Talking Therapy Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

RJ and John sit down with “Rebecca.” Rebecca is the pseudonym of a new marriage and family therapy student. She is a young woman who has decided to embark on her education and training in psychology and counseling. This will be a multi-part series where we touch base with Rebecca time to time throughout her education and training. RJ and John both listen to her experience and offer advice.

Therapist, internet entrepreneur and cartoonist Victor Yalom, PhD joins us to talk about what he has learned from the greats. As someone who has had access to some of the greatest minds in the field he has some very interesting things to say about presence and being with clients in the here and now. Victor is also owner of the site Psychotherapy.net, a collection of articles, videos and so much more. He tells us how it all began with a simple recording of his mentor James Bugental. 

Dr. Nazanin Moali, a licensed psychologist from Torrance, CA joins us to discuss two of her specialties, eating disorders in men and sex therapy. Dr. Moali host of the podcast, Sexology, brings a unique perspective to her work that she shares with John and RJ. This episode is sponsored by Ben Caldwell Labs at BenCaldwelllabs.com, creating a more empowered, more effective generation of psychotherapists.

There’s a knock on your door and a man hands you an envelope. You’ve been served a subpoena - now what?  Nicol Stolar-Peterson, LCSW, BCD joins us to talk about getting therapists ready for court. She discusses her experience testifying and tells why she actually likes going to court. She also talks about the pitfalls most therapists fall into. This episode is sponsored exclusively by Ben Caldwell Labs, creating a generation of more effective, more empowered mental health professionals. Check them out at www.bencaldwelllabs.com.

Drs. Paul and Nancy Aikin join us to talk about their workshop for parents and teens called “Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go”. Based on Dr. Sue Johnson’s Hold Me Tight workshop, and adapted for parents and teens, this group approaches parents and teens from an attachment standpoint and helps them connect and hear each other in ways many of them never imagined possible. This workshop is available as a curriculum for therapists to use and as part of this podcast they are offering a 5% discount to a training in Los Angeles on January 19 and 20, 2018 on conducting this workshop. Go to www.laceft.org and use promo code “talkingtherapy” (with no space).

As founder and CEO of the Milton H. Erickson Foundation Dr. Jeffrey Zeig has gathered together some of the greatest minds and most dominant personalities in the history of psychotherapy. The foundation’s Evolution of Psychotherapy conference is perhaps the largest gathering of its kind anywhere in the world. Bringing together dynamic speakers and curious professionals it is, as Dr. Zeig calls it, “the Woodstock of therapy”. Dr. Zeig joins us to talk about the conference and his history with his mentor and teacher, Milton H. Erickson. He also talks about focusing his efforts to learn new ways of being a therapist by studying the arts. This is a truly fascinating discussion that not only spans the history of therapy but also looks into the future.

Dr. Steven Lawrence joins us to discuss what happens when doctors are more focused on medication than on the actual patient. Taking a very patient-centered approach Dr. Lawrence talks about what he calls “Psychotropic Blindness” and what happens when psychiatrists see the side effects of certain medications in children and adolescents as emerging problems that require treatment. Dr. Lawrence highlights medications such as anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and stimulant medication used for ADHD. 

Dr. Susan Johnson joins us to talk about her pioneering work in Emotionally Focused Therapy.  EFT is a way to practice couples counseling that is overwhelmingly supported by scientific research. Dr. Johnson talks about attachment theory as the basis for EFT but also talks about some of the other frameworks she has drawn from.  She talks not only about how EFT works, but why it works, especially in a world that seems to be filled with divorce and where our very views of relationships appear to be changing at a rapid pace. She talks about working with couples in distress but also talks about how EFT has been shown to help with post traumatic stress disorder, parents of chronically ill children and with heart patients. 

How do you keep a family together even as it’s coming apart? How do you help protect children from the trauma of a nasty divorce? Divorce mediator Barry Davis sits down with us to talk about an alternative to expensive, divisive and often traumatic litigated divorces. His approach is one that allows families to often make the best of what can be a very, very bad situation.

Human emotions are a tricky thing. Some of us are good with them, some of us are not, but few of us really understand them fully. Adrian Hall, MFT joins us to talk about what she calls, the Human Emotional System. As we grow up, she tells us, we learn about math, science, history and our biological systems, but no one teaches us about our emotions and this can cause problems for us later. Adrian discusses her practice of psychotherapy and how she works with people to do that learning now.