Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

The podcast explores topics such as relationship anxiety, getting more out of therapy, cognitive therapy for individuals with complex PTSD, different therapeutic modalities, setting boundaries in therapy, managing ADHD, and reframing psychiatric diagnoses.

The podcast discusses workaholism in today's productivity-focused culture, exploring its psychological functions and relation to other addictions. They delve into differentiating workaholism from working hard, competence, approval seeking, population groups more prone to workaholism, the stages of change, and the challenges of balancing work and family. They also discuss tracking time, the challenges of disengaging from fulfilling work, and the concept of internalizing social support.

Dr. Susan David, creator of Emotional Agility, joins the hosts to discuss the four parts of emotional agility, unhooking from negative thoughts and feelings, identifying what really matters, and acting from our values. They explore the importance of continuity of self, recognizing unhelpful patterns, and learning from discomfort and anxiety.

Discover the fears related to change and impermanence anxiety. Explore the impact of embracing impermanence on living fully in the present moment. Learn about strategies for managing uncertainty and embracing impermanence. Examine the importance of appreciating relationships and dealing with existential thoughts. Explore the concept of observing change on a micro time scale and deepening awareness. Discover insights on becoming more resilient to impermanence and letting go.

Dr. Chris Palmer, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, discusses the relationship between metabolic function and mental illness. They explore the role of mitochondria in mental illness and the impact of current treatments on brain energy and metabolism. Practical interventions to improve metabolic function include the ketogenic diet, sleep, exercise, stress management, love, connection, and sense of purpose.

Emotional intelligence is considered an essential trait for everything from being a desirable romantic partner to having a successful career. But what do we really mean when we say “emotional intelligence,” and how can we become emotionally intelligent over time? In today’s episode Dr. Rick and Forrest discuss what’s “in” emotional intelligence, balancing emotional closeness and distance, and how we can become more self-aware, emotionally regulated, and empathic.You can watch this episode on YouTube.Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction1:40: What’s emotional intelligence?4:25: Curiosity, care, and rational vs. emotional decision making9:30: The five domains of emotional intelligence11:30: Courage18:40: Competence, capacity, and application23:40: Anger, and discerning wants and needs25:25: Self-awareness30:20: The stories we are drawn to33:20: Empathy44:40: Self-regulation48:50: Widening the space 51:45: The feelings beneath the feelings53:00: Feeling overwhelmed, boundaries, and differentiation1:01:10: RecapSupport the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.Sponsors:Factor delivers fresh, never-frozen, fully prepared meals right to your door. Head to factormeals.com/beingwell50 and use code beingwell50 to get 50% off. Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need, and deliver the type of experience you want. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.Finally get that project off the ground with Squarespace! Head to squarespace.com/beingwell for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use coupon code BEINGWELL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our thoughts, emotions, and experiences can reshape the very structure of our brains, allowing it to adapt and change over time. This is known as neuroplasticity, and while it’s present throughout our lives the younger we are the more powerful it is. On today’s episode, Dr. Caroline Leaf joins Rick and Forrest to explore how we can harness the power of neuroplasticity to clean up our mental mess…and teach our children to do the same. They detail Dr. Leaf’s five-step Neurocycle process, walk through a practical example, and explain how we can use mind-management tools to reshape our relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings. Dr. Leaf then shares how we can introduce these tools to young people, the importance of nurturing a child's sense of agency, and the power of teaching through modeling. About our Guest: Dr. Caroline Leaf is a clinical and cognitive neuroscientist who has been researching the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health, and the formation of memory for over 40 years. She’s the host of the top mental health podcast Cleaning Up The Mental Mess, and her newest book How to Help Your Child Clean Up Their Mental Mess.You can watch this episode on YouTube.Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction1:00: The five steps of Dr. Leaf’s NeuroCycle6:30: A walkthrough of the process using an example from Rick13:50: Helping kids have a sense of agency in difficult environments20:35: Teaching children through modeling, and building connection with different age groups26:55: What motivates us to take action and reckon with our past33:20: Empowering kids to have thoughts and feelings without ‘being’ them35:20: RecapSupport the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.Sponsors:Factor delivers fresh, never-frozen, fully prepared meals right to your door. Head to factormeals.com/beingwell50 and use code beingwell50 to get 50% off. Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need, and deliver the type of experience you want. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.Finally get that project off the ground with Squarespace! Head to squarespace.com/beingwell for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use coupon code BEINGWELL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last 10 years interest in therapy has boomed, and with the greater demand for therapists more people than ever are considering pursuing a career in mental health. On today’s episode Forrest speaks to five therapists and therapists-in-training to learn the lessons they wish they’d known when they started. You can watch this episode on YouTube.Key Topics:0:00: Intro2:15: Rick Hanson5:05: Key traits of good therapists17:50: Questions a prospective therapist might not think to ask25:00: Self-employement, emotional regulation, and boundaries27:45: Efficacy, complacency, and respecting the craft31:45: Lori Gottlieb35:20: Emotional intimacy and human connection38:50: Modalities 40:50: Vulnerability, uncertainty, and making mistakes48:10: Terry Real52:45: Learning how to heal yourself first55:35: What therapy is actually like59:30: Messiness1:03:15: Elizabeth Ferreira1:06:35: Somatics, and being yourself1:11:50: How to suffer with someone, then let it move through you1:16:45: Awareness and the bravery of owning what’s in the room1:21:15: Chaos, and loving yourself1:27:45: Taylor Banfield1:34:00: Sitting with a client for the first time1:37:45: Choosing a specific career path1:39:10: Boundaries1:43:15: RecapAbout our Guests: Rick Hanson is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, New York Times best-selling author, and frequent guest on Being Well.Lori Gottlieb is a practicing therapist in Los Angeles, and is the author of the bestseller Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.Terry Real is a longtime clinician, the founder of the Relational Life Institute, and bestselling author of a number of books including Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving Relationship.Elizabeth Ferreira is an associate somatic psychotherapist working in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you’d like to work with Elizabeth, you can reach out to her through her website or Instagram. Taylor Banfield is a graduate student in the PsyD program at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.Sponsors:Factor delivers fresh, never-frozen, fully prepared meals right to your door. Head to factormeals.com/beingwell50 and use code beingwell50 to get 50% off!Finally get that project off the ground with Squarespace! Head to squarespace.com/beingwell for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use coupon code BEINGWELL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Harris, author of 10% Happier, joins Dr. Rick and Forrest for a wide-ranging, open, and personal conversation. They explore dealing with anxiety and fear, sustaining a mindfulness practice, and accepting our nature while leaning into a new version of ourselves. Along the way they talk about the benefits and drawbacks of purely secular approaches to mindfulness, Dan’s recent time with the Dalai Lama, and why an “anti-sentimentalist” like Dan is writing a book about love.About our Guest: Dan Harris is the author of the best-selling memoir 10% Happier, about a fidgety, skeptical news anchor who finds meditation. He’s also the host of the Ten Percent Happier podcast and the cofounder of the Ten Percent Happier meditation app. For 21 years, he worked at ABC News, where he anchored such shows as Nightline and the weekend editions of Good Morning America.You can watch this episode on YouTube.Key Topics: ​​0:00: Introduction1:05: Dan’s history with panic attacks, and using exposure therapy 6:15: Pros and cons of mindfulness in a secular frame9:15: Moving away from a purely secular frame12:10: Dan’s current meditation practice16:15: Sustaining practice, and the pros and cons of stubbornness20:15: Passion and purpose without attachment27:50: Dan’s takeaways from the Dalai Lama30:45: Caring, sharing, and marking your virtuous moments33:30: An ‘anti-sentimental’ look at love44:50: Recognizing personal change47:55: If you can’t be cheesy, you can’t be free51:40: RecapSupport the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.Sponsors:Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need, and deliver the type of experience you want. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Go to BrioAirPurifier.com and use code BEINGWELL to save $100 on a Brio Air Purifier.Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.Finally get that project off the ground with Squarespace! Head to squarespace.com/beingwell for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use coupon code BEINGWELL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forrest and Dr. Rick open up the mailbag and answer questions from listeners. They explore how we can thoughtfully take the input of other people, identify and meet our needs, deal with anxiety and the fear of failure, and approach a conversation about drug use with teenagers. You’ll also learn strategies for reducing nighttime sleep anxiety, creating healthy boundaries, dealing with temperamental differences in a relationship, and finding peace and connection as a single person.Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.Key Topics:0:00: Introduction1:35: How do process feedback from other people? What helps you accept what's useful...and leave the rest?11:35: My extended family has gotten very distant. How do families tend to change over time? 23:40: I always feel like I'm about to be punished. What can I do?33:15: How can we help teens navigate curiosity and peer pressure related to drugs, including psychedelics?44:15: LIGHTNING ROUND!45:15: Dealing with anxious thoughts before bedtime.48:00: Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries.51:10: My partner has ADHD. How can I encourage them to work on some problematic behaviors while respecting their nature?56:40: Being at peace with being on our own.1:00:40: RecapSupport the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.Sponsors:InsideTracker gives you the personalized information you need to optimize your healthspan. Get 20% off by going to my special link: InsideTracker.com/beingwell.Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need, and deliver the type of experience you want. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE.Finally get that project off the ground with Squarespace! Head to squarespace.com/beingwell for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use coupon code BEINGWELL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Go to BrioAirPurifier.com and use code BEINGWELL to save $100 on a Brio Air Purifier.Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription.Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices