Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Existential boredom is a challenge for many that can lead to a pathological engagement with shallow amusements (which may only deepen the despair and lead to more boredom).  Dr. Kevin Gary joins us for a discussion of some of the core themes covered in his book Why Boredom Matters: Education, Leisure, and the Quest for a Meaningful Life.  In this discussion we cover: why Dr. Gary wanted to write this book situational vs. existential boredom comparing and contrasting existential boredom and depression the benefits of making our boredom explicit rather than pushing it away the relationship between boredom and despair the despair of possibility vs. despair of necessity and the impact on mood the unique challenges that aging might pose with respect to boredom identifying constructive & nonconstructive ways of coping crafting an effective leisure practice how to "fall back in love" with an activity or passion that used to drive us but we have become disenchanted with  healthy boredom vs. unhealthy boredom (like something that might arise with ADHD) Comments or feedback?  Email the podcast: oicbtpodcast@gmail.comBio: Kevin Gary is a professor at Valparaiso University, where he teaches theology, education, and in the Christ College Honors Program. Kevin's work addresses questions about meaning and purpose, focusing especially on human flourishing. His book Why Boredom Matters: Education, Leisure, and the Quest for a Meaningful Life was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Kevin examines the problem of boredom and related problems associated with boredom avoidance. Rather than avoid or resign ourselves to boredom, he charts a middle way that guides us to how to productively and wisely contend with this troubling mood state.

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Understanding the evolutionary significance of depression can quite helpful in its conceptualization and treatment.  Founder in the field of evolutionary medicine, Dr. Randy Nesse, joins us for an encore discussion in which we consider how striving, motivation and desire for control can play into the evolution of depressive symptoms. In this conversation we cover:  why failure to give up an unachievable goal may be a central cause of some forms of depression and why low mood might be advantageous in these situationshow understanding dynamics around food-foraging can give us insight into how our nervous system cues us to disengage from various activities at the best cost-benefit ratio  the types of stressors that might be particularly likely to evoke a response of “ceaseless striving” that can potentially cause depressionsome of the other causes of depression that exist outside of this modelhow this model can inform our assessment and treatment of depressionmania through the lens of an evolutionary modelthe compassionate consideration of grief (and complicated grief) from an evolutionary lensdifferentiating between the “necessary” pain of to alert oneself to a life circumstance that needs remediation vs. the opposite – where perhaps the mood problem is causing the life circumstance (i.e., the normal emotion regulation mechanisms have broken down)   the role of medication in treating depression given some of the caveats around the evolutionary origins of depressionRandolph M. Nesse, MD, is a founder of the field of evolutionary medicine and co-author with George C. Williams of Why We Get Sick. He served for many years as Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology and Research Professor at the University of Michigan. He was the Founding Director of the Center for Evolution & Medicine at Arizona State University and Foundation Professor in the School of Life Sciences from 2014 to 2019, where he is now a Research Professor.  He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, a distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and an elected Fellow of the AAAS.

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! For many mental health clinicians, crafting resilience is an afterthought to managing the day-to-day demands of their professional life.  Psychologist, consultant & author, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier, joins us to discuss some of the themes explored in her new book: The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health.the ethos behind the Resilience Plan what is burnout and what makes someone vulnerablesome of the unique traps around burnout that are laid for clinicians in private practice /mental health, including the temperament of cliniciansstrategies for developing a sustainable model of practice based on a realistic audit of one's current demands resilience as a process of validating our experience, being realistic and remaining forward looking. why we need to be strategic about our resilience creative problem-solving with respect to allocation of our time, money and other resourceswhy pushing yourself to be more resilient may cause more burnoutsome of the common rationalizations that clinicians employ to avoid self-care and how to flip some of these same rationalizations around to actually enhance self-carecrafting resilience in the face of some of the more challenging realities of the health care systemhow clinicians in solo practice can create a source of community how to create a resilience plan strategies for those running practices to build an environment where teams (or the individual) can thrive and are less prone to burnoutconsidering when it might be appropriate to take a leave of absence (with a specific focus on clinicians who may be self-employed) Throughout her career in business management and psychology, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier has spearheaded a dialogue on the crucial issues of leadership resilience and workplace health. Drawing on her extensive background in corporate, insurance, governance and public sectors, she brings national and international perspectives and expertise on mental health and resilience as a key pillar of overall health. She is a bilingual practicing psychologist with over 20 years of experience in clinical psychology and advisory workplace psychology and holds a Ph.D. and an MBA from the University of British Columbia. Marie-Hélène  is a Member of the Global Clinical Practice Network of the World Health Organization, and past Director on the boards of the Canadian Psychological Association and the International Association of Applied Psychology. She has presented, authored and co-authored a number of industry and academic publications and has won numerous academic and industry awards. In 2024, Dr. Pelletier will release her new book, The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health.Pre-Order the Book: https://theresilienceplan.com/Website:

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Music is an under-explored tool with respect to the provision of psychotherapy as well as the crafting of peak experiences.  Clinical counsellor, performance coach and opera singer, Dr. Fiona McAndrew, joins us for an eclectic, wide-ranging discussion in which explore:Fiona's alternating journey between psychology and music a window into the psychological life of a top tier opera singermusic as tool to evoke and access emotions and spiritual experiences the emotional transaction between performer and artist Fiona's research on peak experience and peak states including a fascinating recounting of her own seminal peak experience while performing translating learnings from peak experience in the performing arts to the therapeutic domain  consideration of the evolutionary significance of peak experience and the utility for exploring one's sense of selfreflections on providing therapy to highly creative individuals a brief meditation on the beauty inherent to the human voice the appeal and utility of depth psychology, especially for managing dialectics and tolerating internal dissonance the unique challenges and opportunity of the mid-life passageFeedback or comments?  Email us: oicbtpodcast@gmail.comDr. Fiona McAndrew is a clinical counsellor and performance coach working internationally online and in person in central Helsinki. She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne in Music Performance Psychology and a Master of Counselling (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) from Monash University, Melbourne which she integrates with a Jungian, depth psychology perspective to help a range of clients in the corporate world, elite athletics, professional performing arts, music, film and advertising. This experience is underpinned by training and publication as a research psychologist (B.A.Hons) (University of Western Australia) and professional performing arts training at the elite Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London (PG.Ad.Dip.,Opera). She is also a trained Creativity Coach and holds a Certificate to administer the personality test, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).Fiona’s special interest in positive psychology and performance grew out of her 25 year career as an international opera singer performing solo roles to critical acclaim for major festivals, opera houses and film. Until 2020, she was Deputy Head of Opera and Classical Voice as well as a lecturer in Musical Theatre at the well- known multi-arts conservatoire Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and is a frequent performance consultant at conservatoire and universities in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.In 2020 she re-trained in counselling and her Masters research focussed on anxiety in mid-life women and chronic pain conditions. Her previous doctoral research into peak states of consciousness, looked at the ways in which music, language and movement in the communal experience of theatre can provide the conditions for the experience of awe that lies "beyond words".Fiona’s diverse range of experience and skills and a network of international referrals and contacts, allows her to offer a creative, confidential space for clients to address issues and develop clarity in their working and personal lives. The term idir from the Irish language meaning between, refers to the creative space between client and therapist and between clients and their creative challengess.https://idircreativecounselling.com/Email: fmmcandrew@gmail.com

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Mental health professionals have increasingly been seeing clients seeking services related to anxiety and depression stemming from serious, negative changes that have been occurring in our climate.  Psychologist and professor, Dr. Susan Clayton, who is one of the world's authorities on how the environment impacts upon psychological factors joins us for a discussion in which we cover: how the environment & climate impacts upon psychological well-being and functioning generallya working definition of climate anxiety (and associated terms which are frequently used in this context)the prevalence and nature of clinically significant climate anxiety and whether our current level of anxiety about the environment should even be considered disordered given the challenges we are facinga historical & evolutionary perspective on our attunement to the environment as humans and why it is hard for us to make realistic threat appraisals the pull for current climate challenges to evoke nihilism and the role grief work could potentially play in contending with emergent distress related to the climateother forms of psychological symptoms that we know can originate from climate change aside from anxietyhelping individuals to identify resources that will augment their sense of effective copinglinking a sustainable stance towards the environment with core human values and meaning  Dr. Clayton's suggestions around effective coping for those experiencing climate anxietyComments or feedback?  Email the show at: oicbtpodcast@gmail.com?  Finding value in the podcast?  A review or rating on your platform of choice is always appreciated!Susan Clayton , Ph.D., is the Whitmore-Williams Professor and Chair of Psychology at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Dr. Clayton’s research examines people’s relationship with the natural environment, how it is socially constructed, and how a healthy relationship with nature can be promoted. She has written about the effects of climate change on mental health, and has developed a scale to assess climate anxiety. She is author or editor of six books, including Identity and the Natural Environment, Conservation Psychology, and Psychology and Climate Change, and is currently the editor of the Cambridge Elements series in Applied Social Psychology and on the editorial board for journals such as the Journal of Environmental Psychology and Sustainability. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the International Association of Applied Psychology, she was a lead author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Shame is among the most powerful of human emotions and can drive a number of both functional and dysfunctional behaviours.  Sheila Rubin, MA & Bret Lyon, Ph.D., join us for a comprehensive discussion of many of the themes in their new book Embracing Shame - How to Stop Resisting Shame & Turn it into a Powerful Ally.  In this discussion we cover: why they wanted to write this booka theoretically driven and evolutionarily informed definition of shameshame as a "binding" emotion that helps to de-intensify emotional reactions to stressors common reactions to shame (anger in, anger out, avoidance, withdrawal)healthy vs. unhealthy shameshame as potentially a developmental wound and how this manifests in adultsworking with clients who harbour shame but who are emotionally over-regulateddiagnosing the impact of shame within interpersonal interactionsSheila Rubin, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT, and Bret Lyon, PhD, SEP, are co-creators of the Healing Shame–Lyon/Rubin Method and founders of The Center for Healing Shame. Through their in-person and popular online trainings, they have taught hundreds of psychotherapists throughout the world how to more effectively identify and work with shame. They live together in Berkeley, CA. For more, visit healingshame.com. 

Dr. Jeff Perron, psychology expert, discusses the psychology of happiness, including defining happiness within the human condition, the tension between schema-driven behaviors and values, integrating mode work into treatment, resolving conflicts between values, and developing a compassionate self. The importance of evidence-based practices in psychology, blue zones and community, and adaptive schemas are also explored.

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! For many clinicians body dysmorphic disorder or BDD is shrouded in mystery and can be an intimidating and tricky presentation to try and conceptualize and treat.   Physician, scientist, educator, and author, Dr. Katharine Phillips,  who has spent her career caring for patients, mentoring/teaching, and conducting groundbreaking scientific research on BDD joins us for a discussion in which we cover:  what BDD is and how it affects individualssubtypes of BDDthe special concern around insight in BDDdevelopmental experiences and factors related to temperament that might predispose someone towards BDDthe current gold standard treatment for BDD,  the typical response rate and the role medication can/should medication play in the overall strategy  challenges issues related to differential diagnosisadvice for family members concerned about a loved one with suspected or confirmed BDDComments or feedback?  Email the podcast at: oicbtpodcast@gmail.com Finding the podcast of value?  Please consider leaving a rating a review on your platform of choice.  Dr. Phillips graduated with honors from Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School. She did her psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She is currently Professor of Psychiatry, DeWitt Wallace Senior Scholar, and Residency  Research Director at Weill Cornell Medical College.Dr. Katharine Phillips is a physician, scientist, educator, and author who has spent her career caring for patients, mentoring/teaching, and conducting groundbreaking scientific research on body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Her research studies on BDD have identified and elucidated many aspects of this common and severe disorder, and she has developed and tested treatments, both medication and therapy, for BDD. Her scientific studies on BDD were continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health for more than 20 years.Dr. Phillips has received many honors and awards for her research, clinical work, and other academic contributions. Her awards include a Special Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association and the Outstanding Career Achievement Award from the International BDD Foundation for her research studies on BDD.Dr. Phillips has more than 350 scientific publications (original scientific articles, reviews, letters, and book chapters). She has written or edited 11 books on BDD and other topics, including the first book on BDD. Dr. Phillips has given more than 600 international, national, and local presentations for professionals, including more than 130 Grand Rounds.Dr. Phillips has served on many national boards and committees. She is an elected Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She is a member of numerous editorial boards, the American College of Psychiatrists, and the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and the International BDD Foundation. From 2002-2006 she chaired the National Institute of Mental Health's Interventions Research Review Committee (Scientific Review Group).To disseminate information about BDD and other topics, Dr. Phillips has done more than 500 media interviews. She has been interviewed by the New York Times, London Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Newsweek, CNN, the BBC, National Public Radio, and many other media outlets. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, Dateline NBC, the Today Show, and Good Morning America.https://www.katharinephillipsmd.com/

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Hello everyone - hope you are well!  We just wanted to quickly let you know that we’ll be taking a scheduled break for the rest of the summer and will be back with new episodes in the early fall.It’s been a real joy recording and putting out the podcast - we’re so grateful to each and every guest for their contribution to the path that we’ve been on with the podcast which is basically trying to get just a little bit closer to coming to grips with the unbelievably complex reality of the human experience. At last count there were over 3 million active podcasts on the Apple podcast platform - that is, of course, an absolutely huge amount of content to choose from.  We are so delighted & humbled by the number of listeners who have chosen to devote a little bit of their bandwidth to the content that we have been producing.  We have seen quite a sizable growth in the podcast over the past 8 months and we want to thank you for your support.  If you’re relatively new to the podcast, we hope you are enjoying the content we have to offer.  If you have been enjoying the content, leaving a review on Apple podcasts would be tremendously helpful - it’s a major benchmark that helps potential guests gauge the podcast and I can tell you for a fact that the warm feedback to date has really helped with the growth of Thoughts on Record – we’re a relatively small, independent podcast and having solid reviews really helps potential guests cut through the noise of the countless invitations they receive.  It’s also a great way for us to get feedback and to get a feel for how the content is resonating.  Passing the podcast along to a friend or colleague is also always appreciated.  If you have comments or feedback, you can always reach us at oicbtpodcast@gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you with any suggestions for guests or topics you might have!  I’ve really enjoyed interacting with those who have reached out so keep the emails coming!Well, that’s it for now - looking forward to picking up the conversation in the fall!Take good care,Pete, on behalf of the OICBTwww.ottawacbt.ca

Comments or feedback? Send us a text! Strength in vulnerability combined with an internal sense of safety are among the most powerful psychological tools that one can curate to promote wellness and healthy boundaries.  Four-time Olympian, speaker & author, Silken Laumann, joins us for a very special discussion where we cover:  a brief overview of Silken's story and her rise to prominence nationally and internationallyfinding an "extra gear" with respect to performance and the balance between connecting with the reality of one's situation & processing difficult emotions while remaining goal driventhe importance of vulnerability with respect to promoting and maintaining mental wellness as well as connection with othersSilken's perspective on the impact of adverse early life experiences on the formation of self-esteem, coping, attachments, detection of threat etc.  the challenge (and sometimes imposibility) of maintaining attachments with important figures in our life and the critical importance of boundariesnavigating guilt that can arise from detaching from significant others who are felt to present a challenge to one's own wellness the power of an apologypros and cons of using intensive/high-level exercise/activity to assist with emotion regulation & growth of self-esteemwhy Silken has taken such a strong stance around being vulnerable in sharing her story and how it informs the ethos of her charity UnsinkableSilken's lens on cultivating vulnerability in the service of sharing your story and what must be in place psychologically for this to be a safe, healthy & healing process the importance of clearly and honestly assessing one's needs in the service of self-carean overview of Silken's charity, Unsinkable, and it's core of storytellingthe myths and realities of the mental health of elite athletes the perhaps unexpected challenge of achieving great success early in life and the challenge of transitioning out of elite athletics Four-time Olympian Silken Laumann is one of Canada’s most inspirational leaders, a best-selling author, and a child and mental health advocate. Silken’s Olympic story is legendary and inspirational. As reigning world champion, Silken fought back from a devastating rowing accident, to win a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.  In her best-selling memoir, Unsinkable, Silken shines a spotlight on all the obstacles she has encountered and overcome. Silken speaks candidly about her athletic success and triumph over physical adversity, but also the intense personal challenges of her past and the fierce determination she applies to living a bold and successful life today. Silken is the founder of Unsinkable, a multimedia non-profit organization that uses story-telling and lived experience to move people further along their mental, physical and spiritual journey.https://www.weareunsinkable.com/Host note: A very special thanks to Jennifer Elia for facilitating this conversation!