Think Act Be Podcast Seth J. Gillihan

My guest this week is clinical psychologist Dr. Daisy Singla. We talked about the exciting research that Daisy is doing, both in North America and throughout the world. I think what I love most about her work is that she’s finding truly innovative ways to address the global mental health care crisis. There are just too many of us in need of help to be able to meet these needs with the current model of long, expensive therapy with a highly trained specialist. Much of our conversation focused on interventions for perinatal depression, but the techniques that work in this context are helpful in general. I think you'll find a lot of value in this discussion.

My guest this week for part three of this series on depression is Dr. Willem Kuyken. He knows all about depression, both from his personal experience since early in life as well as from his extensive research. In this episode you’ll hear about mindfulness for depression, which Willem explains so clearly, and why it’s so helpful. The benefits of being mindful extend not just to managing depression but to all of life, including helping us to deal with life’s pain and disappointments that all of us will experience at times. Toward the end he shares one of his favorite mindfulness practices, which I really loved. I got so much out of this conversation, and I think you will, too.

My guest this week is therapist and author Dr. Carissa Gustafson, who wrote an excellent book called Reclaim Your Life: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 7 Weeks (affiliate link). We focused on using ACT to treat depression, since this is the second installment of our series on effective ways to manage depression. As you’ll hear, ACT is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, but it has a really different emphasis, especially in how we deal with the negative thoughts that are so common and distressing in depression. Instead of working to change the thoughts themselves, we focus on changing our relationship with our thoughts, as Carissa explains. We also talk about how we can move through low energy and low motivation and do what’s important to us when our mood is so low, and how sometimes we need to let our hearts break so they can open. I know you’ll take a lot from this episode.

This is the first part of a four-part series on depression, and my first guest in the series is Dr. Steven Hollon. As you’ll hear, Steve is extremely knowledgeable about the current state of depression research, and he shares some mind-blowing findings that go against some of the core assumptions about depression, like that it’s caused by low serotonin. We also talk about how well medication and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) work to treat depression, and why therapy is so much better at preventing the return of depression once treatment ends. Steve clearly knows his science, and he also understands depression from the inside. He had a series of episodes of depression in his twenties, though thankfully he’s been depression free since he started treating patients with cognitive therapy. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden. He’s back for our series finale in this 4-part series on effective ways to manage anxiety. This time we applied his 3-step program from his book Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link) to managing fear and anxiety in OCD, panic, and worry, including examples from my own life in these areas.
As I try to make clear in our discussion, many people experience more severe versions of what I describe, and there’s no quick and easy fix for overwhelming anxiety. At the same time, the same types of techniques tend to be really helpful, regardless of severity. Joel and I also talked about what it’s like to deal with anxiety as someone who specializes in treating anxiety, which I found super helpful. 

My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden. He’s back for the third part of our four-part series on effective ways to manage anxiety, based on his book, Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link). So if you’re dealing with a lot of anxiety, and are even feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, you’ll find a lot of guidance in this discussion for how you can find relief. We even talk some about how we can use humor to diffuse anxiety, and how Joel does that in his own life. As always I had a great talk with my friend and fellow cognitive behavioral psychologist.