The Dr. Shyamala Show

Dr. Shyamala Kiru
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The Dr. Shyamala Show explores the intersection of leadership, identity, and cognitive transformation. Hosted by Dr. Shyamala Kiru, former psychotherapist of 20 years and founder of the Cognitive Freedom Method™, this podcast explores how internal patterns shape the way we think, lead, and relate - especially in moments of pressure and complexity. Each episode examines the psychology behind leadership and relational dynamics, with a focus on structured cognitive change, emotional regulation, and identity-level transformation. The conversations are grounded in disciplined psychological insight applied to real-world complexity. Dr. Shyamala is also the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the author of The Emotionally Intelligent Woman. Through solo teachings and conversations with practitioners and thought leaders, she brings clinical depth into leadership development and practitioner training. This podcast is for leaders and practitioners who value clarity, structure, and depth in how they think, lead, and relate. Connect on Instagram @iam.drshyam Learn more at www.cognitive-freedom.com Clinical services at www.kirupsychotherapy.com

  1. Sep 24

    How to Master the Plot Twists in Your Life

    Somewhere in the last few years I became the kind of person who can take a plot twist and, after the initial shock wears off, I now feel a flicker of pride about it. When I need to take a new path I didn't plan on taking, when I get rerouted, when there's a whole chapter unfolding that I never saw coming, part of me now goes, alright, I've got this. I didn't used to be like that. For a long time an unplanned change would knock me flat for weeks. Here's what shifted: I stopped expecting my life to hold still. If you're choosing to live as the fully expressed version of yourself, no longer shrinking to fit everyone else's expectations, I can guarantee you exactly one thing. There will be plot twists, not one but several, and they tend to arrive right on the heels of your next level of growth. That's the strange part almost nobody warns you about. Every new level of growth seems to come packaged with its own unplanned twist, as though the two arrive together. So today I want to hand you three things you can start doing right now that make the difference between being knocked down by a plot twist and learning to master it. Inside this podcast episode, I walk you through: Why every new level of growth seems to arrive with its own unplanned plot twist The three moves that turn a plot twist from something that flattens you into something you can master What impermanence really means, and how expecting it reduces your suffering and hands you back your power Why the thing you're avoiding right now is taking up far more room in your mind than you realize How acceptance becomes the first real step toward changing anything you actually want to change The journalling questions to ask yourself the next time life reroutes your plans ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at: Explore my new parenting course for parents who want to help their child reduce anxiety and gain more confidence: https://connect.kirupsychotherapy.com/home--fostering-confidence-page Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  2. Sep 17

    The Hardest Truth About Raising Resilient Kids

    At the time of recording this episode, it was the first week of my daughter's last year of high school, and I've spent part of the week wiping away tears I didn't see coming. Grade 12, the last one. I'm still not sure what she'll do after this, and that's a conversation for another day, but the finish line is suddenly in view and I'm feeling every bit of it. In the middle of all those feelings I came across a line that undid me. It said our daughters aren't a reflection of us but the evolution, stronger and braver and more unapologetically themselves than we ever knew how to be. I've spent more than 20 years as a family therapist, and the truth that took me the longest to make peace with is that it isn't my job to save her. We're raising kids in a culture where their comfort sits at the top of the list, above almost everything else, and so we shield them from anything that looks too hard, and we end up with children who miss out on real resilience and parents who are worn thin and sometimes resentful of the life they've built. Here's what I don't say out loud very often: even after two decades of this work, when I'm home and I'm just her mom, I still feel the pull to shield her, to smooth the road, to rescue her from the hard things.  So today I want to talk about the kind of parenting I fight to choose anyway, and why leaning into the mess with our kids might be the most loving thing we ever do. Inside this podcast episode, I walk you through: Why saving your kids from every hard thing is the least loving option available to you What our culture got wrong about children's comfort, and the cost both kids and parents are paying for it The difference between guiding your child and controlling them, and why that line is so easy to cross How to see your child as a separate person on their own path rather than a reflection of you What resilience, courage and depth actually require, and why none of them grow in comfort The one question I'm sitting with as a mom this season, and I want you sitting with it too ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at: Explore my new parenting course for parents who want to help their child reduce anxiety and gain more confidence: https://connect.kirupsychotherapy.com/home--fostering-confidence-page Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  3. Sep 10

    High Functioning Anxiety: How to Spot It in Yourself

    Years ago, in a first session, I asked a man when he'd last taken a full day off. Meaning he did not check his email, his team thread or answer a call. He laughed, and it wasn't because the question was funny. He genuinely couldn't remember. He ran his own company and was successful by every external measure. Smart, disciplined, deeply admired by the people who worked for him. He'd come to see me because his wife suggested it. He didn't think anything was wrong. What surfaced over the sessions to follow was the realization that he couldn't rest without a low hum of guilt underneath it. He prepared for everything, including casual dinners with friends, far past the point where more preparation improved anything. When something went well, he felt satisfied for about an hour before his mind moved to the next thing that could go wrong. And when someone praised him genuinely, his instinct was to deflect it, redirect the credit, and change the subject. He didn't think of himself as an anxious person. He thought of himself as driven and disciplined with high standards, and that's exactly how everyone around him would describe it too. But underneath the drive was a nervous system that had never once been given permission to feel safe without earning it first. That's what high functioning anxiety looks like. It rarely announces itself as anxiety, because it shows up wearing the costume of excellence. And it's especially good at hiding from the person living inside it. You can be brilliant at reading a room, or at reading your kids, or at reading your team, and still be almost completely blind to what's running underneath your own behaviour. So today I want to help you spot it in yourself, in real time. Inside this podcast episode, I walk you through: The six signs of high functioning anxiety, starting with the one most people mistake for discipline Why chronic over preparation is managing something other than the outcome What the post-success crash is, and why the drop arrives right after the win The difference between genuine high standards and a nervous system that learned achievement gets rewarded What your children are absorbing from all of this, long before they can put it into words Four questions to run yourself through honestly this week ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at: Grab Our Free Parenting Guide: https://drshyam.myflodesk.com/parenting-guide https://kirupsychotherapy.com https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  4. Sep 3

    The Anxiety and Confidence Seesaw: Why You Never Actually Outgrow It

    I've sat across from CEOs who carry the exact same internal architecture as a 10-year-old who won't raise his hand in class. The vocabulary is different and the stakes are higher, but underneath it's running on the same mechanism. Here's what I mean by that. Picture anxiety and confidence as two ends of the same seesaw. When anxiety goes up, confidence comes down, because confidence has less room to exist.  When confidence is present, anxiety has less room to operate. I've been using this metaphor for two decades now, and it has held up across every age and every context I've ever worked in. Most of us assume that seesaw belongs to childhood, and that somewhere along the way you grow out of it and arrive somewhere solid. That hasn't been my experience in 20+ years of this work. In teenagers, it shows up as identity work. There's a question running underneath everything they do, whether or not they've ever said it out loud, and the question is who am I, and is that person acceptable.  Anxiety at that age disguises itself as attitude, as withdrawal, or as an intense need for social approval.  In adults, it gets quieter, which in some ways makes it more dangerous, because we get very good at hiding it.  Adult anxiety frequently looks like overworking, perfectionism dressed up as high standards, OR like the person who can't delegate, can't rest, and can't receive a compliment without immediately deflecting it. I've worked with people who would never in a hundred years describe themselves as anxious, and who in fact were, but they were managing it with strategies that were extremely effective and exhausting. Confidence gets misread in the same way. We tend to picture it as loud, as the most certain person in the room, as someone who walks in and commands it.  Real confidence, the kind that holds up under actual pressure, is much quieter than that. It's the capacity to admit when you don't know something, to take honest feedback without spiralling, and to fail at something without that failure destroying your self-worth. It's the ability to know you're still worthy regardless of the need to "prove it" to anyone.  Inside this conversation, I walk you through: Why anxiety and confidence sit on two ends of the same seesaw at every age How anxiety disguises itself in teenagers, and why the stakes climb as the audience grows What adult anxiety actually looks like, and why high standards are so often the disguise What real confidence looks like, which is far quieter than most of us picture The moment anxious energy stops fuelling performance and starts sabotaging it Why the intervention with elite performers is almost never about building more skill ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at: Grab Our Free Parenting Guide: https://drshyam.myflodesk.com/parenting-guide https://kirupsychotherapy.com https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  5. Aug 27

    Parenting and Anxiety: Why Your Child Changes When You Do

    Years ago, a mother came to see me about her teenage daughter. Her daughter was anxious in a way that was touching everything. Her friendships, her focus, her ability to steady herself when things didn't go the way she expected. From the outside she looked like she had it all together. Bright, social, the kind of kid other parents look at and assume is thriving. At home, her mother was witnessing something else entirely. So she did what any parent would do. She tried to bring her daughter in for therapy. Her daughter refused. I want to pause there, because if you're nodding right now, you're in very good company.  Kids and teens refusing therapy happens far more often than people realize. Often the child who's struggling the most is the last one willing to ask for help. We tend to call that stubbornness. What's really happening is that anxiety is protecting itself from being found out. So her mother came in alone. And I said something to her in that first session that I've said to many parents in many first sessions since. If I never meet your daughter, not once, there's powerful work we can do right here. And I can tell you with complete confidence that it will reach her. We worked together for a few months. Not on her daughter but on her.  On how she stayed regulated when her daughter wasn't.  On how she showed up in the moments that mattered instead of reacting from her own fear and exhaustion.  On how she carried herself through her own patterns, so it stopped landing on her child without her ever meaning it to. I never met that girl, not once. And by the time our work was closing, the emotional temperature in that home had changed. Her daughter was regulating better. The two of them were talking and connecting in ways they hadn't in years. I have countless stories like this one. And now that I have a full clinical team doing this exact kind of work, so do they. Kids we've never met, whose lives changed because one parent decided to do the work. In this episode I explain the mechanism underneath it, because an inspiring story without the mechanism doesn't change anything. Inside this conversation, I walk you through: The story of a mother and daughter, and why the daughter changed without ever sitting in my office Why the kids who need support the most are so often the ones who refuse it What attachment science tells us about how children borrow our capacity to regulate Why your discomfort with your child's discomfort drives more of your parenting than you realize Where your actual power as a parent lives (and why it was never in the lecture) One question to sit with this week that will tell you more than any parenting advice will ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at: Grab Our Free Parenting Guide: https://drshyam.myflodesk.com/parenting-guide https://kirupsychotherapy.com https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  6. Jul 16

    The Real Reason Passion Builds a Calling But Not Always a Lucrative Practice

    You got into this work because something called you to it. The chance to be present with people in their most difficult moments, to contribute to something that actually matters. That calling is real. And it matters more than most people in this field will ever say out loud. But here's something I've watched happen over and over in twenty years: passion without structure eventually produces burnout, inconsistency, and a practice that can't grow past a certain point, no matter how talented or dedicated the person running it is. I've watched this happen to practitioners I admire deeply. And I've felt versions of it myself. Which is a large part of why systems became one of the pillars I built into the Cognitive Freedom Method™. That's what this final episode, part five of the Real Reason series, is about. Inside this conversation, I walk you through: Why passion without structure eventually produces burnout, and what the structural backbone of a sustainable practice actually looks like The specific systems most practitioners were never trained in (intake, onboarding, client progression) and why they matter as much as in-session skill The research that shows practitioners without clear onboarding and progression structures have significantly higher rates of early client dropout How systems are the mechanism through which your clinical methodology becomes a scalable offer How the five pillars of the Cognitive Freedom Method™ connect into one integrated framework for your practice and your clinical work ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at cognitive-freedom.com kirupsychotherapy.com Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  7. Jul 9

    The Real Reason Confident Practitioners Charge More and Keep Clients Longer

    You've just wrapped a session that felt genuinely good. The client had a real shift, you could both feel it, and they left with something they didn't come in with. And somewhere in the quiet after, a thought surfaces anyway. Am I charging enough for this? For most coaches and practitioners, that question doesn't get a clean answer. It gets deferred. You'll figure it out when you're more established, when your results feel more consistent, when you finally feel ready. Here's what twenty years in this field has taught me: confidence doesn't work that way. You don't build it first and then improve your practice. Real, grounded confidence in your work is an outcome. It's what happens when you've fully internalized a methodology you trust, so completely that the self-doubt genuinely has less to live on. That's what this episode, part four of the Real Reason series, is about. Inside this conversation, I walk you through: Why real, grounded confidence in your work is an outcome of methodology, and what that means for how you actually build it What it means to embody a methodology, and why that experience is fundamentally different from simply understanding one The research that shows your confidence as a practitioner directly predicts whether clients stay and complete the work Why undercharging is almost never a marketing problem, and why the solution lives in your methodology How the Cognitive Freedom Method™ Practitioner Certification is designed to build confidence at the level where it actually lives ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™. Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify   Learn more at cognitive-freedom.com kirupsychotherapy.com Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

  8. Jul 2

    The Real Reason a Clear Road Map Is Worth More Than a Full Client Roster

    So you're in session with a client, and the same thing keeps surfacing.  They understand what they need to do, you name it together, they light up, and they leave the session ready to change.  Then they come back to the next session having done none of what you talked about. For a lot of coaches and practitioners, that moment becomes a trigger for imposter syndrome.  Why am I even doing this?  Am I even good at this?  In my experience, that isn't the problem. Here's what I've learned in two decades of this work: the answer is understanding the pattern running underneath the one your client keeps repeating, and giving them a clear roadmap of what to do about it. Not a loose sense of how you work, but a structured, session by session framework you can bring to any client, so you know what needs to happen next and why, and you can guide them through it in a way that makes them actually implement it. That's what this episode, part three of the Real Reason series, is about. Inside this conversation, I walk you through: Why a full roster can still leave you feeling uncertain every single week What actually happens when a practitioner works without a roadmap, and why sessions become reactive Why structure makes connection more purposeful, not less human The progression inside the Cognitive Freedom Method™, from assessment and conceptualization through psychoeducation, structured cognitive work, and integration Why clients can feel whether or not you're holding a clear plan, even when they can't name it How consistent, structured results turn your clients into your best and most natural marketing _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Shyamala Kiru is a former psychotherapist of 20 years and the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the Cognitive Freedom Method™.  Through her work in leadership development, practitioner training, and clinical practice (now retired), she teaches a structured framework for understanding and transforming the cognitive patterns that shape how we think, lead, and relate. 📘 The Emotionally Intelligent Woman Available on Amazon and Chapters Indigo 🎧 The Dr. Shyamala Show Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Learn more at  cognitive-freedom.com  kirupsychotherapy.com Real freedom begins when you understand your mind. Where to Connect: My Clinic: Kiru Psychotherapy: https://kirupsychotherapy.com Learn More About The Cognitive Freedom Method™: https://www.cognitive-freedom.com/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shyamala-kiru-4a853aa5/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/iam.drshyam/

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About

The Dr. Shyamala Show explores the intersection of leadership, identity, and cognitive transformation. Hosted by Dr. Shyamala Kiru, former psychotherapist of 20 years and founder of the Cognitive Freedom Method™, this podcast explores how internal patterns shape the way we think, lead, and relate - especially in moments of pressure and complexity. Each episode examines the psychology behind leadership and relational dynamics, with a focus on structured cognitive change, emotional regulation, and identity-level transformation. The conversations are grounded in disciplined psychological insight applied to real-world complexity. Dr. Shyamala is also the founder of Kiru Psychotherapy Clinic and the author of The Emotionally Intelligent Woman. Through solo teachings and conversations with practitioners and thought leaders, she brings clinical depth into leadership development and practitioner training. This podcast is for leaders and practitioners who value clarity, structure, and depth in how they think, lead, and relate. Connect on Instagram @iam.drshyam Learn more at www.cognitive-freedom.com Clinical services at www.kirupsychotherapy.com

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Shyamala Kiru
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © @ Copyright 2024
  • Show Website
    The Dr. Shyamala Show

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