Wisdom for Wellbeing: Mind-Body Psychology and Somatic Skills for Healing and Growth

Practices to Cultivate Gratitude In A Busy World with Dr Kaitlin Harkess

This episode is a mini-coaching session to start you on your gratitude journey. The practice of gratitude has a host of psychological and physical health benefits, yet isn’t too demanding of time and energy. Have a listen and get started developing a practice of gratitude that works for you.
 
What’s covered in this episode:
 
Gratitude Journaling
Consideration of gratitude and journaling practices
The evolutionary history of your negativity bias
How gratitude and compassion operate
Consideration of starting a gratitude practice
Gratitude Journaling, letters of gratitude, and the ol’ Netflix and gratitude
You can grab the gratitude journaling prompts below, and download a gratitude tracking diary here
Head to www.drkaitlin.com for show notes, free resources and courses that support you a heartfelt life alongside peak performance. 
 
"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Creating Habits with Ritual and Sacred Intention with Dr Kaitlin Harkess

Welcome to a mini coaching session on how you can cultivate ritual in your life. Essentially, intention matters. We’ll also chat about setting up an altar, and how that can be impactful for you in your routine of ritual.
 
What’s covered in this episode:
- Habit takes less energy than doing something and a sense of it being done in ritual brings sacredness can bring present moment awareness and aliveness to your activity
- An example of how you can build ritual into your morning
- How an alter can be used like a transient object is used in therapy (i.e., extending the emotional connection)
- The meaning of the five elements on the altar and what they psychologically symbolize (grab this free downloadable PDF to help you set up your elemental alter)
Head to www.drkaitlin.com for show notes, free resources and courses that support you a heartfelt life alongside peak performance. 
 
"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Neurodiversity-Inclusive Habit Building with Dr Hayden Finch

Curious about how habits are created? Are you looking to develop more self-compassion in your habit-cultivation journey? How to build habits in a neurodiversity-friendly way? 
My guest Dr Hayden Finch, is a licensed clinical psychologist, behaviour change expert, and dessert enthusiast. Hayden beautifully shares their wisdom around habit building, self-compassion, and neurodiversity with us in this episode. 
You may find this interview an important resource in your own journey of navigating your different seasons and self-experimentation. 
What’s covered in this episode:
High-achievers often know the habits they “should” have, yet struggle to implement
The three parts of a habit we need to know to make effective changes
How relief is often the reward for unhealthy habits
How we can start to cultivate healthy habits by ensuring they are smaller
Why failure is normal, and how to meet this with compassion
How long it takes to create a habit (jokes! Dr Finch explains it varies.)
Head to www.drkaitlin.com for show notes, free resources and courses that support you a heartfelt life alongside peak performance. 
 
"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Sexuality and Gender Diversity, Let’s Talk Brave Spaces with Chris Grant (MBACP)

What does Pride mean to you? Gender and sexuality? Do you understand them as fluid? Are you actively working towards cultivating communities of liberation?
My guest Chris Sheridan (Grant), The Queer Therapist, is a non-binary trans Psychotherapist; Sex and Relationship Therapist; and Diversity Equality, and Inclusion Consultant. They beautifully share their wisdom around gender, sexuality and relationship diversity with us in this episode. 
You may find this interview an important resource in your own journey of navigating shame and stigma to acceptance. It is also a brilliant resource for those who want to show up as allies.
What’s covered in this episode:
Introduction to Chris and their journey navigating the mental exhaustion and emotional labour of their workplace as a trans person – even with all the skills they had as a trained therapist!
Pride as not just a time of celebration, but as a time of reflection and consideration how we want to move forward in the year ahead>
Introduction to the internal experience of gender, not as the external and assigned label of sex
Consideration of pronoun usage in affirming and sensitive ways
Consideration of sexuality and relationship identity, and how this can shift over time
The importance of cultivating community within a culture that can be challenging in ones’ experience of gender, relationship and sexual identity diversity
The importance of understanding one’s privilege and the commodity of the rainbow flag in one’s efforts to practice allyship
What brave spaces are, and how they are important alongside safe spaces
Subscribe and grab free resources to cultivate a heartfelt life alongside peak performance.
 
With thanks to Chris Sheridan for the wisdom they shared. 
 
"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Wisdom for Wellbeing Season 4 Summary with Dr Kaitlin Harkess

In this episode, I give an overview of the topics that were covered in this season that can help support you live a vital life in alignment with you and your goals. This season, there are topics that can help support you navigate your personal experiences with neurobiological traits and states, parenting, awareness, and lifestyles. 
 
Head to www.drkaitlin.com for show notes, free resources and courses that support you in cultivating a heartfelt life alongside peak performance. 
 
"So much gratitude for Wisdom for Wellbeing."

Understanding Your Inner Critic: The Default Mode Network Monkey Mind with Dr Kaitlin Harkess

In this episode, I dive into how the Default Mode Network (DMN) relates to present moment awareness and happiness and contentment. I discuss the evolutionary science of the DMN and why it is so important. I also talk about how to slow down and circumnavigate unhelpful thoughts and how present moment awareness can be trained through mindfulness and meditation practices. 
 
Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

Intersecting Psychological Science and Secular Spirituality w/ Dr Kaitlin Harkess

On this episode, I discuss an exploration of spiritual wellness and how it fits in with evidence-based frameworks. A secular type of spirituality can be practised through daily rituals or routines like preparing our morning coffee or drinking a cup of tea. 
 
Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com 
 

Using Tarot Cards As A Psychological Tool In Your Journey to Meaning Making with Jessica Dore

In this episode, Jessica Dore discusses how tarot cards can be used as a psychological tool in creating meaning and finding connections in our lives. 
Jessica is a writer interested in meaning-making through symbol and image, with a special focus on Pamela Colman Smith’s art in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. Her first book, Tarot for Change: Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance and Growth (Penguin Life, 2021) is a set of reflections on the Tarot that draws from the fields of contemporary psychology and behavioral science, among others. It was called “generous, practical and gently radical” by The New York Times Book Review.
Jessica's weekly newsletter, Offerings, braids together ideas from a range of fields including but not limited to psychology, philosophy, mythology, folk tales, religion, spirituality and social work with the images, characters and symbols from Smith’s art in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot.
Though Jessica hold a masters degree in social work and is licensed as a social worker in Pennsylvania, she does not consider herself a therapist. Prior to social work school, she worked several years in clinical psychology, self-help and behavioral science book publishing, where she spent time with the founders and developers of acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT. What she learned during that time informed much of what went into her book, Tarot for Change, and other writing.
These days, she continues to study things that interest her: old stories—especially Mediterranean and western European—behavioral psychology, process and liberation theologies, poetry, ecology, growing vegetables, learning to ride a horse as an adult, and ceramics.
She was born and raised on the north shore of Massachusetts and currently lives and work outside of Philadelphia on land that was cared for by the Lenape people for more than 10,000 years prior to European settlement.
 
Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

Navigating The Disorder of Our Diet Culture with Dr Anika Rouf

Dr Anika Rouf talks about how diet culture can be damaging to our overall health, self-worth and self-respect and can create restrictive cycles that can hold us back from living out our values and what's most important to us. She goes on to talk about how we can be more kind and compassionate to ourselves and live out a non-diet approach. 
Dr Anika Rouf is an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) and is a Media Spokesperson for Dietitians Australia (DA). She has completed her PhD from the University of Sydney. Her PhD investigated the use of social media to improve eating habits of young adults and incorporated the addition of behaviour change techniques. She has published in some of the top tier nutrition journals including Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, Nutrients, Appetite, JMIR mHealth and uHealth and Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
She is passionate about advocating a non-diet approach and helping busy women with finding balance. She also has a particular interest in communicating nutrition using digital platforms and has written pieces for several magazines. Some of her notable work includes being featured on SBS Food, Men’s Muscle and Health, 9 Coach, Channel 7 and Body and Soul. She currently teaches across two universities in Sydney and runs a virtual practice ‘Appetite By Anika’ which is focused on women’s health and disordered eating. 
 
Shownotes: www.drkaitlin.com

The Evidence-Based Healing Effects of Plant-Based Food and Other Lifestyle Practices with Dr Renae Thomas

In this episode, Dr Renae Thomas talks about the healing effects of plant-based foods and other healthful lifestyle practices. Dr. Renae Thomas is a board-certified Family Medicine, General Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and Lifestyle Medicine Physician. She completed medical school in Australia at Monash University. Her residency in Family and Preventive Medicine, and Master’s of Public Health in population medicine were completed at Loma Linda University in California. She has also completed an internship at True North Health Center, and yoga teacher training in India. Dr. Thomas served four years on the ACLM Trainee board, with two years as president. She is a published co-author on vegetarianism and cancer, and author of an ACLM and WIC-collaborated guide to healthy eating for less than $4 per day, as well as numerous online, print, and audio content collaborations. Dr. Thomas’ research has been in clinical lifestyle medicine, and lifestyle medicine curricula in medical education. She has presented at numerous conferences on evidence-based and clinically-relevant nutrition and health, both in the USA and internationally. Dr. Thomas’ professional content largely focuses on evidence-based nutritional and lifestyle medicine for both physicians and patients. As a doctor, she strives to be a compassionate and understanding support system to her patients, helping to uncover the root cause of illness, and working with them to achieve their greatest health and happiness.
 
Shownotes: www.drkailtin.com