35 episodes
Seek Safely Jean Brown & Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle
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- Society & Culture
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4.8 • 29 Ratings
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The SEEK Safely podcast is the official voice of the nonprofit organization SEEK Safely Inc, which advocates for ethics and accountability in the self-help industry, and empowers seekers to have safe and effective self-improvement journeys. Jean Brown and Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle peel back the layers of the largely unregulated, multi-billion dollar self-help industry, discussing the patterns of exploitation and deception that pervade the industry and allow self-help gurus to thrive at the expense of their customers and followers. Along the way we’ll have discussions with people who care as much as we do about the self-help industry being held accountable for the promises it makes–and we lay out our vision of a world in which seekers are respected and protected.
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SEEK Safely Podcast (Taylor Edition) with Brit Barkholtz (Part 1)
Brit Barkholtz is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in trauma and eating disorders, active in the Twitter therapist community as The Caffeinated Therapist. Brit shares her take on MLMs, self-help exploiting trauma, “culty” stuff, and Taylor Swift as a tool of trauma recovery.
This episode is Part 1 of 2.
To Read:
Brit’s thoughts on The Tortured Poet’s Department on HuffPo
PESI
To Listen To:
SEEK Podcast Episode on MLMs
SEEK Pod Episode on Trauma
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poet’s Department
Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website
Follow SEEK on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Follow Dr. Glenn on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Read the memoir “This Sweet Life: how we lived after Kirby died” by Jean and her mom, Ginny Brown
Donate to support SEEK’s mission
To Contact SEEK email info@seeksafely.org -
Bypassing–Spiritual and Otherwise–in Self-help
Bypassing is, essentially, avoidance. It's something we all do from time to time as a response to something unpleasant in our lives. But sometimes bypassing can cause us to go too far, putting off challenge for later that we'd be better off dealing with now. And sometimes in the self-help world, bypassing is either encouraged or deeply embedded in the thought system being pushed.
Dr. Glenn highlights how spiritual bypassing, emotional bypassing, and reality bypassing are all especially dangerous for trauma survivors. Have a listen so you can be prepared to recognize bypassing and know whether or not it's a potential red flag situation.
On another note, special thank you to everyone who donated to Dr. Glenn's birthday fundraiser to benefit SEEK! We are always so grateful for the support!
To Read:
“The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck
“Is This a Cult” by Anne L. Peterson https://isthisacultbook.com
About EMDR Therapy
About Somatic Therapy
“Waking the Tiger” by Peter Levine
To Listen To:
SEEK Safely Podcast Interview with Anne Peterson Part 1, Part 2
The Deep End by Jennings Brown
Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website
Follow SEEK on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Follow Dr. Glenn on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Read the memoir “This Sweet Life: how we lived after Kirby died” by Jean and her mom, Ginny Brown
Donate to support SEEK’s mission
To Contact SEEK email info@seeksafely.org -
Part 2: “Is This A Cult?” – Anne Peterson's New Memoir about Her Time with Landmark Education & the Infamous Werner Erhard
Continuing our conversation with Anne Peterson, who has decades of involvement with Landmark, one of the original large-group awareness training (LGAT) companies, including experience producing a breakthrough leadership program developed for Landmark's founder, Werner Erhard. She tells her story in her memoir, “Is This A Cult: Confronting the Line Between Transformation and Exploitation.” This episode is Part 2 of 2. Listen to Part 1 if you haven’t already!
To Read:
https://isthisacultbook.com
iLumn8.life, Anne’s safer self-help platform
Rick Alan Ross
“Outrageous Betrayal” by Steven Pressman
The SEEK Safely Promise
“This Sweet Life” by Ginny and Jean Brown
About LGATs
To Watch:
I Am Not Your Guru
To Listen:
Anne’s First Interview on the SEEK Safely Podcast
Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website -
“Is This A Cult?” – Anne Peterson's New Memoir about Her Time with Landmark Education & the Infamous Werner Erhard
Anne Peterson has decades of involvement with Landmark, one of the original large-group awareness training (LGAT) companies, including experience producing a breakthrough leadership program developed for Landmark's founder, Werner Erhard. Millions (3.5 million, according to Landmark's press packet) have passed through its trademark Landmark Forum training, many of them having positive experiences. But after her many years of working with Landmark as a facilitator and program producer, Anne began to see some of the cracks under the surface, particularly with its very guru-y founder, Werner Erhard (aka Jack Rosenberg). Anne is now telling her story–and in the process, raising many red flags for other seekers of personal growth–in her memoir, “Is This A Cult: Confronting the Line Between Transformation and Exploitation.” This episode is Part 1 of 2.
To Read:
https://isthisacultbook.com
Rick Alan Ross
“Outrageous Betrayal” by Steven Pressman
“The Program” by Toni Natale
The SEEK Safely Promise
“This Sweet Life” by Ginny and Jean Brown
About LGATs
To Watch:
I Am Not Your Guru
To Listen:
Anne’s First Interview on the SEEK Safely Podcast
Guru Podcast
Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website -
From Kirby Jam 2023: SEEK Safely’s Legislative Effort to Pass Self-help Consumer Protection Legislation
This episode is a throw-back to our annual fundraiser, Kirby Jam, in October 2023. We had live-streamed on a different topic each night, and on this night, Monday, October 16th, we discussed our effort to pass self-help consumer protection legislation. Dr. Glenn, Jean, and SEEK Founder Ginny Brown talk about why we feel the legislation is necessary, what our effort has looked like, and the bill that we are hoping will make it to the floor in the New York State Legislature in 2024. (And please give us a bit of grace for extraneous noises, etc, as what you are hearing was live-recorded!)
To Read:
About Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos
About SEEK’s Consumer Protection Bill
To Listen To:
SEEK’s Kirby Jam first night broadcast
S2E2 Glenn and Jean Spoil 'The Secret' on the SEEK Safely Podcast
Learn more about SEEK Safely on our website
Follow SEEK on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Follow Dr. Glenn on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Read the memoir “This Sweet Life: how we lived after Kirby died” by Jean and her mom, Ginny Brown
Donate to support SEEK’s mission
To Contact SEEK email info@seeksafely.org -
Self-help Books that Arent's Self-help Books with Guest Dr. Christine Whelan
Our resident self-help geeks, Dr. Doyle and Dr. Christine Whelan, along with Jean, talk about self-help books that aren’t self-help books—that is, books that were not written to be self-help books but have been adopted into self-help culture, or society at large, as self-helpy how-to life manuals. Some are about other aspects of mental health and wellness, some are memoir or autobiography, some are straight-up fiction, but somehow they either took on a self-help life of their own, or have been readily adopted by the self-help industry, or launched the author into the self-helpisphere.
The rest of the notes are just links.
So. Many. Links.
To Read:
The Bible by God(?)
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Purpose by Richard J. Leider
Self-esteem by Nathaniel Branden
The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Brandino
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Art of the Deal by Tony Schwartz and Donald Trump
I’m Ok; You’re Ok by Thomas Harris
The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Get the links to the rest of the books we mention on our website...
Customer Reviews
Essential knowing!
I appreciate the work being done by SEEK Safetly so much!! As a consumer and Practioner of self development the insight and lessons available in these discussions is essential to the fulfillment of the promise of self help. We can never reap the benefits of any idea without also understanding the dark side. Thank you!!
Please Stop Nattering
I deeply believe in seeking safely and I am a skeptical self-help geek. I am fascinating by the flim flammery of the industry but also believe self help offers a lot of value. I am probably this podcast’s ideal listener. However, I am very frustrated at how long it takes the hosts to get to their points every episode. We are on minute 17 of a podcast about Tony Robbins and we haven’t heard anything of substance except he is one of the leading self help gurus and is so popular The Office has made a joke about him. The hosts are very nice and I am sure I’d love talking to them in person. But as podcasters I’d like them to be less nattering—a good editing would do wonders for this podcast.
Vital, and a pleasure to listen to!
Seek Safely is so important and could well save lives. I really appreciate the dynamic between Jean and Dr. Glenn and the unique and much-needed perspectives they bring.
People who aspire to become the best versions of themselves deserve to go about those efforts safely, and this podcast gives me hope.
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