or “therapist parts”
- The multiplicity hypothesis of internal family systems 
- The difference between grasping the tools of IFS while learning the model and grasping the core message