Today we welcome Caroline Leaf to the podcast. Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Masters and PhD in Communication Pathology and Logopaedics. Since the early 1980s, she has researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health and the formation of memory. Dr. Leaf is also the bestselling author of Switch on Your Brain, Think Learn Succeed, and Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. Her latest book is called How to Help Your Child Clean Up Their Mental Mess. 

In this episode, I talk to Dr. Caroline Leaf about managing the mind. The world is a crazy place and our minds can get disorderly trying to keep up with it! But according to Dr. Leaf, to have a messy mind is to be human. We don’t have to pathologize our emotions and thoughts. Instead, we can embrace them and implement strategies that allow us to better direct ourselves. Dr. Leaf shows us how to make sense of the messy mind and the scientific research behind those steps. We also touch on the topics of self-compassion, consciousness, trauma, and neuroplasticity. 

Website: drleaf.com & mentallyresilientkids.com

Instagram: @drcarolineleaf

Topics

02:10 Dr. Leaf’s background and expertise

08:23 Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess

16:14 Managing the mind

23:47 Emotions are warning signals 

30:26 Intrusive rumination

34:40 Detox from trauma

42:24 The Neurocycle 

46:22 Where CBT works best 

49:13 Dr. Leaf’s research 

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